A/N: Special thanks to LuticolousMantis for helping me to translate this.

Disclaimer: I don't own Phineas and Ferb.

The first and last note

The first rays of the sun announced the arrival of the new day, illuminating the Tri-State-Area making it resemble a beautiful drawing shaded and colorful at the same time. From afar, you could see a large purple building with a sign on one side, which read: "Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated."

Doofenshmirtz was rehearsing his evil monologue, like every day. He had his inator ready and the trap to imprison his nemesis was set, now he only needed to wait for the secret agent to come.

After a while Heinz began to grow impatient. Apparently this would be one of those days that Perry wouldn't arrive, perhaps Sergei the Snail would come in his place or perhaps he had just been delayed a bit. With these thoughts in mind, he decided to wait five minutes, if no one appeared after that he would start his plan, because after all, who needs secret agents? Not Doofenshmirtz. Not him.

"I need a larger watch", he said, peering with difficulty at his wrist watch. He noted, however, that five minutes had gone by. "I guess he's not coming," he spoke to himself since even Norm was absent. He had ordered him to go and get a haircut to distract the robot.

The evil doctor began walking towards the balcony to activate his invention, but when he was coming, he heard a sound that apparently came from the sky. It looked like the hovercraft belonging to the platypus. Almost instantly, Perry jumped and landed on the terrace, but there seemed to be something wrong with him. He was out of breath, his fur messy, as if he had been in a fight, and his fedora was battered and somewhat broken. A few steps, behind him, had fallen a some kind of backpack.

The flying vehicle was moving at full speed, but oddly it seemed to be driverless, its flight uncontrolled and shaky, and it looked like it was going into a tailspin. That thought was confirmed when he heard and saw an explosion in the distance. Surprised by this, he decided to talk.

"What was that all about, Perry the Platypus? " He asked.

However, the platypus agent was not willing to give him an answer, at least not at the moment. The semi-aquatic mammal set out to run to the inside of the building, but he was interrupted by a mechanical arm that emerged and grabbed his wrist, imprisoning him.

"That is not the trap that I prepared," murmured Doofenshmirtz, a bit surprised by this unexpected development.

Perry moved with despair, trying to break free as if the world was ending.

"What happens, Perry the Platypus? " Heinz asked, beginning to worry. This was not how the agent usually acted when trapped.

Perry responded in the only way that could: chattering. Doofenshmirtz couldn't tell what he was saying, but he was able to read the platypus' expression and saw worry and desperation reflected in Perry's eyes. The doctor, beginning to get nervous, made an attempt to release the secret agent, but none of the controls obeyed.

"I don't understand what's going on," he said, while pressing a button in the controller. "It was supposed to be the release button."

The platypus despaired even more, then pulled out various objects from his fedora and tried to break free, but he was unsuccessful.

"Calm down. Can you tell me what's going on?"

Perry paused a moment, looking at his wrist watch. He proceeded to make all kinds of signs. It was not necessary that the doctor was an expert in sign language to understand what he was saying. The message was clear.

"You would like me to go?"

Agent nodded as fast as he could and returned to make the signs, but this time with more desperation.

"But…" Heinz was interrupted by a sound. He quickly turned to see what had happened. There, in a corner of his apartment was a small fire, as if a small explosion would have happened.

Soon the little amount of smoke coming from it activated the sprinklers, but fire was not quenched. On the contrary, the water only seemed to fuel it even more. From the smell, Doofenshmirtz realized that it was not water that came out of the sprayers.

"It's gasoline," the doctor said.

Indeed he was right. The water in the tank had been replaced with gasoline. It didn't take him long to understand what was happening.

"It's a trap!" He exclaimed.

But it was too late. All of his apartment was on fire. Heinz recoiled in surprise and fear. He had realized too late that someone had sabotaged his building. There was no way out. On all sides it was death and nothing more.

Perry looked upset, but above all powerless, unable to release himself. The mechanical arm that imprisoned him was made of steel. For his part, Doofenshmirtz began to seek a way out, but wherever he turned he saw only fire, which was not going to go out, at least until the gasoline that fell from the sprinklers was depleted.

He soon heard a sound, like a breaking glass. He turned to find the origin of the curious sound, but the smoke and fire were making it difficult for him to see anything, and he started to cough, breathing becoming increasingly difficult. With a jolt, he remembered that he was not alone in that place.

"Perry the..." he coughed, "Perry the Platypus..." He had to find his nemesis.

However, arriving at the place where he had last seen Perry, he found nothing more than the mechanical arm and a container of broken glass, which apparently had once contained oil. It was clear what had happened. Perry had managed to escape the grip using the oil and... had fled? And left him to his fate?

Heinz was furious, but did his best to ignore it. This was not the time to get angry. He had to think about fleeing. His vision became blurry and smoke made him cough. He ran to the rail terrace to take air. The only way out was to jump from there, but without something to soften his fall it was a death-sentence. Seeing no other alternatives he resigned to his fate.

How odd that the life of an evil scientist should end this way. He had always thought that he might meet his end because of one of his inventions or perhaps die of old age, after years of fighting with Perry.

"Maybe I was wrong…" He said, sitting down to wait for the flames to consume him.

He closed his eyes and hugged his knees, remained still and simply waited. His mind was limited to wandering through his memories, playing each tragic event of his life, from his birth up until that moment, which he was going to burn with his apartment. It was frustrating, as if fate has only had endeavored to make him suffer, it seemed that the universe was against him and never gave him the opportunity to be happy.

He opened his eyes and could see that the fire was getting closer. He sighed, deciding it was better to not focus on his situation, as there was nothing he could do about it. He closed his eyes again, but this time his mind found a moment of bliss: the birth of his daughter, Vanessa. He smiled, at least he remembered was it was like to be happy, but those moments were all too few and far between, and closely accompanied by things that had led to the end of his marriage. He tried not to think about it, and his mind showed him other memory, the day that he met his nemesis. He smiled again, but when he remembered Perry had abandoned him when he most needed him, his joy disappeared. It almost seemed that every memory of happiness was accompanied by another which caused him grief, although that had no importance, now that his end had come.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a sound. He opened his eyes to find...

"Perry the Platypus?" He said. "I thought that-" he stopped, deciding it was best not to say what had been in his mind.

Perry just showed him a backpack, which was identical to the one that had fallen from the hovercraft that had crashed. Then he realized what happened. The agent hadn't escaped. He had gone to look for that object that seemed to be...

"A parachute?"

The platypus nodded slightly. Doofenshmirtz smiled in response. Suddenly, he heard a strange sound, like an animal grunt, the sound of a rodent, maybe? Before he could react, he felt a blow on the back of the neck and after that... everything was dark.

Heinz awoke to the sound of the Perry's chattering. He saw that the fire had spread and now only a small corner, they were in, was not engulfed in flames. Heinz didn't know what had happened during the time he had been unconscious, but he sensed that it was not good.

Perry had a bruise in his eye, and his fur was slightly burned, as if he had been fighting.

"What happened? " Heinz asked, but got no response.

The agent merely pointed towards the railing. The doctor stood to see what his nemesis wanted him to.

There on the street, 40 stories below them, were firefighters setting up a life-net to jump onto and a crowd of onlookers that were gathering around the building. It was their salvation, they could jump and all would be well... or at least that what he thought.

"We are saved," he said, turning to Perry, who encouraged him to jump, but was not happy.

"You're not coming? " Heinz asked, to which the secret agent shook his head.

Before he could ask the reason for that, Perry lifted a leg and showed a mechanical arm attached to his ankle and that he had no more oil to get rid of it, or time. After this explanation, the agent began to make signs urging the doctor to jump.

"No," was Heinz' response, "I will not go without you."

Perry sighed and rolled his eyes, before pointing to his wrist watch, indicating that there was no time for this.

"No, Perry the Platypus", he said. "I can't go because-" he stopped, not knowing how to express himself, too aware that there was no time, but if this was the end, there would be more opportunities to let him know. "I... I..." was the warmth on his cheeks just the heat from the flames or was he blushing?

Perry simply smiled and beckoned to him to bend down. Heinz did not hesitate to do what the agent asked of him, even if the last time he had gotten hit. When he was at the Perry's height, he felt the agent gave him a quick kiss on the lips. Surprised, Doofenshmirtz a quickly stood up. He was so nervous, and his heart was beating so fast that he did not know what to say to what had just happened, so he merely stared at the agent, hoping that his cheeks red tone spoke for themselves, conveying the words he was not able to pronounce.

However, the platypus did not seem to notice it, but once again looked at his wrist watch, then pulled out a small piece of paper from his fedora and gave it to the human. Heinz accepted it, but when he was about to unfold it and read the contents, he felt a push. As a result fell from the balcony, and before he could realize what had happened, he was on the mattress, watching his apartment exploding.

Only one word resonated in his mind at that moment: "No".

Six months had passed since the accident, Doofenshmirtz's building had been rebuilt, and almost everything was as before. The O.W.C.A. investigated the events and concluded that everything had been the work of an old enemy of Perry, an agent. Dennis, a white rabbit that had fled the Agency's prison some weeks before the incident, but was recaptured two weeks after the fire.

But knowing who was responsible for not it didn't make him feel better. Perry would not return. That was clear.

Doofenshmirtz stared at the horizon from its balcony, thinking about that note, which in some ways was the only thing that was left of Perry. That note with three small words that far from comforting him had brought only more suffering. A part of him wanted to crumble and throw away this piece of paper that brought him memories and pain, but he knew he wouldn't do that. Because those three words also made him smile and his heartbeat to accelerate out of control. He knew perfectly well that he hated and loved this note, as well as... had hated and loved the author of those three words.

"Sir," Norm entered the terrace. "This came for you," he said, before leaving a gift-basket with fruits and other things on the railing.

"Thank you, Norm," Heinz responded.

Android left and Doofenshmirtz took the card that was attached to the top of the basket.

"Congratulations, Dr. Doofenshmirtz," he read the card in his high voice, "-for defecting on the Good side." He sighed, that wasn't true. He hadn't joined the Good side, simply abandoned Evil.

He looked at the horizon for a few moments, before once again re-reading that piece of paper, which in some ways was the only thing that Perry had ever told him the time that they had been enemies. It was the first, but at the same time... the last note, which contained only... three simple words: I love you.

"I love you too, Perry the Platypus." He said to no one in particular, knowing that no one would hear it and that it was already too late for confessions.

But he didn't know, that even if they no longer were in the same world, those words still reached the one they had been meant for.