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“I still don’t get why Candace chose you to look after Amanda,” Phineas said, lightly tickling his niece. “I’m her uncle. ”
Isabella laughed. “And I’m a former Fireside Girl with over twenty patches related to handling emergencies. Besides, I think Candace made her reasoning very clear.”
Phineas thought back to his sister’s speech– “ No shenanigans and no hijinks of any kind, Phineas!”– and figured Isabella was right. That didn’t mean he couldn’t take a tiny bit of offense. Once again, he was Amanda’s uncle. And he was hardly the eleven-year-old kid Candace chased down back in the day.
“What do you think, Mandy?” he asked, “Do you think Uncle Phin is responsible?”
Amanda, rather comically, turned her head to face Isabella with a seemingly bewildered expression. She cooed and extended her arms towards her, a universal sign that Phineas should hand her over.
“Rude.”
Isabella laughed again, taking Amanda in her arms. “I can’t help it if she likes me better. Don’t you Mandy? Isn’t Auntie Izzy the very best?”
Amanda made some delighted noises. Isabella looked over at her boyfriend in triumph. “See?”
“Is this you volunteering to take diaper duty indefinitely?”
“No, this is me gloating.”
Phineas chuckled as he watched Amanda tug at Isabella’s dark hair. He hadn’t babysat much before (consequence of being the youngest sibling) and he hadn’t known what to expect. He’d figured he would enjoy it, if only because baby Amanda was so great and spending time with Isabella always made him happy, but he hadn’t expected how much fun it was.
Most of it was because Isabella lit up differently around small kids. He had seen it happen before when she was volunteering around the Lil’ Sparks, and it was doubly true around Amanda. It warmed his heart to see her giggle and smile so freely.
(And there was also the fact that she referred to herself as Auntie Izzy. As small and probably irrelevant as it was, it still made his heart flip.)
Isabella excused herself to go to the bathroom, handing him his niece at last. At that point, she was already fussing in the way that indicated there was a nap in her near future, so Phineas settled her in her rocking chair, waiting until she was drowsy enough to be properly put to bed.
Maybe he could invent a rocking chair that could become suitable for sleep. He’d have to brainstorm with Ferb later. Maybe it could be a Mother’s Day present for Candace.
Deep into his consideration, he barely noticed as Isabella settled right next to him on the couch, nestling her head on his shoulder. They had always been kind of touchy– a little less once they hit their teens– but two years of dating had made them much more comfortable with each other. It was all the magic and rush from unexpected physical contact without any of the doubts about what it could mean.
“No emergencies while I was gone?” she asked teasingly.
“Surprisingly, I could handle it.”
There was a bit of silence. Not uncomfortable, not awkward, just… homely. Kind of perfect. It was one of those moments where his ever-buzzing brain went quiet, still in a peaceful way. Phineas attributed it to the presence of his lovely girlfriend. He planted a kiss on the top of her head. They stayed there for a few minutes.
“I’m gonna check on the cookies,” she said. “Can you put Amanda to sleep? She looks drowsy enough.”
“Of course.”
Phineas still couldn’t wrap his head around how big Amanda had gotten. It seemed like just yesterday he was at the hospital, congratulating his sister and meeting his niece for the first time. She had been so small then, Phineas could’ve carried her with one arm, easy. And now she was six-months-old and teething. Time had really flown by.
Getting her to sleep was shockingly simple. He knew Amanda tended to be an easy baby– Candace and Jeremy both gushed about it to no end– but it still surprised him. He might’ve not been her “favorite” (there was time to fix that), but she didn’t give him any trouble. When Isabella came back with the cookies, Amanda was already sound asleep.
“What do you know, we make a pretty great team,” Isabella said softly, punctuating her sentence with a kiss. And of course they did. They were Phineas and Isabella. “Cookie?”
“Yes, please,” he said. They sat together and enjoyed the treat quietly. Isabella sat right across from him, looking as cute and Isabella-like as ever, and it got Phineas mulling over the “Auntie Izzy” thing again.
Because sure, family friends went by “Aunt” or “Uncle”. That was normal, expected.
But with Isabella being his girlfriend, it just got him thinking about his future. About how badly he wanted her in it. And how it could be possible, too. They were kids, still, but Phineas had never doubted for a second that she was it for him. How could he settle down with anyone else when she existed?
“Whatcha thinkin’?” she asked him, voice still barely above a whisper.
Nothing much, just how in a few years we could be doing this exact thing at our own place, after spending the day with our own kid, he thought. “How beautiful you are.”
Isabella scrunched her nose, though it didn’t hide the fact that she was blushing. “I have chocolate on my face, don’t I?”
“Right on the corner of your mouth,” he said. “Let me get that for you.”
He leaned in and kissed the small smudge away. Isabella chuckled. “You sap.”
Phineas grinned. “You love me for it.”
“Yeah, I do,” she said, rolling her eyes fondly.
“I love you,” he said. Once upon a time, he would’ve kept it in, said it under his breath or not at all. But Isabella was used to his impromptu declarations. She just smiled, eyes sparkling.
“I know.”
And at that moment, Phineas was distinctly aware he was the luckiest guy in the world.