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“Bye Mom, bye Dad!”
It was a Thursday evening, towards the end of the seemingly endless summer, and Linda and Lawrence were driving off for a long weekend away.
The Flynn-Fletcher children were standing in the doorway, waving their parents off, and, as the car drove over the horizon, the three re-entered their house.
The dishes from dinner needed to be loaded into the dishwasher, so the boys went to do that, while Candace made sure that the doors were locked for the night. While Phineas turned the dishwasher on, Ferb put some popcorn into the microwave.
“Do you want to watch a movie with us, Candace?” Phineas called to his sister, who had just entered the kitchen, making her way towards the cupboard filled with snacks.
“Can’t Phineas, sorry, Stacy and I are playing Ducky Momo’s Golden Quest tonight, so I’ve got to go get logged on! Have fun!”
The brothers simply shrugged, knowing how obsessed Candace was with Ducky Momo. When the microwave beeped, they got their snack ready, along with some drinks, and made their way towards the sofa, where they would watch their movie.
-
One and a half films later, Ferb woke up on the sofa, having dozed off sometime after the second movie had started. The green-haired Brit pointed at the stairs, indicating to his brother that he was going to head to bed.
Phineas, who was engrossed in the film, responded with a “I’ll be up once the movie finishes!” and a thumbs up.
Perry followed Ferb up the stairs, having previously been curled up on the couch between his two boys, sleeping.
-
Across town, Dr Doofenshmirtz made his way to the bathroom, to begin getting ready for bed himself. On the balcony, a shiny -inator stood proud, and a worn purple robe hung from one of its’ levers. The evil scientist left his bathroom in his pyjamas some time later, looking everywhere for his bathrobe. When he finally found it, he grabbed it, not realising that he had knocked down the lever that it had previously hung on, and a green beam shot across the sky.
-
As the end credits of the movie rolled, Phineas turned off the television, and stood up from the couch with a stretch. He was tired, but glad he had stayed up to watch the movie: it was one of his favourites! After placing the popcorn bowl and the empty glasses in the sink, the redhead made his way upstairs and got ready for bed. He could hear his sister saying goodnight to Stacy on their video call as he left the bathroom and smiled as his entered his and Ferb’s room.
The green haired boy was already fast asleep, Perry nestled in his arms, while Phineas was just about to climb into bed. He was standing right in front of the open window as a beam from across town entered the room, hitting the redhead and encased him in a green hue. The green changed into a soft pink before fading completely. Phineas, exhausted from staying up so late, didn’t notice a thing.
-
The next morning, Phineas awoke just before the alarm; he stretched out his hand to turn it off when it finally did go off and didn’t notice that his fingers were looking slightly different than he remembered.
As Phineas got out of bed he glanced towards his brother, who was awake and reading a book with Perry curled up in his lap.
“Morning bro!” came a slightly high pitched, chirpy voice, which caused all three occupants of the room to look up, startled.
Ferb and Perry looked towards Phineas and immediately noticed the problem.
“Uh, is that you, Phineas?” Ferb asked, having to make sure, even though he was sure of the answer.
“Of course it’s me!” the voice from before spoke, which startled Phineas once more. Climbing out of bed, and facing the mirror in the room, Phineas saw a female version of himself; his head shape was the same, his facial features and body shape was similar, yet slightly more feminine, and his hair was longer and more tame. He also noticed that he had seemed to have grown an inch or two.
Ferb was busy retrieving his scanner while Phineas took in his new looks. The Brit coughed slightly to get the red-head’s attention, which caused Phineas to turn around, and then Ferb scanned his brother.
The results came quickly; a temporary change in gender, it would last a few days, but there was no way to reverse the effect. His DNA was already beginning to revert back to normal, and there was no point in risking messing up the reversal process, when it was already happening. Phineas would have to spend the weekend as a girl.
Ferb sighed at his brother’s misfortune, but Phineas, ever the optimist, saw this as an exciting opportunity, a huge grin on his face.
“Now I can see what it’s like to be a girl!” Phineas explained. “We should probably let Candace know what happened though, seeing as Mom and Dad left her in charge while they’re away at the antiques’ convention out of town.”
Ferb agreed, and the pair made their way to their older sister’s room. They knocked on the door gently, not wanting to disturb Candace if she was still asleep, but, luckily, Candace was awake, and was in a relatively good mood.
“Morning, Candace!” Phineas chirped, a toothy grin on his face, hoping not to worry his sister with the change.
Candace just raised an eyebrow, used to the boys’ shenanigans; a gender change was quite tame compared to previous happenings. Plus there was no way that Mom was returning before Monday just to bust the boys.
“Morning Phineas, Ferb.” Candace smirked, stepping back to let them enter her room. “I’m guessing you need clothes?” she asked.
“Oh, I didn’t think of that…” Phineas replied, then looked down, realised that he had been holding up the waist of his pyjama bottoms, and nodded. “Yes please, if you have anything.”
“Well you’re in luck, I have some of my old clothes in the back of my closet that I’m sure will fit you.”
After some rummaging through the mess that was her wardrobe, Candace found some of her old clothes that fit Phineas; a pair of denim shorts, and an orange t-shirt.
As he was getting changed, Phineas noticed that his hair kept getting in his face. When he mentioned this to Candace, his sister sorted it out by tying his hair back with an orange ribbon.
“You look a bit like Isabella with that bow.” Ferb chuckled.
The thought of Isabella caused Ferb and Candace shoot worried looks at each other; they were concerned about what the raven-haired girl’s reaction would be like, considering her crush on their brother.
Phineas, who was oblivious to their worry, was looking at himself in the mirror, and let out a giggle that also reminded him of Isabella.
-
A short while later, once Ferb and Candace had gotten ready themselves, the three were sitting at the kitchen table, eating breakfast, when there was a knock on the front door.
Candace got up to get it, stopping Phineas before he could; it might shock anyone if he was to answer the door.
Isabella was standing on the doorstep, a smile gracing her features. “Good morning Candace, whatcha doin’?” the raven haired girl asked the tall red-head.
“Just finishing breakfast, come on in.” Candace answered Isabella, moving out of the way so that the smaller girl could enter the house.
“You guys are having breakfast rather late this morning, aren’t you?” Isabella asked, knowing that the Flynn-Fletcher family had usually finished eating before she came over each day. She checked her watch; she wasn’t over any earlier than usual.
“Yeah, well, something happened last night which sort of delayed us a bit this morning.” Candace saw the worry on the younger girl’s face. “It’s nothing to worry about though, but it’ll probably give you a bit of a shock when you find out.”
“Why, what happened?” Isabella asked, looking up at the taller girl as they stepped into the kitchen to join the other two.
“Take a look for yourself.” Candace indicated for Isabella to look towards Phineas, which the raven haired girl did eagerly.
“Whoa,” Isabella breathed, as she looked towards her gender-changed crush. Her eager smile suddenly fell into her usual love-struck smile; the one she always flashed towards Phineas when he was doing something romantic, yet he never noticed.
Candace and Ferb picked up on the way she was looking at their brother, though they were slightly confused. Even if it was Phineas, he was in a female body; they had been under the impression that Isabella only liked boys.
It was at that moment, however, that Phineas had a sudden inspiration for the day’s activity.
“Ferb, I know what we’re going to do today!” he proclaimed, jumping up and grabbing Isabella’s hand. “Today’s the perfect opportunity to have the second F-Games!”
Ferb pulled out the blueprints for the idea, as the four made their way out into the backyard, Phineas never dropping Isabella’s hand along the way.
They all sat under the tree, overlooking the blueprints that were laid before them, discussing who would work on what. Isabella noticed that Candace was acting much calmer than usual.
“You alright there Candace?” Isabella teased, knowing that the teen would usually get very worked up about the boys’ plans.
“Yeah.” Candace smiled uneasily, not having dropped the confusion from before.
Noticing that Ferb had disappeared to the garage to collect tools, and Phineas was on the phone to the delivery company, Candace motioned for Isabella to follow her away from the tree, where Phineas still sat.
“Uh,” Candace stuttered, unsure of how to start the conversation.
Unfortunately, before she could think of how to begin, they were interrupted. As it was at that moment that Buford walked through the gate with Baljeet tucked under his arm, the nerd looking rather unhappy. The bully dropped the other boy onto the grass in front of Isabella and Candace and laughed as Baljeet spat out some blades of grass as he pushed himself up.
“Sorry we are late, but somebody,” Baljeet glared at Buford, “insisted that he needed new shoelaces this morning.”
“What? The new ‘TUFF SHOO LAYSIZZ’ came out today!” Buford defended, shrugging.
“That’s alright, we had a bit of a late start this morning anyway.” Candace told them, gesturing to show that the invention was still in planning stages.
“What is the idea for the day?” Baljeet asked, not able to work anything out, due to the lack of clues in the backyard.
“We’re having a second F-Games! And it’s going to be even bigger and better than last time!” Isabella was excited to compete in the games once again, especially because Phineas was going to be on the girls’ team this time! Candace was a great partner, but the three of them together would be truly unstoppable, she just knew it.
“Why we doin’ that again? I thought we were over our gender rivalry.” Buford asked, an eyebrow raised at the raven-haired girl.
“You’ll understand when you see Phineas.” She replied cryptically, after realising that the red-head in question had entered the house at some point during their conversation with the boys.
It was only a few moments before Phineas walked out through the kitchen door, laughing at something that Ferb, who was next to him, had said.
Buford and Baljeet’s eyes bulged out of their heads, not expecting the changes that had occurred to red-head boy.
“Uh, that you, Dinnerbell?” asked Buford.
“Yeah, it’s me!” Phineas chirped, his ever-present grin on his face. He stopped next to Isabella, bumping his hip against hers playfully. “We thought the F-Games would be rather suitable today, especially because we can make even teams now! Candace is taking part, so we’ll be in teams of three!”
The plan to make the F-Games even more spectacular than the first time was to make the game city-wide. It was going to be a competition to collect points in various places across Danville. There was a lot to build, and it needed to be done quickly, so that they would have enough time to compete in the afternoon. With that, the whole gang got to work, building the various stages of the competition.
After a quick working lunch, the two teams prepared for the beginning of the F-Games. They were wearing matching outfits this time, the Girls’ team in purple, the boys’ in green. Jeremy and Stacy, who had come over to visit Candace, volunteered to commentate on and referee the competition, and would be following the games in a flying vehicle that had a scoreboard displayed across the front of it.
On the starting line, Isabella had her game face on, and Buford was looking worried. Candace and Phineas were excited to begin, Baljeet looked even more worried than Buford, and Ferb was as stoic as ever.
“Are you ready, teams?” called Stacy, a whistle poised in her mouth.
The six competitors nodded, and Jeremy counted down. “Three, two, one!”
And with that, Stacy blew the whistle, and the two teams set off.
-
With Ferb’s ‘mad skillz’, as Buford put it, and the girl’s team’s excellent teamwork, the competition was pretty tight. The various activities ranged from a city-wide scavenger hunt, to a mechanical obstacle course, to a logic puzzle, to a karaoke competition.
They were having great fun, Phineas occasionally chiming in with: “I told you guys that the next F-Games would be even better!”
In the end, the scores were:
Girls: the square root of a fedora
Boys: a crudely drawn picture of a platypus
Neither Jeremy nor Stacy were sure about the scoring system, but they did know that the girls had won, by a slim margin. When their win was announced, Isabella threw her arms around Phineas, giving him a huge hug, and a gentle peck on the cheek. Phineas returned the hug, face red, and kept his arm around Isabella’s waist after she pulled away.
-
In the distance, a magnet-shaped device glowed red as Dr Doofenshmirtz activated his ‘weird-competitions-away-inator’. He’d been frustrated by the confusing game shows and competitions that were the only things on the television nowadays.
All the pieces that they group had built for the F-games floated towards DE Inc, seconds after Jeremy and Stacy climbed out of the commentators’ box.
As the many devices landed on his balcony, smacking Dr Doofenshmirtz in the face, as well as knocking into the self-destruct button on the newest -inator, the evil scientist called out: “Curse you, Perry the Platypus!”
At the same time, the secret agent used his glider to make his escape from the building.
-
The group made their way back to the Flynn-Fletcher house, ready for an afternoon snack. Linda, knowing she’d be away for a few days, had left enough snacks for her children to share with their friends, and so they were sat under the tree in the backyard with cookies and lemonade.
The teens eventually split off from the younger children, Jeremy leaving for work, and the girls heading inside to watch some TV, while the kids stayed outside.
“We should have a sleepover!” Phineas decided, shortly after they finished their snacks.
Ferb gave his brother a thumbs up, and Isabella grinned. A sleepover meant even more time with her red-headed crush!
“What a girlie idea, Dinnerbell.” Buford mocked; his arms crossed over his chest.
He received three glares for his comment, while Phineas pouted.
“Boys can have sleepovers too, Buford.” Isabella stated with a roll of her eyes.
Feeling slightly put in his place, he muttered a quick apology to his gender-swapped friend. The almost ever-present smile returned to Phineas’ face, as he ran inside to ask Candace if it would be okay for their friends to stay over.
“I’ll have to call Mom, and obviously their parents have to agree, but I don’t see why not.” She shrugged, pulling out her phone to call her mother. “Living room or garden?”
“Living room.” Phineas told her, already planning out the movies they could watch during the evening.
“Hi Mom!” Candace greeted, phone up against her ear. She rolled her eyes at something Linda said. “No, mom, I’m not calling to bust the boys.” At this, she snorted slightly. “I was calling because Phineas and Ferb wanted to know if they could have a sleepover tonight.” There was a pause while she listened to their mother. “Inside.” Another pause. “Isabella, Baljeet and Buford. And Stacy, if she’s allowed.”
Stacy gave her friend a thumbs up, already expecting an invite, and so had texted her mom to ask if she could stay.
“Yes, Stacy’s definitely staying.” Another pause. “Of course I’ll make sure their parents give permission. Okay Mom, love you too, bye!” Candace closed her phone with a ‘snap’. “If it’s okay with their parents, Mom said it’s no problem. She knows you’re all good kids.”
“Thanks sis!” Phineas gave his sister a big hug, before running outside to tell his friends the news.
-
A few hours later, after a dinner of pizza, the children, Candace and Stacy were gathered around the television, in the middle of a movie marathon. The teens were on the couch, sharing a blanket and a bowl of popcorn, while the kids were scattered in their sleeping bags across the floor.
Phineas and Isabella had claimed places resting against the half of the couch the teens weren’t using, while Ferb, Baljeet and Buford were seated in the middle of the room, where the coffee table usually sat.
Phineas started dozing off part way into one of the movies, his staying up late the previous night finally catching up to him. His head landed on Isabella’s shoulder, and the girl made a small squeaking noise, when she realised what had happened.
At the sound, Candace’s head snapped towards the girl, worrying that something was wrong. She noticed that Isabella was tensing up where she was sitting, as though moving even slightly would wake Phineas up. Candace just smiled at the display and turned back to the TV.
-
Saturday morning arrived, and, with a quick check on Ferb’s scanner, Phineas’ DNA was changing back as expected, so the day carried on as normal.
The group sat in the kitchen for breakfast, and then the teens made their way to the mall.
“Ring me if there’s any problems.” Candace told her brothers, before leaving the house with Stacy.
“Will do!” Phineas agreed, nodding enthusiastically at his sister, while Ferb simply waved.
Once they were gone, the redhead turned towards his friends. “So, what are we going to do today?”
-
The rest of the day went similarly to normal; Phineas got inspired for the day’s Big Idea – a 50s themed bowling centre (similar to their miniature golf course, with multiple levels) - Ferb pulled out the corresponding blueprints, Perry disappeared just before someone asked where he was (it was Baljeet’s turn today), the Big Idea got built, played in, and was carried off by a giant chicken right as Candace entered the backyard.
With crossed arms and a raised eyebrow, before greeting the children, she said “well, I’m glad mom’s not here, because my head hurts from just imagining the eye roll she’d do if I ever tried to tell her that a giant chicken stole one of your inventions.”
She got a grin from Isabella for the comment, while the others just looked at the teen weirdly.
“I’ll get you guys some snacks.” Candace informed the kids, heading towards the backdoor.
“I’ll help!” Isabella offered, racing to catch up to the older girl.
“We’ll clean up out here!” Phineas told them, realising that there were a few bowling pins, balls and single bowling shoes scattered across the backyard. “Clean up wasn’t as effective as usual!”
-
The two girls set to work getting drinks, pie, crockery, and cutlery out for everyone, organising the items into easy to carry piles, working well together without needing to say anything.
However, Candace did open her mouth to ask something multiple times but wasn’t quite sure how to phrase what she wanted to ask.
“Why have you… um… do you still… um, how do I ask this?” She muttered under her breath.
Isabella smiled knowingly, and decided to start the conversation herself, making it easier on the elder girl. “You want to know why I’m still acting like I have a crush on Phineas?” she asked, and after getting a nod in response, continued. “Well, that’s because I’m in love with Phineas as a person, not just as a boy.”
“Huh?” Candace furrowed her eyebrows, confused at this explanation, not entirely sure what the younger girl meant.
“What I mean,” Isabella explained, looking into the eyes of her crush’s sister, “is that I don’t just love Phineas because of his looks; it’s his personality that made me fall in love with him, and if that personality happens to come in a female body, then I’d still love him.”
“But I thought you just like boys?” Candace questioned, not trying to be insulting, just trying to wrap her head around the conversation.
“I like personalities.” Isabella tried to explain but scrunched up her face when she realised that her explanation wasn’t very clear. “I mean, I didn’t fall in love with Phineas at first sight, as much as people believe I did.” She grinned at the older girl’s guilty look. “I fell in love with the way he acts. It’s why I’ve also got a massive crush on Rapunzel from Tangled: they’re both enthusiastic, artistic optimists with big hearts. Plus they’re both a little bit oblivious. The fact that they’re both also attractive is just a bonus.”
“Aww,” Candace cooed, after hearing Isabella’s explanation. When she thought about it, Candace realised that she had heard about it before; Vanessa had told her about an ex boyfriend of hers that had been pansexual. “I get it now. To be honest, that sounds like a True Love kind of thing.”
Isabella smiled sweetly at the older girl, before sighing and saying: “now, if only I could get a True Love’s kiss.”
-
After sitting under the tree in the backyard, eating pie and talking, Isabella, Buford and Baljeet slowly began to make their way home. Isabella was the first to leave, mentioning a Fireside Girl meeting, and Baljeet’s parents had invited Buford’s family over for dinner, so they both left to attend the dinner party.
The Flynn-Fletchers headed inside the house, ate dinner, before Ferb asked with a smirk: “Does anyone want to try and beat me at Mario Kart?”
Thus began a Saturday evening video game night. Their parents called right in the middle of a race, and Candace very quickly answered the phone on speaker, before immediately picking up the game controller once again.
“Bad timing Mom!” She said in lieu of a greeting. “I’m actually beating Ferb in Mario Kart for once!”
Linda chuckled, and Phineas, who was sitting out of the round, informed their parents “Ferb’s catching up though! He’s right behind her!”
If their parents noticed the higher pitched voice, they didn’t say anything.
“Go Ferb!” Linda cheered with a chuckle, with Lawrence in the background objecting, saying “No, go Candace!”
A few seconds later, there was a loud groan from Candace, and a startled laugh from Phineas.
“Ferb won!” He informed the phone. “But Candace came a very close second!”
The kids spoke to their parents for a while, who informed them that they’d be back late on Monday, and that they’d bring dinner in with them. The call ended with a cheery goodbye, with lots of ‘Love you!’s and a very enthusiastic Lawrence begging Phineas or Candace to try to beat Ferb at Mario Kart.
Phineas did manage to beat Ferb eventually, though he wasn’t quite sure if his brother just threw the race so that they could finally go to bed.
-
The results of Sunday morning’s scan showed that Phineas’ DNA was almost completely back to normal. He had lost most of his bonus height overnight, and his regular clothes fit him well.
His hair had also seemingly been cut half off, leaving him with a choppy-bob hairstyle, which took Candace some time to work out how to style to keep it out of her brother’s face.
They were still in Candace’s room when Isabella knocked on the door, and so Ferb answered to the raven-haired girl, and silently led her up the stairs.
As soon as Phineas saw their friend enter the bedroom, he greeted her with a “whatcha doin’?” Which would have been answered with a glare had it been anyone but Phineas who said it.
When the girl noticed her crush’s seemingly dramatic haircut, she couldn’t help but say “please tell me you didn’t use a broken bit of mirror.”
Candace, who understood the reference, shot back a “I bet you were half expecting his hair to be brunette, weren’t you?” with a grin.
Ferb, who had also clocked onto what they were talking about, simply snorted in amusement, while Phineas had a confused frown on his face.
“Don’t worry, Sunshine.” Isabella reassured him. “We’ll watch Tangled another day.”
-
With the combined hairstyling expertise of both Candace and Isabella, it wasn’t much longer before they had managed to tame Phineas’ hair into something that would stay out of his face. Which everyone was glad of, because he was starting to get antsy about not building anything yet, and the fidgeting was beginning to make it difficult for the girls to work.
But they made it outside just as Buford and Baljeet walked through the garden gate, arguing about what the combination of the seasons of spring and summer would be.
“If summer and winter made ’S’Winter, and summer and fall is ’S’Fall’, then it has to be S’Spring!” Buford argued.
“Buford, that does not roll off the tongue in the same way!” Baljeet challenged. “It would be called ‘Spr’ummer’ - summer is before both fall and winter, but spring is before summer, therefore it should come first in the amalgamation of the names!”
Overhearing the argument, Phineas looked at Ferb and Isabella with a smile. The green haired boy had already found the blueprints, and held them up, right as both Phineas and Isabella simultaneously said “Ferb, I know what we’re going to do today!”
With Isabella chiming in with a “hey, where’s Perry?” right after.
-
Spr’ummer - the decided upon name, winning 4 votes to 1 - mostly involved a lot of blossom. They realised pretty quickly that spring and summer were rather similar to each other, especially in the almost perpetually sunny Danville, and the main difference was blossom. Which was rather pretty, in Isabella’s opinion.
Still, they had their fun playing in the mountains of petals, but all too soon - and much earlier than usual - a giant hair dryer dangling by its cord from a passing UFO blew the blossom out of the backyard.
As they gathered around the tree afterwards, wondering what to do with the rest of the day, Isabella noted that a few petals had been left behind in Phineas’s hair. She took a step to stand behind him, and began to pick the petals out one by one, and all the while he continued to explain his idea to the others.
It was at that moment that Candace exited the house, having been out on a date with Jeremy that morning. She noticed that Isabella was touching Phineas’s hair, and called over to them.
“If Phineas and Isabella want to stop flirting, Jeremy’s band is performing this afternoon, and he wanted me to ask if you all wanted to come along.”
The pair in question blushed, Isabella moving her hands away as though burned. There was a chorus of agreement from Buford and Baljeet, and Ferb simply nodded.
And so the group found themselves at Jeremy and the Incidentals’ concert in the park later that day, jumping around and enjoying the music.
-
It was a great day, and as Phineas and Ferb tucked themselves into bed later that night, Phineas asked his brother a question.
“Hey Ferb, what did Candace mean about me and Isabella flirting earlier today?”
The green-haired boy blinked in surprise, having assumed that the oblivious red-head had missed their sister’s teasing comment.
“Maybe you should ask her about it in the morning.” The Brit finally answered.
“I think I will! Thanks Ferb! Goodnight! And goodnight Perry!”
Phineas finally climbed into bed, and fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.
Ferb, however, got his phone out and sent a text to their neighbour across the street.
‘You’ll be pleased to know that Phineas was asking about the flirting between the pair of you before the concert.’
He was pretty sure he could hear Isabella’s squeal only seconds later. Phineas slept through it.
-
Monday morning, the boys awoke with their usual early alarm, and Ferb immediately got his scanner out to check his brother’s DNA. It was completely back to normal, and so he was back to himself once more.
“I will miss the bow.” He lamented while grabbing his clothes to get dressed for the day. “I liked matching with Isabella.”
“You can always wear one anyway.” Ferb informed him. “Though you might want to get a clip on one, I don’t think your short hair will allow the entire ribbon to stay in place.”
“True!” Phineas smiled, looking at the orange ribbon that his sister had tied into his hair only a few days before. “Maybe Candace will have one, I’ll ask when I talk to her about yesterday!”
And with that, Phineas left their bedroom, heading for their sister’s room. He knocked, and waited for the girl to answer the door. She did so pretty quickly, though she was still in her pyjamas.
“Back to yourself completely, I see!” She said in lieu of a greeting. “You’ll not need mine or Isabella’s hairstyling skills anymore, I guess.”
“The scan said my DNA is 100% back to normal.” Phineas explained, his usual smile stretching across his face. “But I did want to see if you had a clip on bow I could use from time to time, I liked matching with Isabella!”
Candace smirked at his comment. “That’s a very couple-y thing to do, you know, matching with someone.”
At this, Phineas furrowed his brow. “That reminds me, I wanted to ask you what you meant yesterday when you said Isabella and I were flirting?”
Candace looked confused at his question. “I meant that the pair of you were flirting, duh.”
“No, we weren’t flirting!”
“I hate to break it to you, Phin, but even if you weren’t flirting, Isabella definitely was. I have it on good authority.”
The boy furrowed his brow once more. “Why would Isabella be flirting with me?”
“Well, Phineas, when one person has a crush on another person and they want that person to know about it, they generally will flirt to let them know without having to state it outright…”
Phineas’s eyes grew wide. “Isabella has a crush on me?!”
He said this so loudly that Ferb had heard it from their bedroom, and the green-haired boy raced to poke his head around the open doorframe, a questioning look on his face.
Candace knew what their brother was thinking. “He asked about her flirting!” She explained, gesturing at Phineas with both hands. The orange clip on bow that she’d found flicked out of her hand and fell at the red-haired boy’s feet.
He picked up the bow, and looked at it silently for a few seconds.
“Isabella has a crush on me?” Phineas asked, practically a whisper this time.
His siblings both nodded, suspecting that he needed a bit of time to process this information.
Suddenly, Phineas smiled brightly, looking towards his siblings as he clipped the orange bow into his short hair.
“Well, I know what I’m gonna do today!”
-
Candace managed to convince Phineas to eat some breakfast before rushing off to see Isabella. And so, it was once again while the three siblings were eating that they heard a knock on the door, knowing that it was Isabella coming over for the day.
“Well, she’s even earlier today.” Candace mused, while Phineas practically fell out of his seat in his rush to answer the front door.
“Want to play some more Mario Kart while Phineas gets his girlfriend?” Ferb asked his sister.
“Oh you’re going down!” Candace grinned.
-
Isabella was always greeted pretty enthusiastically at the Flynn-Fletcher house, but Phineas’ greeting that morning was exuberant. She was far from complaining though, especially when the greeting came with a tight hug, a giant smile, and a cheery “Isabella!”
The girl hugged back, a matching grin on her face, as she greeted her crush.
“Hi Phineas, whatcha doin’?”
The redhead grabbed one of her hands, and led her through the house towards the garden. “Just waiting for you!”
She notice Candace and Ferb in front of the TV, evidently in the middle of a tense game of Mario Kart, and wondered what Phineas’s plan was.
They soon found themselves standing at the base of the tree, and the boy gestured for the pair of them to sit. Isabella sat first crossing her legs criss-cross-apple-sauce, and Phineas matched her position, so close that their knees brushed with the slightest of movement.
Isabella waited patiently for Phineas to explain what was going on, tilting her head to the side slightly in question.
“Isabella, do you have a crush on me?” He asked, as he reached over to hold both of her hands.
The fireside girl practically snatched her hands away as though burned, but tried to style it out by pretending to stretch. Phineas furrowed his brow slightly at the rejection, and instead started to fiddle with the grass between his crossed legs. He found a daisy and smiled slightly as he plucked it out of the ground.
“Um, why would you ask that, Phineas?” She stuttered after a few moments, crossing her arms across her chest and hugging herself slightly.
“Because Candace said you were flirting with me yesterday because you have a crush on me!” He explained, and offered the daisy to the girl with a smile. “And I was hoping she was right.”
Isabella’s eyes brightened, and the smile returned to her face as she accepted the flower.
“She’s right.” The girl confirmed, nodding her head. “I have for a while.”
“I am so oblivious!” Phineas lamented, throwing his arms out to the side.
“Just a bit!” Isabella giggled, reaching out to grab one of his outstretched hands. “But that makes you you, and I wouldn’t have you any other way.”
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