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Ice cream had always been their thing. It started that summer, THE summer, when she had to get her tonsils out. Then there was the moon ice cream, which had always seemed like their mission. One of their things. She was the one who always came with him and Ferb when they needed to restock for the group, and soon Phineas started associating the trip with some of his happiest moments, swapping stories and making new memories with his brother and best friend. And then there was her birthday, that same fateful summer. Ice cream served as an apology in a way, a sorry that the giant sundae didn’t work out and then a sorry for the birthday surprise that fell flat. Phineas was well-acquainted with their plans going awry. After all, every single one of their big ideas inexplicably ended up disappearing, flying away or even dancing away from their backyard. He didn’t understand why it bothered him so much, though, when Isabella was involved. He wanted her birthday to be perfect, no space harpies or random green rays from the sky allowed. But that hadn’t happened, and he felt bad. So he fell back on the apology method that had always worked before.
Ice cream.
So, today, when Isabella’s face fell, when she cast her eyes down to her shoes and shuffled off towards Gretchen and Holly, the first thought that popped into Phineas’ head was: Ice cream.
They’d been talking about the Night of the Falling stars dance. It confused Phineas that she seemed to be stuttering a bit on her words as they discussed what they thought would be different about it this year. Phineas told her all about the new features on the StarGazer 3000, which would give them the normal rain showers of stars but now had customizable settings, so they could spell people’s names and write messages in the sky. Although the simplicity of shooting stars was nice, Danville had asked the two boys to rig up a backup just in case the meteorological timing was off. No one wanted a repeat of the Night of the Falling Nothing from four years ago.
Another tradition along with the StarGazer 3000 was Isabella’s presence at the said event, and Phineas was looking forward to the dance portion of it more and more every year. It was an excuse to hold her close and get one-on-one attention from his crush, without her suspecting him of anything more than platonic swaying. He could only break into spontaneous singing and take her hand so many times before the ex-Fireside Girls and backyard gang started asking very personal and embarrassing questions.
What Phineas hadn’t expected, though, was to see Isabella’s face fall and her eyes dart away from his face when he asked when he and Ferb should show up at the Garcia-Shapiro front door.
Maybe he said something wrong, maybe he overstepped a bit in assuming she wouldn’t be going with anyone. He knew Baljeet had harbored a short-lived crush on her when they were younger, and Phineas was sure others had as well. It was funny, their other friends seemed to have these passing fancies as they went along, even Ferb, but Isabella stayed steadily out of it. She never mentioned anyone special, never seemed to suffer from butterflies and lovelorn gazes. As far as Phineas knew, he was the only one who even gave her long hugs and held her hand and did the things crushes usually do. He knew why that was, but he wasn’t about to point it out to Isabella and have her notice how his cheeks got dusted in a rosy pink that clashed with his hair every time she unconsciously scooted closer to him and he casually threw an arm behind her. They were best friends, after all. Best friend could do those thing. Right?
But he didn’t want to assume that just because they shared these moments, it meant she couldn’t go off and share something with someone else, too. The thought made him want to go in a rage similar to the “Get on the Trike!” incident, but it wasn’t not like his undying and ever-present love for her was her fault. Other than being too sweet and cute and amazing and smart, she didn’t do anything wrong by being his everything.
So whatever it was that made her face fall, Phineas knew he must have had something to do with it. It was weird, she was his best friend in everything but this. He couldn’t very well call her up and say, “Hey, I have this huge, embarrassing crush on you that makes me overthink every single interaction we have, wanna clear up what happened earlier so I can stop thinking you hate me?” No, another person had to be privy to those thoughts, and luckily, she just so happened to be on speed dial.
“Phineas?” Candace snapped, forgoing any greeting.
“Hey sis.” He said, rubbing his neck and suddenly feeling a bit stupid. He was clearly interrupting some important law school activity of hers.
“What’s wrong? Are you hurt? Did you accidentally switch dimensions again?” Voices in the background seemed to be calling Candace back, but she shushed them.
“No, no. Still in the country and the first dimension, all good.” He told her.
“You never call without texting first, what’s really going on?” Candace asked.
“It’s, well, it’s rather stupid, really. I didn’t mean to bother you, I was talking to Isabella—“
He stopped when he heard Candace scream, “We’re taking a five minute break!” on the other side of the call.
“I can call back later…” He told her, but the words were lost in another mix of sounds as more background noise filled the crackling of the phone.
“Oh no, don’t worry. It’s not like they can continue the mock debate without me, they’d have no opposition.”
“Candace—“
“Anyways, tell me more about this conversation with Isabella.” She said, tone resolute.
Phineas smiled a bit despite how truly ridiculous he felt. Still, he appreciated how Candace always put him and Ferb first, even if it meant ruffling some feathers. Learning that it’s okay not to be liked by everyone was something he was still trying to grasp, but having a sister like Candace definitely made it easier.
“We were talking about the Night of the Falling Stars dance.”
She groaned on the other side of the phone.
“Phineas, don’t tell me you and Ferb are going with her again.”
His stomach gave a flip, confirming his earlier doubts.
“We are. I’m worried, she seemed upset, and now I think we’ve set this precedent of going together and I assumed and maybe I made her sad because she wants to go with someone else, you know, as a date but she can’t because she feels like she has to go with us.”
Candace only groaned louder.
“What, do you think I’m right?” He asked, balancing the phone on his shoulder and walking to the the bench outside of the school. He still had a couple of minutes before Ferb got out of his meeting about implementing Swiss education methodologies in the math classrooms, and this was a conversation he was hoping to have before his brother came back. As much as he loved and trusted Ferb with every single part of his life, he didn’t want to make things awkward for his brother since Isabella was such a permanent fixture in the Flynn-Fletcher household. Plus, he was worried Ferb might get it in his head that he should do something about the situation and that definitely couldn’t happen.
“Yes and no, Phineas.” Candace answered. “I do think Isabella wanted to switch things up this year, but not in the way you’re suggesting. She probably wanted to go with you, sans our British brother.”
Phineas blinked.
“You think she’s mad at Ferb?” He asked.
He couldn’t place exactly how he knew, but he was sure his sister facepalmed at him for that last statement.
“No, I think she’s probably getting sick of having a third wheel. Patience of a saint, really. She wants to go with you and only you. Which makes sense since she’s been in love with you for YEARS now.”
This was a common argument between the two of them and Phineas sighed, rubbing his neck again.
“Candace, look, I know you have this idea that she used to like me—“
“She told me herself.” Candace confirmed, and he imagined himself at the stand with Candace in front of him, presenting her case.
“Okay, maybe she said some things that made you think that, but even if that was true when we were kids it’s been so long. She doesn’t like me, I can just tell. I’m completely in the friendzone, which is fine, but if I’m in the friendzone I am going to make the absolute best of it.”
“Phineas, she’s been trying to ask you to go to this specific dance with her ever since you were kids. Remember the summer I accidentally took the shuttle to space? She spent the entire day talking about it!”
Phineas swapped hands holding the phone, looking around to make sure Ferb and none of his other classmates were around.
“Yes, and she did. As friends. She asked me and Ferb because Isabella has only ever thought of me as a friend. That’s beside the point though, I’m calling because now I need to make her feel better. I need ice cream.”
There was silence on the other end of the line.
“Ice cream?” Candace finally asked.
“Yeah, ice cream. Specifically, our moon ice cream. Cookies and Cream, if you have it. I don’t have time for a trip to the moon and we ran out a week ago, so if you have any left in your freezer…”
“Yeah, I got it. When do you need it by? Do you wanna teleport to my apartment?”
“Can’t, no transcontinental trips without 48 hours notice and expressed permission after the rooster incident.”
“Oh yeah, mom told me about that. Give it two weeks and I’m sure the mayor’s eyebrows will grow back and they’ll loosen up a bit.”
Phineas smiled. He had a feeling Candace was right, but only because their sister regularly intervened to make sure none of their antics were too stifled by their mom’s protective nature. It was quite a change from their early years, but it seemed like when their mom starting taking a more active part in regulating their inventions, Candace naturally fell into a different role. The opposition, even.
“So yeah, for now we’ll have to keep our visits to Boston to a minimum.”
“Alright, I’ll run over now.”
“Oh, no, finish the debate first—“
“Nah, it was too easy anyways. Maybe this will give the other side some time to get their stuff together. Should get it to you in about fifteen minutes.”
“Perfect, you’re the best sister ever.” Phineas gushed.
“You know it.” She answered. “Love you, bro.”
“Love you, sis.”
He hung up, buzzing in his seat. Ice cream had never failed him before and he had to trust that it would work this time around.
…
If Ferb thought it was weird that a carton of ice cream magically materialized in Phineas’ hands as soon as they got home, he didn’t saying anything. If he thought it was weird that Phineas wrapped said carton of ice cream in a bow and spent forty minutes on a letter he attached to it, he still said nothing. And now, as they stood on the doorstep of Isabella’s house and Phineas kept bouncing up and down on the balls of his feel, he still didn’t say anything. He was a firm believer that one couldn’t force these things, but his brother’s behavior had gotten increasingly more… attentive to Isabella, and he was going to lose it soon if the couple didn’t figure things out. Regardless of what Isabella said, Ferb was still pretty sure she was in love with his brother and she deserved for Phineas to be the one to tell her the feelings were reciprocated. Plus, it’s not like they would be able to go through all of high school without someone figuring it out. They weren’t that oblivious.
…Right?
So no, Ferb kept to his stoic, British ways and Isabella opened the door and looked down at the parcel in Phineas’ hands. His brother and friend both blushed scarlet as he explained how she seemed down and he had called Candace to get the ice cream because it was her favorite. Ferb couldn’t help but scoff when Phineas mentioned scribbling a quick card and attaching it, and his brother shot him a look. Thankfully for Phineas, though, Isabella seemed too touched to notice this, and ran back inside for spoons.
Phineas pointedly looked away, begging his brother not to say anything. He didn’t need to, keeping quiet was Ferb’s speciality and the guilty look on his brother’s face was confirmation enough.
Isabella returned with three spoons and the three of them sat on her stoop, diving into the now melted ice cream and coming up with different constellation ideas for their stars.
Ferb, ever the wingman, soon made an excuse to scuttle off into the night, leaving the two lovebirds to their devices.
It was several minutes before Phineas realized his brother had made a getaway. He was alone, sharing ice cream with Isabella, and would most likely be entering the dance with just her. They would look like a couple. It would almost be like she asked him and they were going on a date. His heart couldn’t handle that.
“Oh, I—uh, didn’t notice, Ferb. He left.”
Isabella gave him an unceremonious “Yep!” and kept at the ice cream. He thought he saw a blush creep up on her cheeks, but it was dark, so who’s really to say.
“Did you, um, wanna go? You know, to the dance?”
Isabella’s hand hovered over the carton, spoon dangling over the edge.
“You’re asking me?”
“Yes.”
“To go to the dance?”
“Yes.”
“With you?”
“Yes.”
She stared at him, eyes a bit wider than normal and the spoon finally slipped out of her grip. Phineas dove forward to grab it but only managed to tip the container in the process, spilling it all over his hands.
They looked at each other for a moment until Isabella let out a squeak and jumped up.
“Napkins!” She called out and then unceremoniously ran inside of her house.
She came back looking like she was glowing, as if getting napkins was the most cherished activity in the world. Phineas smiled down at the mess in front of him. Only Isabella could make something like spilling ice cream fun. He knew the ice cream would work, she always loved it when they got ice cream together.
Isabella grabbed her hands in his, cleaning up some of the melted chocolate. She stopped all of sudden, staring off into space. Her hands were still firmly over his, absentmindedly rubbing his thumb and Phineas tried to get a grip on himself.
“We’re going as friends, aren’t we?”
Phineas tore his eyes from their hands, blinking a bit to gather himself.
“What?”
“To the dance. We’re going as friends.”
“Yeah, of course. If that’s what you want.”
She pursed her lips.
“But the two of us? What about Ferb?”
“Well, he was going with us. But he kind of gave up that privilege when he disappeared. So it looks like you’re stuck with me.”
Isabella narrowed her eyes at him, but didn’t let go of his hands. He gulped.
“Okay, so let me get this straight, the two of us, me and you, you and me, are going to the dance together?” She paused, and then added as an afterthought. “As friends?”
Phineas stared at her, trying to make sure he didn’t say the wrong thing again.
“Yes.” He finally answered, wondering how much longer he could milk the handholding thing without it becoming obvious that the friends part of this arrangement was much more on her side than his.
Isabella seemed to be weighing something in her mind and then shrugged.
“I’ll take it.”
She finally pulled away, taking the ice cream, spoons and napkins back inside.
Yeah, Phineas thought, still feeling a distinct tingling in his fingers. I’m definitely gonna need to call Candace after this.
Isabella came back, still beaming at him.
“Can we sit here a bit longer though? Do you need to go for the show?”
Phineas patted the spot next to him and she sat down, inching a bit closer. He thought about Candace yelling at her group earlier, and drew a bit of Flynn recklessness from it.
“It’s okay. Ferb knows how to do it.” Phineas told her, and though he couldn’t say how he knew, he suddenly realized that maybe that’s why Ferb had slipped away.
If Phineas noticed how Isabella scooted closer and closer, he didn’t say anything. I mean, he wasn’t about to point it out to Isabella and have her notice how his cheeks were dusted in a rosy pink that clashed with his hair. And if her cheeks looked a bid redder too, he was sure it was the shooting stars playing tricks on his eyes.
They were best friends, after all. And ice cream was their thing.