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Vanessa checked the clock. He should've been here by now. Casting one last glance over herself in the mirror, and straightening the shoulders of her cropped leather jacket, she sighed before turning to leave her bedroom. "Dad," she called out, "did you hear the door?"
"No... Were you expecting someone, Pumpkin?" The tone was too innocent to be real, and that he was glaring at the door to the penthouse was a dead giveaway if it wasn't.
"You know he'll just stand in the hall until someone opens it, right?"
"I know." He sighed, turning to face her. "I don't know what you see in that hoodlum."
"He's not a hoodlum, Dad." If anyone she'd dated had been a hoodlum, it would've been Johnny. And Dad had fully supported that relationship.
"I bet he has tattoos."
"He does not have tattoos." She didn't bother to keep the exasperation out of her voice. The closest he'd ever gotten to a tattoo was a Space Adventure press on. If anything, her boyfriend was a geek.
"I saw that line on his shoulder-"
"That was a scar, Dad." She walked closer, taking one of his gesturing hands in her. She ran a thumb over the convincing but artificial skin. "Accidents happen."
He faltered. "I know." His hand twisted in her grip, squeezing back. "But mistakes happen too. You're my Baby Girl, I don't want you making one."
"Trust me, I'm not."
"Camford on Oxbury, huh?" Vanessa brushed her hand along the picnic blanket, knocking a few ants away before they could reach the repacked basket. "You do know that it sounds like a wizard school."
"It is not a wizard school." Ferb stared up at her from where he was laying, hands pillowed behind his head.
"Phineas said it was."
He snorted. "Phineas still thinks Mishti is a werewolf."
"Who's that again?" She remembered very well who she was, and Ferb clearly knew she knew, but went with it anyway, his smooth voice immediately beginning to recount their first meeting with her. He spoke so easily when they were together, and she knew there weren't many he did that with.
But she was his. And he was hers.
And speaking was one of his ways of proving it.
Vanessa left Steam Noir with her cappuccino in hand. It was a good thing her mom was rich, otherwise, there was no way she'd be able to afford it everyday on top of her college expenses. She just taken a sip when the sight across the street caught her attention.
She choked.
A brief coughing fit later, she gave it a second look.
The girl was just as all over Ferb as her first glimpse had suggested.
Now, Vanessa didn't consider herself one to jump to conclusions. But she'd been here before. Minding her own business and finding her boyfriend, finding Monty, shoving his tongue down some random woman's throat.
Practice, he'd called it. He wanted to be a spy. Having to seduce a woman or two was part of the job.
So much for being the good guy.
But Ferb wasn't like that.
And the longest she looked, the more she saw the tension in his stance, the way his hands hovered in front of him, blocking her from completely pressing herself against him and to the wall behind. He was silent, but his dark eyebrows were doing rather impressive gymnastics at whatever it was she was saying.
Ferb wasn't small in any way. It was be easy for him to shove past her. But he'd have to shove her.
His mouth opened, the words lost to her.
It didn't seem to help if the flash of annoyance across his face was anything to go off of.
Her feet were moving before she'd consciously decided it.
"-another chance." The girl's voice was soft, alluring. Ferb wasn't having any of it. His eyes flicked up, catching hers. His eyes lit up, his mouth twisted into what would be a goofy smile on anyone else but was barely a parting of the lips for him.
"Hey, babe." The greeting rolled off her tongue.
The girl's head snapped towards her. Oh, that girl had a powerful glare. But Vanessa had faced worse. She stared back impassively.
"Vanessa." No one else had ever put as much into her name as he did. It made her wonder how it took her so long to realize how strongly he felt for her.
Then again, the age gap made her think it was only puppy love for a very long time.
"Bit old, isn't she?" The girl light tone was at odds with her face.
Vanessa had a come back on her lips when Ferb spoke, "No." There was no defense, no excuses, just a single word drenched in honesty.
They were both legal. Their feelings were real.
It might be hard to hear others doubts, but no one could take it from them.