First fic for fandom.
The Gamble
A Phineas and Ferb oneshot
Phineas had learned his lesson, much as Candace had, when the time machine in the local museum had been tampered with. Perhaps he hadn't learned the lesson quite as well as Candace had, or even the Candace(s) of the future had. But even at a young age, he understood the consequences of meddling with the past, or even the future, for that matter. As far as his ten-year-old mind could comprehend the situation, it meant not to change the outcomes of anything in the past or the future.
He fared well, mostly, especially at first. Their "crazy" inventions (as dubbed by Candace) merely stayed away from time-bending endeavors, and through many of their adventures they still had plenty of fun. But as he and Ferb grew older, as they started having to make decisions with weighted consequences, the longing to change his mind, to change wrong decisions made in the past—Phineas was tempted to mess around with the time machine once more. Ferb and Candace were always there to steer him away from the wrong path (mostly Candace, though).
The problem was that Phineas—and Ferb, and Candace, and Isabella—had had a glimpse into the future. It'd been a very small glimpse, but it'd been enough. Candace, naturally, was satisfied with what she'd heard and seen. Sure, her obsession with busting her brothers had blinded her at the time, but after she realized she'd had three children with Jeremy and had named at least two of them appropriately, she'd been sated. (Actually, she'd never found out for sure if Jeremy had been her husband, but by the deductive reasoning she'd learned from Sherlock Holmes, there was simply no way one of her children could have blonde hair and blue eyes.)
Isabella was also satisfied, having heard one of Candace's children call her Aunt Isabella. Sure, she didn't know which of the two boys she would end up marrying, but at the least it gave her hope. And Phineas knew Ferb was satisfied with his future, even though for whatever reason it'd been Phineas, not Ferb, attending some sort of award ceremony. And even if Ferb wasn't satisfied, Phineas knew it'd take a lot to get his stepbrother to admit it.
Was Phineas satisfied? At first, yes, and he'd told himself he'd accept that future so as to not be responsible for anything going wrong. But again, as time went on, as the temptation to change the past arose, as the idea of time travel grew on him, and as the woes of being a teenager began to affect him, he grew less satisfied. He'd grown tired of Isabella reminding him about how she'd one day be married to him (Phineas supposed that Isabella was in denial in regards to the other possible outcome). Well, in her defense, he had liked her at some point. But Phineas was a man of adventure and excitement, and both were things dating Isabella wouldn't give him.
Phineas grew scared. He felt like he was defying the future that had been shown to him. Sure, he wasn't directly using the time machine to alter the past or future. But wasn't it all the same? By denying Isabella, wasn't he changing the future outcome? Perhaps there was something he was missing—oh, if only the Candace of the future were here to help him understand!
But a new thought occurred to Phineas: Ferb had always been there to point out his wrongs, in their earlier days of scheming together. Maybe now, he could point out the flaw in his manner of thinking! So Phineas scurried away to his room, where he knew Ferb would be hunched over his desk, likely doing homework; they'd never had a reason to have their own rooms, having always been content with their arrangement. He would ask his stepbrother, he would give Phineas the one thing Phineas had overlooked, and Phineas would return to having a piece of mind.
Candace was yelling at him as he bounded up the stairs, but he ignored her. He never listened to her these days, because he found that half of what she said didn't really make sense, anyway (he'd once passed it off as teenage girl language, in his earlier days, but he disproved this theory after finding that, years later, he could still understand Isabella). Besides, he didn't really know who Vanessa was, so maybe Candace wasn't even talking to him, even if she was shouting his name...
Phineas knocked once and opened the door. There he found his seventeen-year-old stepbrother laying on the bed face down. It'd taken a few seconds for Phineas to note Ferb's lack of clothes, and another few seconds to realize that there was a girl beneath him, equally clad.
"You know," Ferb said slowly, accent thick as ever, "after knocking, most people wait for a response before opening the door." But Phineas said nothing, mouth too wide in shock for words to come out, and after a few squeaks he shut the door and ran to Candace's, who'd only given him a roll of her eyes when he'd told her what he'd just seen.
"Now if only you had listened to me," said Candace, shrugging. "Can't say I didn't warn you." But again, Phineas wasn't listening. He was too busy trying to comprehend everything. If Ferb was with this Vanessa girl, then Phineas had to have been the one marrying Isabella. And, once more, his dilemma plagued him. And somehow, in his shock, Phineas had decided, albeit irrationally, that Ferb and Vanessa were to blame.
And he was bothered, somewhat, by what he'd just witnessed. Several reasons, actually.
1) It was his room too, and he didn't want it smelling like sex.
2) He'd just walked in on his stepbrother getting it on with some twenty-something-year-old girl.
3) He and Ferb were practically brothers, yet he'd never been informed of this Vanessa girl.
There were a few other reasons, but he decided not to continue that thought. After all, his anger was likely due to his own frustrations with Isabella, and he really couldn't hate his brother. So he let it go.
The awkward tension, however, did not go. Through dinner, the two would not talk to each other. More accurately, Phineas was avoiding eye-contact with Ferb, even when, nowadays, they sat directly in front of each other at the dinner table. He left the table silently when finishing, and he went to bed long before Ferb could confront him.
This had continued for a few days. Phineas couldn't stand hearing his stepbrother talk, let alone looking at him. He wasn't quite sure what was going on, either. But it'd bothered him enough for him to say yes, absentmindedly, when Isabella had gathered the nerve to ask him on a date. When Phineas had realized what he'd just done, he panicked—but when he realized it might be a good distraction from his new problems with Ferb, he let the date slide.
It was as Phineas was getting ready when Ferb finally managed a chance to talk to him.
"We broke up," he said, shortly, his voice with a hint of despondence.
"Oh, that's nice," Phineas snapped. "Didn't even know you were going out."
"...sorry," Ferb said weakly. When Phineas said nothing, Ferb added, "Where you headed off to?"
"Date with Isabella," Phineas said, surprised that the words were actually leaving his mouth. Ferb didn't seem to catch his surprise, though with Phineas's back turned to the boy, Phineas couldn't find out for sure.
"You look nice," Ferb said, almost shyly, and Phineas found himself surprised yet again. "Have fun, then."
By the time Phineas willed himself to thank his stepbrother face to face for the compliment, Ferb had left. There was something about the compliment that bothered him, but Phineas couldn't place a finger on it. So, instead, he set off to pick up Isabella.
Their date went well, but not in Isabella's eyes. As friends, they had hit it off. But Phineas was hardly the romantic tonight, and something seemed to be bothering him. At first she decided not to pry—it probably wasn't her business, anyway—but after thirty minutes of strained conversation, she decided it was probably something worth mentioning.
"Just let it out," she said sweetly. "I'm all ears."
And let it out was exactly what Phineas did.
"I've been really frustrated lately, mostly because of issues with time travel, which I know I'm not supposed to be messing around with, but so much stuff has come up that makes me want to use the time machine. But there's also been stuff from that future that I've lately found himself discontent with, but I'm scared that by not accepting it I'm changing the outcome of the future, which is essentially the same thing Future Candace warned us about. So I went to Ferb to talk to him about it, because he usually has answers in times like these. That, or he can point out the error in my ways. But when I went up to talk to him, I walked in on him having sex with this older woman, in my room! Well, it's also his room, but still! And since then, well, I'm not sure, but it's hard to even look at him, and we don't talk, because I don't really know what to say to someone after walking in on them nailing some other person. But apparently they broke up, and I'm pretty sure it had something to do with me, but... I don't know."
Phineas stopped then, catching his breath, before looking up at Isabella. Her face was hard to read, which scared him slightly, but at least she hadn't left or thrown her water in his face.
When she did speak, she spoke softly. "First, I think Future Candace was referring to time travel to the past, specifically. We're the product of decisions and mistakes in the past, and changing any of them changes who we are now. But the future... we change it all the time, you know, in the same way changing our past changes the present. So you're worrying about changing the future, but you do it all the time.
"As for your brother... I don't know what to say about that. If he weren't your brother I'd have accused you of having a crush on him. But I suppose you're hurt because he violated your trust...does that makes sense? Phineas?"—for Phineas was no longer listening. It was okay to change the future? Isabelle would've accused him of liking Ferb?
In some twisted way, everything fell into place.
"I... don't think I like you, Isabella," Phineas found himself saying.
It was then that Isabella's kindness changed. She dumped the contents of her glass in his face before stalking away. Phineas knew she'd had a reason to be angry. Sure, she'd just said that it was okay to change the future, which included her status as Aunt Isabella. But Phineas had said yes to their date, which was probably just as the same as accepting her feelings. To have it thrown back at her face like that...
Phineas made a note to apologize to her later. But first, he needed to resolve the other conflict on his mind: Ferb. He hadn't bothered to clean up after himself; he'd get a change of clothes, anyway, when confronting Ferb in his room. But by the time he opened the door and found Ferb on the phone, he found himself choking up. What would he say? What would Ferb say?
"Phineas?" Phineas panicked; he'd been seen. And he still didn't know what he wanted to say. So instead of responding, he left immediately, heading for Candace's room.
"Candace!" he almost wailed the second he entered her room, but upon realizing what he'd walked into, he deadpanned. "I... need to stop walking in on people."
"Nah, it's cool," said Jeremy, standing up from Candace's bed. At least this time, he'd walked in while everyone was still fully clothed. "I need to stop forgetting to lock the door. I'll catch you around, Candace." He waved and left the room, leaving an awkward air in his wake before Candace started her attack.
"You little brat, I thought you were done with ruining my life, but I suppose in seven years some things don't change. What could possibly be so important to have interrupted—"
"I think I like Ferb."
"—me and Jeremy getting—wait, what?"
"I think..." began Phineas, but he couldn't bring himself to say it again. It was wrong enough that they were practically brothers. Yet it seemed...right. Ferb was the one who made Phineas the happiest. He was the most important person to Phineas. And he seemed to complete Phineas, too, in both his character and his logic. And that accent, which Phineas had always admired. And that—
Candace interrupted his thought. "Okay, first of all, ewwwwww, you guys are like brothers, and that's so strange to think about. But, then, you guys aren't technically blood-related, so maybe it's not so bad."
"I...I—"
"But Phineas," she continued, and as the surprise on her face faded, a smile began to surface. "I'm happy you trusted me enough to tell me."
"You're not going to bust me and tell mom?"
Candace scoffed. "Please, this isn't even worth telling her. But build an invention that forces Ferb to like you back, and maybe I might."
"What if it's an invention that delivers messages, so that way no one will ever again have to rack up courage to say the things they feel?"
"...maybe." She paused to look at her younger brother, and upon eye contact the two broke into laughter. "So, tell me what's on your mind."
Phineas did exactly that. He talked about the future, the frustrations with Isabella, how he'd walked into Ferb and Vanessa getting it on, how—
"—wait, Ferb did what? Oh, he's so gonna get it...after you finish, of course." So Phineas continued on, about how he'd gone on a date with Isabella even though he didn't like her, how Ferb and Vanessa split, and how he'd gotten here.
"Ferb had a girlfriend?" Candace echoed when Phineas had finished.
"Exactly my point!" Phineas exclaimed, before taking it back. "Well, not my point, but see, I'm not the only one who didn't know!—But yeah, Candace, I don't know what to do."
"The only advice I can say, Phineas, is just tell him the truth. Especially if you're getting worked up over Ferb not telling you everything you think he should, a good way to start is to tell him everything he ought to know, right?" And though Phineas rolled his eyes and wanted to argue against her, he knew she was right. So, after giving her his thanks, and after passing by the bathroom to clean himself up, he returned to his room.
Ferb was waiting for him.
"Bad date," Phineas explained hastily. "Went to the bathroom to clean up."
"I saw," Ferb said quietly. "And, well, heard." Phineas frowned as Ferb glanced quickly at his phone. Wait, had Ferb been talking to...?
"Did Isabella call you?" asked Phineas cautiously. The delay in Ferb's response was enough of an answer, though Ferb did admit to it moments later.
"I... have something to tell you," Ferb added, which caught Phineas off guard.
"Really? I-I have something to tell you, too. But you first." Phineas studied Ferb's face for a sign, a hint, anything that would help him prepare for what Ferb was going to say. Best-case scenario, Ferb was confessing his feelings for Phineas, too, though perhaps it was aiming a little too high. Worst-case scenario... maybe that Ferb would blame him for his break up? Was there anything worse? Maybe there was something Phineas had missed.
There had been.
"I'm going on a date with Isabella."
Phineas sputtered. "What?"
Ferb sighed apologetically. "She called after your date and told me what you'd said to her. She was crying, Phineas, I didn't know what to... how to... and then I'd told her about how Vanessa told me that she actually didn't love me, so we were on the same boat, and... somehow, it just happened."
"Glad you were so quick to jump on that one," snarled Phineas. "Bet you thought of me when you decided to jump from one girl to the next."
"It's not like that!" protested Ferb, but the cold glare Phineas gave him told him that Phineas would not be convinced otherwise. "Well, fine, don't believe me then. What was it you wanted to say?"
"I was gonna—" But Phineas could no longer say it. What was the point? For someone he felt completed him, Ferb sure had been poking a lot of holes in him lately. And it hurt the most, now, because Ferb had managed to find his heart. So, instead, Phineas had forgotten all his resolve, and amended his statement by finishing with, "—gonna say sorry for walking in on you the other day.
Ferb grimaced, but nodded. "It's... okay."
In retrospect, that had been the one moment that tempted Phineas the most to use the time machine. He'd wanted to use it to go back to that time, to change the outcome, so that he hadn't walked in on Ferb, the thing that Phineas figured to have been the crucial point in the turn of events. But he'd learned from Future Candace, and with present Candace's help he was talked out of it.
The present really did change the future. But who was to say that, somewhere between the present and the future, there couldn't be another future, a nearer future, that would be ready to correct any deviations from the farther future made in the present? After all, Isabella still ended up being Aunt Isabella, only instead married to Ferb. Future Candace, or not-so-future-anymore Candace, had tried to teach him there were things to be learned from the flow of time.
But Phineas was willing to take one last gamble.
The stage is dark, in the aftermath of an awards ceremony. In Phineas's cupped hands is a mechanical bird, which had very recently won him an award. It is the very invention that Phineas had teased Candace with, years ago. A bird that could read his heart. A bird that would convey his feelings to Ferb for him. Because even to that day Phineas, himself, cannot.
He whispers to the bird, leaving it one last message, before he brings it outside, raises his hands into the air, and sets the bird on its journey. But the bird heads not for the Ferb of this generation, but the Ferb of the past, who is presently visiting for a short time. The bird finds him—and Phineas, and Candace, and Isabella—at an antique shop.
"Oh cool!" says Younger Phineas, noting the bird. One day, he tells himself, he will invent such a bird, even if he isn't yet sure what exactly that bird's purpose was. But the bird in question speaks only to Younger Ferb, whispering in his ear. Younger Ferb's eyes widens upon what he hears, but he says nothing.
"What was that about?" Younger Phineas asks curiously.
Younger Ferb merely shrugs. Yet as they turn to walk back to the time machine that had brought the four children into the future, Younger Ferb can't help but to smile to himself.
He had a future to change.