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“I don’t get it, Ferb!” Phineas declares as he plops himself down on his bed, his brother lying on his own nose-deep in a book. He abandons it for the sake of Phineas’ rant.
“Isabella seems so down lately, and I’ve tried everything I can think of to help her, but nothing’s working!” He throws his arms up theatrically to emphasize his point, Ferb is unfazed.
“Well, you did turn her down a couple days ago, my best guess is it started there.” He replies calmly. Phineas stares at him like he’s just told him the sky is red (oh, that could be a cool invention! It could change the color of anything! Sky, clouds, grass—.) “What?”
“She asked you out, you rejected her. I mean, you do that a lot, but I guess this was the straw that—“
“Wait, wait, she asked me out!?” Phineas exclaims, eyes the size of plates. Ferb shoots him a stern look for interrupting him, and he returns an apologetic one.
“Yes, Phineas. She’s been asking you out for months.” Ferb informs him, rather flatly.
Phineas is silent for a good couple of moments, mouth hanging open in shock. Then, quietly, “…She knows I’m aroace, right?”
“Nope.”
“Oh, god.”
Ferb sits up a little, clears his throat. He’s not used to talking this much, but this is certainly a conversation Phineas needs to have. “Are you going to tell her?”
The redhead sucks in an awkward breath through his teeth, fidgeting with the corner of this pillow. “…Yeah. I should, it’s..only right.”
Ferb nods.
“Good luck.”
——
It’s not until the next day that Phineas decides to tell her. He and Ferb midway through inventing, he’s tinkering with a part that’s so simple he could do it in his sleep, and Isabella gets bored of talking with Buford and Baljeet and approaches him instead.
“Hi, Phineas.” She greets, eyeing what he’s working on with less enthusiasm than usual. She doesn’t miss how his shoulders tense ever-so-slightly.
“Oh, uh, hey, Isabella.” He rubs the back of his neck, granting an awkward grin that’s far too wide.
A beat of uncomfortable silence.
“Hey, listen, I—“ They both say at once. Phineas chuckles stiffly, letting her go first.
Isabella takes a deep breath, then the words just start flowing. “Listen, I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable the other day, I didn’t mean to and I know I came off a little strong but it’s just because you mean so much to me and—“
Phineas cuts her off by standing up and taking her hands. Blush rises to her face, but she notices the solemn glint in his eyes, and it quickly fades.
“Listen, Isa. You’re super nice and cool and outgoing and you're the best friend I could ever ask for but,” He swallows hard, then, in a smaller voice, “I’m…aroace.”
Isabella mouths a wordless “oh”, wilting on the spot, eyes drifting to stare sadly at the ground. It’s like Phineas watches her heart break then and there. He winces, but squeezes her hands again, apologetic. ‘I’m sorry.’ She offers a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes, and squeezes back briefly. ‘It’s okay.’ Then she lets go, and in a blink of an eye, she’s gone.
In her absence, the backyard feels wrong, like there’s something important missing that he might never get back.
Phineas feels warmth trailing down his cheeks, then he realizes he’s crying.
“So that is when I said—.”
“Woah, hey, Dinner Bell, y’alright?”
“It’s- I’m fine. I don’t…I don’t feel like building anymore. Sorry, guys.”
Ferb’s eyes snap up from the metal he’s holding, gaze zeroing in on a crying Phineas shuffling through the sliding glass door.
He stands up instantly, going after him without so much as a glance towards the two other very confused kids in the backyard.
“…What was all that about?”
“I have no idea.”
——
“Phineas?” Ferb’s voice coaxes Phineas’s tear-stained face out of his equally tear-stained pillow, his brother looming over him with a knowing, empathetic look in his eyes. Phineas hiccups on a sob, then trades his pillow for his brother’s shoulder, throwing himself into a hug that Ferb reciprocates immediately.
“I hurt her, Ferb, I didn’t want- I didn’t mean to- I-!”
“You didn’t do anything wrong. She’s upset, and she has a right to be, but she’ll learn to move past it with time, and you’ll still be friends.” He rubs circles into Phineas’ back, helps him stabilize his breathing and tone down his sobs to quiet sniffles.
It takes him a while to calm down, but once he does Phineas pulls out of the hug to thank him, and Ferb replies that it’s no problem, and then they hug again.
“I just…I was scared she’d be mad at me.” He mumbles after a breath, picking at his blunt nails.
“She isn’t, she’s mostly disappointed, probably angry at herself. It’s natural. But, Phineas?”
“Yeah?”
“No matter what happened today, I’m proud of you.”
…
Hesitantly, gently, exhausted emotionally, Phineas smiles.
“Thanks, Ferb.”