Eternity's Dime

Chapter Five: Family

Phineas walked up to the grey painted house. Bypassing the bell, he rapped his knuckles twice on the door before rubbing his wrist. The FTF printed on his skin may as well have been branded on with coals considering the amount of dull pain that filled the area.

The door flew open. Phineas barely had time to look away from the letters when a blur of orange and lavender jumped on him.  Quickly, he looped his hands under the girl's arms and half threw her over his shoulder causing her giggle. At some point, he was going to have to stop doing that. Or she'd get old enough to no longer find it fun. He wasn't sure which wouldn't be more disheartening.

"Where's your mom?" Even as he asked the question, Phineas entered the house.

"Kitchen!" She grabbed onto the back of his shirt, pulling the collar tight against his throat.

Giving an overly dramatic gag, Phineas stumbled into the kitchen. He grabbed the door frame with one hand while using the other to keep a firm grasp on Amanda's legs. Spotting Candace at the stove-trying to not get any food on her dress suit while she cooked-he gasped out, "Help! She's trying to kill me!"

Candace didn't even look at him. "I was about to call you."

Continuing his stumble to the counter that stood in the middle of the room, he went on, "Do you not care, woman! My own sister gives no thought to my demise! Oh, the humanity!" On that note, he gave a dragged out choking noise and slowly sunk to his knees and out of her sight. 

Candace still didn't look. "You're a weirdo."

Rude. He was dying here. Phineas dropped the rest of the way to the floor, careful not to crush his giggling niece's legs as he did.

Amanda sat up on his back. Her orange hair, the same brilliant shade as her mother's, tickled Phineas' cheek as she leaned over his head. "Uncle Phineas, get up. I know you're not dead for reals."

Phineas stayed still. Not moving so much as an eyeball. After a moment, she poked him.

"Mom, he won't do anything."

"Give it a rest, Amanda." A tired sigh followed the words. "You're staying for breakfast?"

Despite having smelt the food since he entered the room, the mention of it caused his stomach to growl. But before he could answer, Amanda poked him again.

"I knew you weren't dead!" The girl scrambled off his back, and he lifted himself slightly off the floor so she could pull her legs from under him.

Pushing himself up into a kneeling position, that she hurried to copy, he smiled. "You're too smart to trick." He turned to peek over the counter. "I'd love to stay."

"Good." Candace finally looked up only to frown. "Amanda, stand up. I don't want you on the dirty floor."

"But you don't care about me being on the dirty floor?" He raised his eyebrows as Amanda got up. "First you don't care about me dying, now you don't care about this, do you care about me at all?"

"I'm making you breakfast, aren't I?"

"Yeah, you're a real saint," he deadpanned.

Candace walked around the counter, a platter of bacon in one hand, the other she used to lightly smack him on the back of the head as she passed. "Better believe it, bud."

Rolling his eyes, Phineas stood up and adjusted his shirt, the material having gotten bunched up from his antics. When it came down to it, he did believe it. She put up with him after all. He walked around the island counter.

"Amanda, go fetch your brothers." Once the girl darted from the room, Candace continued, "Phineas-"

"Already on it." If he remembered right, the plates were in the second cabinet from the fridge, so that's where he went. Grinning when he saw he was correct, he took out five plates and moved to bring them to the table when he stopped. For a brief second, the letters peeking out from under the cuff of his sleeve caught his eyes. The sight of them made the ease that being at his sister's home drain from him, seeming to leach into the floor where he couldn't reclaim it.

"Phineas?" Candace was staring at him.

Tightening his hold on the dishes, he forced a smile and his feet into moving. He could fake it. It wouldn't be the first time, and he doubted it would be the last.

"Is everything okay?" The concern in her eyes drilled into him.

"Yeah." Phineas mentally patted himself on the back for sounding casual. "I just remembered something."

She continued to watch him as he set out the plates. Trying to pick up on a lie that wasn't there.

Appearing to give up, she glanced at the door. "What is taking so long?"

It hadn't been that long, even though it felt like it had, but Phineas didn't point it out. The less he talked, the less likely he'd slip up. But then she'd question him not talking and think he was hiding something. Which he was, but that wasn't the point. But he'd come over to talk to her about it so why was he hiding it now?

Why did life have to be so hard and confusing?

He didn't notice right away that she was talking again. How long had he been staring at the china plate in thought?

"-found a job yet?"

"Uh? Ah, no," Phineas muttered. What had she been saying?

"You weren't listening, were you?"  Her tone dipped exasperation.

"'Course I was." Did they really need to talk about his employment status right now? Phineas wished for Amanda to get back and shut down the talk before it began.

"No, you weren't." She crossed back over to the counter. "You're rubbing your ear."

Dammit. He pulled his hand away from his ear and stared at it as if it had betrayed him.

"Look," she started, walking over with another plate with food on it-pancakes this time-, "Stanky Dog's retiring, and Jeremy has some connections over there. I know it's not your dream job or anything, but you'd be great at it." A wry smile appeared on her lips. "And you love hearing yourself talk."

"I do not!" Just because he liked talking didn't mean he loved the sound of his own voice. "Besides, I hate morning DJ's, why would I want to be one?" He scrunched up his pointy nose at the idea.

"I don't know." Placing that plate next to the other platter, she sighed. "Maybe because it's a job that will pay you money? So you can, ya know, pay bills and stuff? Buy some food so you're not always coming over here to mooch meals?"

Ouch. He didn't come over to 'mooch meals', though the meals were a bonus, he came over a lot because he got lonely. Phineas was about to say something to that extent, possible without the lonely part, when Amanda came back into the kitchen.

She approached them with a serious expression on her young face while her younger brothers bolted into the room behind her.

"The tree's broke."