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"Summer belongs to you!"
The backyard was utterly bouncing with the bombastic beats of the party after their most seized day yet. Phineas was belting out his jubilant voice into every line, fueled by relief and plain ol' happiness.
He was especially glad to see Candace so happy, even after all the doubting she had done. Phineas wanted the best for his cool sister, and he was glad he didn't let her down when it counted. Even still, he really wanted to apologize for yelling at her later. It hadn't sat well with him, even if it was necessary at the time.
"Hey, Candace!"
Even through the loud (not too loud, wouldn't want to upset their parents) sounds of the music, Jeremy's voice cut through to the stage. The boy kept singing as usual, but the teenager replied back with a surprised "Jeremy!"
Phineas watched the conversation with vague interest, knowing they had left off calling each other boyfriend and girlfriend back in Paris. A glance over towards his best friend showed him that he wasn't the only one watching.
It was hard to pick up what they were saying over the volume, but one word stuck out and practically reverberated through his triangular head.
"This."
With his tug and a kiss, Phineas could only stare for a moment and then grin. Romance IS a foregone conclusion in Paris!
With Ferb's transition into an octave shift, he went for one more round of the chorus with fervor, leaping next to the one who made all this possible.
Isabella.
She wouldn't ever let him give up on his dream, even when he himself was about to give up his entire summer. He really remembered why she was the leader of the Fireside Girls after that — she was born to inspire action in just about anyone. She really was the greatest girl he could ever ask for.
On pure instinct, he held his hand out towards her. She eyed his hand with a glimmer in her eyes before gently extending her hand out. Phineas just grasped it and began bouncing, heart feeling fuller than he ever had in his entire life.
Summer is the best, he decided at last while staring at her radiant smile.
"Summer doesn't feel very good," a teenaged Phineas blurted one morning while laying on the tree.
Ferb's face didn't change, but he had never whipped his head around so quickly before. Phineas would've had a hearty laugh about the reaction any other time. Any other time. Instead, he just felt even more sheepish under his brother's scrutiny.
Even he wasn't sure why he felt this way all of a sudden. Up to a week ago, he had been anticipating summer so much when they ended the school year. Isabella was super busy for most of the year, sure, but he figured that a subterranean log ride to the core of the planet and a day at an intergalactic arcade would be a great pair of activities to start the weekend of summer.
But when it came time for both the log ride and the arcade, she just... never turned up. He later got a text from her saying that she couldn't show up because she was going to be too busy working at the café and that she was really sorry.
Phineas, ever the optimist, attempted to move on with his summer anyway, but his energy dwindled significantly within the last few days. Everyone could tell.
His musing was cut short by a shove on the shoulder, snapping his attention towards his brother. Ferb then rolled his hand around. Go on.
"Uh, well, I dunno, it's just," he muttered while the green-haired teenager immediately gave him an incredibly deadpan look.
They both knew very well how much Ferb disliked the use of filler words when talking.
"Something's missing."
Ferb relaxed his expression again, then turned away from him and settled on the tree again. "Someone is missing."
Phineas couldn't even say anything in response. He just leaned back even further on his tree and quietly agreed with him.
It took a real embarrassing session of spilling these weird feelings to his sister currently in college to find the diagnosis on what was going on with him.
"Phineas, I'm pretty sure you're in love with her."
He nearly tossed the phone in how much he physically sputtered about.
"Welcome to being the last one to have found out, kiddo," she joked.
"But- whuh- this is what love feels like?"
"The angsty part of it, yeah."
He didn't know what to say in response to that, so he didn't.
"Listen, you basically have this part of the love process easier than everyone else I know," Candace declared, as commanding as a lawyer ought to be. "Well, except Stacy, I guess. I still have no idea how she managed to get with Coltrane without a single fuss nor mess at any point. They're so lowkey about it, too, I barely ever hear her talk about him. Obviously, I know better, and they're totes endgame — we'll probably get ourselves a double wedding before the end of our time in college and--"
"Can we help out?"
"I told you boys a million times, back off from getting your crazy on my wedding! I got this." She scoffed when she heard him snap his fingers in an unsaid dang. "And like I was gonna say, you got this part down so easy. Just ask her out. Heck, you could probably kiss her and she'd die on the spot."
"...Like you and Jeremy?"
Now Candace was the one reeling. "You saw that? Wait, you remember that?!"
"Well, yeah, romance was a foregone conclusion and all," he answered like that was obvious. "I was really happy for you when I saw that."
"Riiight, and didn't you hold Isabella's hand and dance with her afterwards?"
"Yes, yes I did," he answered, like he wasn't thinking about that every single second. The warmth soothing through his entire being and his heart feeling full every time they'd held each other throughout his entire life. The glimmer in her eyes, the cascade of black hair, the pink pink pink.
Isabella had been such a presence in his life that he didn't realize how vividly he loved her until she was gone. His awesome sister really was onto something.
"Candace, I'm pretty sure I'm in love with her."
"We established that," she retorted without skipping a beat. "Now go kiss her and stop bothering me, I'm writing my dissertation."
"Well," Isabella said at last, staring at the letter with the emblem of the Tri-State State on it. "I guess I'll see you in two weeks?"
She gave that tentative smile again and he was hopelessly smitten for her all over again. He hoped he sounded a little cool when he answered with a grin. "Yes. Yes, you will."
Then everyone else showed up, clapped and cheered for them, and way too soon it was time for the love of his life to drive back to college.
They hugged, they wished each other well, they bantered and teased, but only when Ferb came to pat him on the back did he realize he completely forgot to kiss her and make her die on the spot. Or call her his girlfriend. Or all the other romance things he heard and saw.
Two honks instantly gave him his greatest idea yet.
All Phineas could think while he rode on the back of Vanessa's car was how much of a plum idiot he had been. He couldn't believe how close he was to losing the best thing he could've ever had. All because of a coincidence in their timing. How serendipitous, indeed.
But, finally, things settled into place and Phineas felt more optimistic for his future than he had in years.
Now he just had one last thing they were missing.
"There's Isabella," Vanessa spoke up. "A red light, too. Perfect."
"A good thing indeed," Ferb mused out loud. "I doubt she would appreciate a much cooler car tailgating her own."
"I wouldn't have tailgated her," she argued in faux-offense. "I would have driven up next to her and honked at her until she got the hint."
Ferb let out a low snort, but Phineas was too focused on the magenta minivan in front of them and the mission he was about to pull off.
He saw her smiling and totally unaware, and he immediately pulled off the seatbelt and leapt over towards her window.
"Phineas?!"
She pulled the window down halfway, but then seemed to decide against staying in the car and just got out anyway to meet him on the street.
"What are you doing?"
...Well, he figured it worked with Jeremy all those years ago. Maybe romance hasn't changed much in the years since then.
Tugging her face towards his with his hands, he only said a singular word before he pulled their lips together.
"This."
Upon realizing that the other two had totally ditched him, Isabella just laughed and offered him a ride back home. He declined delaying her any longer, however, and instead insisted on joining her in the ride to the campus.
"You'll still have to go back at some point, y'know," she eventually said as the minivan passed by the Leaving Danville sign for the second time that day.
"Yeah, but did you really think I'd wait two weeks for this?"
She giggled a lovely sound. "I'd thought that didn't sound like the Phineas Flynn I fell in..."
Phineas held in a silent breath.
"...to this relationship with," she finished with a smirk that then faltered a beat later. "...Right?"
"I dunno, girlfriend. Are you sure?"
"Plenty sure if you are, boyfriend."
"Good." He held out his hand. "That's good."
This time, she was not gentle when she snatched his hand like she'd been waiting for years, but his heart remained as full as ever when her warmth seemed to spread throughout his whole body.
Maybe it was never about summer, he decided at last while staring at her radiant smile.
Maybe it was always about her.
"Don't think I didn't catch you totally ripping off Jeremy, by the way."
"...Shoot."
"Don't you worry your little head about it. I kinda always dreamed of being the Candace to your Jeremy."