March 24, 2000

A/N: This chapter (and probably many more) will contain references to Archie, which is a story I want Beta Read before I publish it. But it will be published at some point. The mentions aren't direct, but you'll notice some habits pop up that are important.

In the weeks Ferb Fletcher had lived with the Flynn family, he had learned several things.

Firstly, Phineas was about the loudest, happiest three year old he had ever met— although to be honest, he hadn't met very many three year olds. Just Archie, and he was two years older. Ferb had not seen Phineas stop smiling since the tears on his first day— or, at least, not during the daytime when he was awake.

Second, Candace was somehow louder than her brother. She had opinions, and she was not afraid to share them with anyone. Candace often boasted about how good she was at Skiddley Whiffers, or whatever movies she had seen lately that Phineas and Ferb were too young for. Ferb always had to bite back a remark about how he could understand some of the material in grown-up movies, which were older than the ones Candace watched. But speaking out of turn was bad, and being rude was bad too. So Ferb remained silent.

Third, his father and Phineas' mother definitely had a history. He was not entirely sure when it was or what had happened, but the way the two acted around each other was proof enough. Ferb had a sneaking suspicion that they liked each other.

Fourth, Phineas' dog Bucky was just about the cutest creature ever. There was an adorableness to the puppy that not even Ferb could ignore.

And lastly, the 'sometimes' Phineas had applied to his nightmares about his father did not correctly describe them. There was rarely a night when Ferb did not wake up to hear Phineas whimpering in the bed across the room.

Such as tonight. Ferb woke up around 3 AM in the morning, and glanced over to see Phineas clutching his pillow and shifting around. Without much question, Ferb got up and walked over to the other bed. He nudged Phineas awake.

Phineas jerked and involuntarily threw the pillow into the air. Ferb caught it and handed it back.

It seemed to take Phineas a minute to realize where he was and what was going on. "Oh." he mumbled, squeezing the pillow closer to his chest. "Was I having a nightmare again?"

Ferb nodded.

"Thanks, Ferb."

Ferb nodded again and went to move back to his own bed when Phineas caught his arm. "Can you stay here?"

Ferb nodded one last time and climbed in the bed next to Phineas as he moved over.

It took Phineas less than five minutes to fall asleep again, and he immediately began hogging the covers.

Ferb sighed. The things he did for Phineas Flynn (and would continue to do, if he was being honest with himself).

"Hey, Ferb, Ferb, Ferb… Ferbmister! Can I call you Ferbmister?"

Ferb turned to see Phineas bouncing over to him. He was sitting on the couch with a book that he couldn't quite understand. He might have needed one for a slightly younger age.

He nodded in response to Phineas' 'Ferbmister' question.

"I've gots an idea!"

Ferb tipped his head to tell him to go ahead.

"Candy wants to go to the pool to play, so I was thinkin' maybe you could come with us!"

Phineas stated this idea like it was the cure to cancer, he looked so proud of himself.

Ferb nodded once again— it was becoming a common response to much of what Phineas said— and climbed up to go get his swimsuit from his suitcase.

Phineas seemed to purposely make an effort to include him in everything he did most of the time— a far cry different from the boy who was very nervous about meeting him on the first day they saw each other.

Ferb had quickly come to the conclusion that Phineas Flynn came to trust people far too easily, far too quickly. He was pretty sure that was a normal thing for children… it was what made them easy targets for kidnapping, and the reason behind the whole 'don't take candy from strangers' lesson parents gave their children. But while a large part of it was worrying, another part of Ferb admired that quality, and wished it was something he could apply to himself.

He didn't have a lot of friends.

After picking up Candace's friend Stacy, the group of four went to the pool.

Phineas immediately jumped into the shallow end and began swimming around like a fish. Ferb himself wasn't a particularly good swimmer… or so he'd been told. But when he climbed into the pool and started swimming, Phineas turned around in the pool and his eyes widened. "Wow, Ferbmister! You could like… swim in the deep end! You're really fast!"

"Neither of you are swimming in the deep end today." Linda said, climbing in beside her son as Ferb tried to work out what made Phineas think he was such a good swimmer. He tended to flop around a lot according to—

"But mom, Candace is swimming in the deep end!"

"Candace is 8 years old and can handle herself in the deep end." Linda said, raising her eyebrows.

Phineas sighed. "Yeah, I know. Cummon, Ferbmister! Let's go play with our pool toys!"

Phineas grabbed Ferb's arm— him doing so often did not seem to change in the pool, either— and pulled him behind him towards the bag on the side of the pool.

"Whaddaya wanna do?" Phineas asked pulling out various options, such as pool noodles or toys that sink and you dive after, or toys that squirted water.

"Hey, look!" Phineas laughed, pulling out a squirting dinosaur. "It's a dinosaur! Squirt fight!" He sprayed water on Ferb, who flinched and backed up.

Phineas, not having noticed his reaction, dug around until he pulled out a pool noodle.

"You wanna play Star Wars?" Phineas asked, offering a red pool noodle to Ferb.

Ferb took it without question, though he really didn't want to play Star Wars. After a couple seconds of swinging Phineas realized this. "Hey, do you wanna do something else? We don't have to play with pool noodles."

Ferb attempted to look a little more enthusiastic, but Phineas didn't seem to be buying it.

"Ferbmister. Do you wanna play with pool noodles?"

Ferb dropped the pool noodle into the water and shook his head, embarrassed.

"Okay, so we don't have to." Phineas said. "What do you want to do?"

Ferb shrugged and played with his hands.

Phineas had noticed in the past couple weeks this strange thing that Ferb seemed to do. He never wanted to say any ideas he might have or even say when he didn't want to something. What he had just done with the pool noodles was a rare experience.

So, based on what you know of Ferb, Phineas thought, what would he want to do in the pool?

"You wanna… sit in the quiet for a little while?" Phineas asked.

Ferb glanced up, and unlike the last idea, this time he looked genuinely curious— although that could be more because he was surprised to hear Phineas offer such a thing.

But when Phineas made no move to take it back, Ferb slowly nodded.

Phineas grinned, and moved over to the side of the pool, where his mother's pool mat was floating, unused. "Cummon, we can use this!"

Phineas hopped onto the pool mat horizontally, so as to leave room for Ferb as well. Ferb climbed up a couple seconds later, and Phineas stretched out into the warmth of the sun.

"I feel like a cat." he said with a giggle.

Ferb said nothing, but he did stretch out in an imitation of Phineas' position, which, since he did not speak much, Phineas figured was his version of a sarcastic joke. He giggled again.

True to his word, Phineas did not say anything. Both he and Ferb remained in the quiet sunshine until Linda called to them that it was time to leave. Phineas dragged the mat over to the side of the pool which Linda took and deflated, and then the two groups of two both moved towards the car.

Candace and Stacy both talking excitedly back and forth about some boy Stacy had a crush on named Billy Clark. They were also saying something about a hamster, though Ferb wasn't sure how those two things were related.

Meanwhile, Phineas was talking enough for the both of them. He kept talking about all of the things he was planning for April Fools Day. Ferb had never heard of someone making such a big deal out of the holiday, but Phineas kept saying he had this really big plan set up. Or at least… his dad had.

At that point Phineas grew quiet and looked down. Ferb put a hand on his shoulder, and Phineas glanced over with a smile. "Thanks, Ferbmister. I was just really looking forward to it this year."

Ferb bit his lip, considering bringing up how he could probably make it happen… but he didn't like to bring up his building skills. His father knew about them, and it wasn't like he was embarrassed by them… but it felt nice to have Phineas as a friend without having to bring up inventing just yet, as he didn't want to ruin anything. Besides, no one really liked that part of his personality anyway. Or…

So he'd been told.