Last chapter :(

"I wish I had a girlfriend," sighed Pinky. "I know that sounds quite sad and I know I have you and Terry for my friends but I don't like being alone in love, know what I mean?"

"Yeah," Perry said absently, scowling out Pinky's office.

"You didn't hear a word I said, did you?"

"Yeah," Perry replied absently. "Wait, what?"

Pinky sighed. "What are you scowling at?"

"Peter," Perry said sullenly. "He's standing by the water cooler with Terry, who was supposed to be in here chatting with us half an hour ago. Peter's deliberately keeping Terry away from us." Perry narrowed his eyes. "He's the king of petty."

"Why can't you just work it out with him?" sighed Pinky. "It's becoming annoyed."

"Tell HIM to work it out," snapped Perry.

"That doesn't even make sense."

"I don't care. He stole my nemesis."

"That was two years ago, you need to let that go."

"I'll let it go when he apologises for it."

Pinky slapped Perry's arm, causing the platypus to jump. "What was that for?" he yelped.

"You need to sort it out," snapped Pinky. "I'm not going to hang out with you until you do. It's silly and childish. I understood your grudge when it was relevant, but it's been TWO years. You HAVE to let that go. Okay?"

"Fine," muttered Perry, though he had no intention of letting it go until Peter apologised for it.

That was why he was dismayed when, later that day, Major Monogram announced he was sending Peter and Perry on a mission together.

"You cannot be serious!" spluttered Perry as Peter watched him with an equally dismayed look on his face. "There is NO way I'm working with him! You KNOW he stole my nemesis two years ago!"

"Well, I was a little busy being frozen like a statue that day," said Major Monogram frostily.

This made an uncomfortable and awkward silence descend on the room. Peter took over the complaint: "Sir, he hates me and I don't like him."

"Why?" inquired Major Monogram amiably.

Peter stared at Major Monogram. "What?"

"Why don't you like him? He has a good reason to dislike you but why don't you like him?"

Peter dropped his gaze uncomfortably. "N-no reason."

"Then I won't take your complaint into account," Major Monogram said, shuffling papers on his desk.

Perry stared at Peter uncomfortably as the panda wrestled with his brain for a moment, before stepping back in defeat. "Fine."

"Regardless of your feelings towards each other, I need you to go on this mission together. I need you two to infiltrate LOVEMUFFIN's old lair and make sure there's no trace of them left. There will almost certainly be traps and tricks so that's why I need you two to go. Your skillsets work best together for this mission and you're both very alert agents. I know you won't let me down."

Major Monogram gave them a steely look. Both agents felt like arguing but they kept silent, both of them recognising that it wouldn't do any good.

"This place is creepy," stated Perry as they edged cautiously into the stone entrance hall that resembled the inside of an old temple.

"Well, that's something you and it have in common," Peter muttered.

Perry ignored it. He shivered and wrapped his arms around himself as they walked further in. "Man, it's cold in here."

"Yet another thing you and it have in common."

Perry gave him an unimpressed look. "Not helpful. Just keep your eye out for any traps."

"Why, don't you have eyes?" muttered Peter.

"What is your problem?" snapped Perry. "I'm trying to be professional but I can't when you're being so annoying! What do you have against me?"

"You know why I don't like you," Peter said sullenly.

All of a sudden, Peter felt himself stand on a loose tile. The floor suddenly opened up beneath them and sent them falling. It was only thirty or so metres but Perry landed on his leg, instantly breaking it with a horrible cracking sound. For a whole five minutes while Peter radioed for help, Perry lay on his back, shaking and yelping with the pain from his leg.

"We need to go outside for help," Peter said, before he spotted Perry on the floor. "Come on, it can't be that bad."

"I'VE BROKEN MY LEG!" shrieked Perry. "IT IS THAT BAD!"

"Calm down," snapped Peter. "And stop whining."

"I'VE BROKEN MY LEG!" Perry yelled again. "I THINK I HAVE A RIGHT TO WHINE!"

"Seriously, you need to get up and we need to get moving. I don't care that you've broken your leg."

"Why do you hate me so much?" hollered Perry through the pain. "WHAT HAVE I EVER DONE TO YOU?!"

"It's because you're a show-off!" Peter burst out suddenly. "It's because you're so great at everything and you tell everybody so! You make the rest of us look like idiots and you never apologise for it!"

"That sounds an awful lot like petty jealousy to me," Perry commented irritably. "Is that why you dislike me: because I'm better than you?"

"No, it's because I had to work hard to get to the top and in just two weeks, you undid all my hard work and made it to OWCA's best agent without even trying," snarled Peter.

"So you decide to steal my nemesis to make up for it?" Perry yelled, though he had to stop talking as fresh pain shot through his injured leg.

"As much as I would like to say I stole your nemesis out of sheer spite, the truth is that I didn't even know Doofenshmirtz was your nemesis when I met him in Seattle. I assumed he didn't HAVE a nemesis."

"But you still must have found out that I was his nemesis at SOME point," Perry said through gritted teeth.

"Yeah, but only then did it become revenge," Peter replied. "Only when I got back to Danville did I realise that you were his nemesis, but my brain figured that this was the perfect opportunity to hurt you, as you hurt me."

"As you hurt me."

The words echoed in Perry's head. He knew he hadn't meant to hurt Peter, but it occurred to him then just how much he had hurt the panda. Perhaps it was his woozy, pain-wracked brain talking (he had hit his head on the landing too), but he felt the overwhelming desire to apologise, so he did.

"Pete…I'm sorry."

"What?"

"I didn't mean to steal your show but I should have been more considerate of your feelings. I just loved the power that came with being OWCA's best. With everybody respecting and liking you. I should have realised how hard you worked to get where I got to with barely any work. I-I'm really sorry."

Peter paused. Perry watched him anxiously through his own pain, waiting to see what the panda would say. "The power of being OWCA's top agent is definitely addictive," Peter said eventually. "I don't blame you for wanting more."

"I still should have realised that you-."

"Hey, at one point, I forgot about my own girlfriend with the promise of the power of OWCA's best," Peter interrupted. "It's fine."

"I just…I would love to be friends with you," Perry admitted. "You're talented and skilled and basically an all-round perfect OWCA agent. I feel like I could learn a lot from you."

Peter, blushing slightly at the praise, said, "Well, I'd personally really like for you to teach me how to do Double Dutch as well as you."

"If we become friends, I'll teach you Double Dutch."

"Deal." Peter grinned. "Now let's get out of here, shall we, Perry?"

"Love to," Perry said, wincing as more pain shook through his leg when he tried to move it. "But I can't even stand, let alone walk."

Peter slung Perry's arm over his shoulder and helped him stand up, to several yells of pain from the platypus. "Isn't this just going to make it worse?" panted Perry.

"We don't have a choice, unfortunately." Now Peter's voice was full of sympathy. "We have to meet the rescue team outside."

Peter and Perry made their slow way through the tunnel, back towards where the entrance was. Perry kept wincing in pain as he hobbled. He let out a louder yelp as he felt his injured leg press a loose tile down. Peter was the only one to notice the wall tile sliding away.

"Perry!"

Peter shoved Perry to the ground just as a dart was fired from behind the wall. It hit the panda in the chest. Perry watched in pain and horror as Peter collapsed backwards. "Pete!"

But the pain was getting too much for Perry, and he blacked out.

When Perry woke up, he sat bolt upright. To his surprise, he couldn't feel his leg. When he saw what had happened to it, he understood why: it was in a cast, and he was in hospital. Sitting next to his bed was a rather pale Pinky the Chihuahua, whose face flooded with colour when he saw that Perry was awake.

"So how did the mission go?" he inquired.

Perry made a face. "Not bad," he said. "There was just the downside of breaking my leg." He suddenly panicked, remembering the events just before he had passed out. "Pete! Where's Peter?"

"Perry, calm down." Pinky placed his paws on Perry's shoulders and gently made the platypus lie back down. "He was hit with a dart that had a poison in it but Apollo got the poison out easily. He's going to be fine."

"He saved me," Perry said.

Pinky frowned. "I thought you hated each other? Wait, did you call him Pete earlier?"

"We made up. We admitted to each other why we disliked each other, and we decided we'd rather be friends than dislike each other."

"Told ya," grinned Pinky. "Anyway, you'd better get some rest."

"Wait, how long was I out?"

"Only a few hours," replied Pinky. "But Apollo said you need to rest. You hit your head quite hard too."

"Yeah," Perry said, remembering. "I'll rest. Thanks for coming to see me."

"Anytime," smile Pinky, getting up. "By the way, Major Monogram wanted me to tell you something," he added. "He's sending the four of us—you, me, Terry, and Peter—away, starting on the first of next month so that you guys have time to heal."

"Away where?" asked Perry.

"On a training retreat in Canada."

Great place to finish the story, eh? Thanks for reading! :D