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"Oh, dude, yes." Phineas darted from the kitchen doorway, snatching the gingerbread cookie off the tray. He'd known his brother was baking, but the smell was what had lured him to the finished product. His mouth was already watering.
"I just decorated that." Ferb moved the icing to the next cookie in line.
"Looks good." It did. Perfect lines made up a face and clothes. Incredible detail, really. He wouldn't expect any less. He bit off the head. The spice easily settling on his tongue. Than it wasn't. His expression went from delighted to disgusted in the span of a second. He gagged. Oh, yuck, what was that? He spun, making for the sink.
The water couldn't turn on fast enough. He spit out the disgusting thing posing as a cookie and quickly rinsed out his mouth. The taste was still on his tongue.
"Did you mix up the sugar and salt or something?" Phineas turned off the faucet before looking back at Ferb. And froze. "How are you eating that?"
Staring him down, Ferb took another bite of the cookie. "'s good."
That had Phineas pulling another face. "Don't talk with your mouth full." Just watching it, he felt like gagging.
Ferb held the half-eaten cookie out to him.
This could be a trap. But he wasn't really sure what the point would be. Show that he'd fall for the same, general, thing twice? Hesitantly, he took it. As he brought it to his mouth, he search for any tell in Ferb's face. He knew it was likely useless but there was always the chance Ferb might take pity on him and let something show. He didn't.
Phineas took a tiny bite.
It tasted fine.
He blinked. "Huh."
He took a bigger bite of the cookie. It still tasted fine. It was the same batch. Same icing, probably. So "What did you do to the first one?"
Ferb just smirked.
Phineas put the rest of the cookie in his mouth even as his eyes narrowed. If Ferb wanted to start something, he'd start something.
"Phineas!" The screech carried the same tone that Candace usually used but the wrong accent and pitch.
Linda looked up from cooking breakfast, wondering just what her boys were up to.
There was thudding on the stairs before Phineas briefly appeared in the doorway, pulling on his heavy jacket. "No time for breakfast, Mom. Gotta go!"
A moment later, Ferb ran past. His pajamas soaked.
A few seconds of silence.
"Bloody fucking hell!"
Linda froze, a yell of watching his language on her tongue. He was sixteen, he should know better than to run out in the cold when he's that wet. But a faint scream of "Language!" from outside beat her to it.
She shook her head. She didn't know what they were up to but as long as they didn't kill each other, she was willing to see where it went.
Phineas stared at his hoodie.
Well, it was either his or a perfect duplicate made to one tenth the size. Both options were in with Ferb's ability to make. But using the shrinkray in the S.H.E.D. would've been easier, and he could just use the reverse switch to fix it.
Unless that's what Ferb was planning on him doing.
It could be boobytrapped.
Nah, it probably wasn't.
When Phineas stomped into the house two hours later, looking like he'd gone three rounds with a paper bag and lost, he was eternally grateful that Mom and Dad didn't question it because he really did not want to talk about it.
No one said anything when Ferb came downstairs the next day with his hair dyed the exact same shade of brown as Father's either.
"My bed is where?"
"In my pool." Isabella sighed over the line. "Whatcha' guys doing over there?"
"Ferb started a prank war."
"Oh, I guess that explains the sail?"
Ferb pulled on his headphones, fingers moving across the touchscreen without looking. Stretching out on his bed, he closed his eyes and waited for the familiar beats of the rap song to start.
What started didn't sound like the beat he was waiting for. Though, it did seem familiar...
I know you’re pinin'
Ferb's eyes popped open.
But every cloud has got a silver linin'
He ripped off the headphones.
It took him five minutes to find his brother. "You replaced every one of my songs with Chop Away at my Heart!"
Phineas blinked innocently up at him. "What's wrong with that? I thought you liked Zack?"
He did like Zach.
That didn't mean he wanted his singing filling up his playlist.
He scowled.
"How long have they been at this?" Candace stared wide eyed as her inseparable brothers glared across the room at each other.
"Oh, about a week now." Mom sighed. "I thought they'd have it out of their systems before Christmas."
"Well, you still have a day."
They'd had a minor truce yesterday. Mainly because of Candace and Jeremy coming to crash in the guest room, and that baby Amanda was sleeping for most of the day and neither of them wanted to wake her up.
But today, she was a lot more active and all bets were off.
Phineas twisted the present each way. It was light. He couldn't hear anything rattling inside of it. The box was roughly one foot by one foot.
Knowing Ferb, it could contain anything. Especially since he was still moody about not being able to get the dye out his hair.
Setting on the floor, he worked his fingers under the lid.
He pulled it off.
There was another box inside.
He raised his head to look at Ferb. "Really?"
Ferb shrugged before pulling his present from Phineas out from under the tree.
They'd both been slightly relieved to see presents from Santa under there. They hadn't been acting up that much, but the conformation they hadn't ended up on the naughty list for it was nice.
Phineas opened the second box and groaned at the third.
After doing his own inspections, Ferb tugged at the bow holding his closed. From each corner of the bottom, legs unfolded. It stood up before racing out of the room.
Snorting, Ferb shook his head with a bemused look.
"I'd go after it, bro," Phineas said, trying not to get frustrated at being met with a fourth box. "It's set to self-destruct in five minutes and there's a limited edition Hymie Silverman action figure in there."
Ferb didn't look bemused anymore. He'd paled. Scrambling to his feet, he finally took off after it.
Phineas had reached the fourteenth box, now only five by five inches, when Ferb returned, cradling the collectable doll to his chest. He sighed, opening this one.
He fully expected another, smaller box, but instead saw nothing.
"All that and you didn't even put anything in here?" That was just mean.
Ferb shook his head.
After the hoodie incident, Phineas was hesitate to actually reach in there but... Well, it was Christmas. A little trust couldn't hurt, right? He reached in, blinking when his hand hit something.
He pulled it out. A ball? His fingers ran over the smooth surface until they found an indent.
Phineas pressed it.
To any observer, he vanished when he did.
Phineas laughed. "Oh, dude! You fixed the personal invisibility sphere!" He pressed the button again, reappearing. Excited grin on his face, all thoughts of the prank war had fled his mind. "How'd you do it? I thought you said it wasn't possible to make it work in something this small?" He got to his feet, half way to his brother when he stopped. His smile fell. "Oh, wait, are we still...?"
Ferb held out a hand.
"Truce, huh?" Phineas took it before he could change his mind. "Yeah, I think we can do that."