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Phineas watched his friend with unusual calm as she brewed tea for the two of them, standing in the doorway of her kitchen. He idly glanced around the small but very cozy kitchen, decorated in dark brown tones. Compared to his spacious, bright "dining room," Isabella's kitchen was truly compact. He'd recently caught himself thinking that around this time he'd started hanging out at her place more often, although, say, when he was 10-12, such ideas hadn't crossed his mind. Of course, except for the annual grand birthday celebrations in Isabella's backyard, but just...just the two of them. Such thoughts hadn't crossed his mind. Every day was filled with large-scale construction projects, his entire triangular head was filled with information about how to spend the summer usefully and cheerfully, and now, as a 15-year-old boy, he was increasingly starting to live at his best friend's house.
Her mother often worked late into the night, and she wouldn't accept her daughter's help with the restaurant, saying, "You're still a kid, it's not time to work." (She also rejected Phineas and Ferb's detailed plan for streamlining the operation with robots and a cleaning system. I wonder why? They just want to help!). And after school and hanging out with the boys in the backyard, Isabella was often alone until late at night—well, with Pinkie, of course! So Phineas one day offered to help Isabella out. He didn't want his friend to be sad, and he also wanted to spend more time and, as rude as it might sound, take a break from construction.
It's so quiet here, so peaceful, it smells of spices, cinnamon, and something sweet and floral. Perhaps those flowers on the windowsill that Isabella was just watering are to blame, or is it the owner of the house and her perfume, which has notes of peach and something... fresh? Like grass, yes. Freshly cut grass smells delicious. And Isa smells delicious. Why, by the way, has he started thinking about this so often? Why has he started thinking about her so often? Of course, he thinks about her all the time; she's his best friend, after all, and how can he not think about his friends? He thinks about Ferb all the time, about Buford, about Baljeet... oh! Of course he thinks about Candace often, she's his friend too! So what if she's a sister? Sisters can't be friends? They can. Your family can be your friends. So why not think about Isabella? She's his friend! She's family! Even if it happens too often. Even if she appears in his dreams, looking at him with those beautiful, light-blue, almost transparent diamond eyes and telling him she loves him so much—oh, damn, damn, damn. He shouldn't dwell on that right now, not while he's visiting!
By the way, what's his best friend doing now? Oh, she's talking about the Fireside Girls meeting.
"Can you imagine, they'll assign two girls to practice with me at once!" Isabella chirped, slightly nervously, removing the kettle from the heat. He watched as a column of steam rose from the spout, rising to the ceiling and smoothly flowing into the hood. "I'm not sure I can handle teaching little ones." Her shoulders, covered by a pastel pink cardigan, hunched, and Isa clutched her forehead with her free hand.
"What about Melissa?" Phineas suddenly remembered the little Girl Scout. Her eyes were so bright, so big, and her blonde ponytails were curly. He didn't even expect himself to remember her. "I think you did a great job with her."
Isabella raised her light blue eyes to the boy, blinking a couple of times, apparently trying to process what he'd just said.
"Melissa? Pfft, my gosh," she immediately laughed. "That was a long time ago!"
"Five years ago"
Isa continued with the task she'd been distracted from, namely, pouring tea. Flynn was about three meters away from her, but even from here he could smell the scent of bergamot and mint.
"I was ten! And anyway, she spent most of her time trying to be with Candace; she earned 51 patches in one day..." the girl muttered under her breath.
"Are you mad at Candace?" Phin asked with a grin. He decided to peel himself away from the doorway and lean against the kitchen cabinet, closer to her.
"No," Isa immediately raised her head. "I'm just a little jealous." She smiled nicely, as if she weren't embarrassed by the fact. And she wasn't embarrassed. Phineas rarely saw Isabella embarrassed. Or at least he didn't notice. He was pretty… blind.
"Great," Phin chuckled. "So why are you nervous anyway? I thought teaching someone was your thing." The guy leaned his head against the cabinet, leaning against it (God, he's grown so tall he's looking down at Isabella. When did he grow so tall?)
"I love teaching! Of course," the girl instinctively puts two spoons of sugar into a white ceramic mug with a colorful inscription. "But to take responsibility for how they'll perform their duties in the future... I don't know. Especially since they're so young!"
Phineas pulled the mug toward himself by the handle with one finger and casually took it in both hands, looking at the girl with relaxed eyelids from under their lashes.
"Six, right?" the boy clarified his age and sipped his tea.
Isa nodded, pushing the curd cookies on a plate toward the boy.
Flynn looked his friend up and down, assessing her appearance. Her black hair, shimmering with a raven-blue sheen, was pulled back into a messy low bun, tied with a large pink bow (a shade darker than the bow she wore before, by the way!); a few strands had escaped and were falling over her face. A slight blush, her eyes fixed on a pink mug of tea, and her hands covering the sleeves of a cardigan several sizes too big for her, revealing only her toes. Her legs were in black leggings, and voluminous sheepskin slippers to keep her feet warm. (By the way, he has shark slippers!). And she exudes a pleasant scent of something sweet and familiar. He stares at her for too long, words caught on the tip of his tongue, as if he were about to say something stupid. She reminds him so much of someone…
"Tell me, do I look like someone who could teach two children at once?" Isabella asked nervously, turning her body completely toward him.
"I don't know how, but you look a lot like the future mother of my children," Phineas blurted out casually, calmly sipping his tea. So that's who!
Why is Isabella silent? Why such an awkward silence?
"What did you just say?" Wow, those 30 seconds felt like an eternity.
Phineas froze. Right in the middle of sipping his tea.
"...what did I just said?" he blurted out slowly.
Isabella is silent. She stares at him very intently. Phineas would certainly like to admire her now, but his trembling hands and red ears still show that he's not quite ready to look at the person to whom he just confessed that he wants her to be the mother of his children.
"You..."
"I'LL BETTER GO," Phineas shouted, abruptly setting his tea down on the table and lifting his headset. "It's late, haha!"
"It's five o'clock," the girl blurted out.
"IT'S BEDTIME," Phin shouted, too nervously, and was about to bolt out of the kitchen when a quiet "Phineas..." instantly rooted him to the floor and made him lower his head.
"What did you just say?" Isabella repeated.
The boy turned sharply to her, flushed and nervous, afraid to look his... friend in the eye.
"I meant you'd be a great mother!" I mean, you'll become a mom anyway, well, if you want to be a mom, of course, it's not everyone's job to become a mom, and..."
If Phin had glanced at the girl for just a second during his rambling excuses, he would have definitely seen her staring at him, her eyes wide and as red as he was, too closely following his overly expressive gestures.
"Sorry," Phineas finished immediately, much calmer and quieter. "I didn't mean to embarrass you, I just didn't think about it, and... you know, I'm overwhelmed, you just look so cozy and so... cute! I just couldn't control my tongue, and my-“
"You think I look cute?" Isabella asked again.”And... cozy?"
"Of course! It's a scientific fact! And..."
"And?"
"And my subjective point of view."
"What you're saying is..."
"That I like you."
From the outside, it's like a session with a therapist: one asks probing questions, and the other answers instinctively, whatever he feels. Although, in reality, Isabella really doesn't understand what he's trying to say. Is it funny, or is it?
"...Wait, you like me?" There! It just dawned on her.
"I thought it was obvious," Phineas blurted out, confused.
"... like-like me?" Isa clarified.
Phineas nodded slowly, turning his head to the side.
"Oh, God..." Isabella whispered, covering her cheeks with her hands (or rather, her cardigan). "You like me."
"I understand if you consider me just a friend, I... I understand perfectly well that."
"I've been in love with you since kindergarten, and now you're telling me you're just a friend to me?" Isabella asked, too seriously and pointedly for this situation.
Phineas looked like a hundred microchips had burned out in his head. His only reaction to all this was to take Isabella's hand. I have no idea, maybe it's ingrained in him, instincts that humans don't have.
"So...hm," the guy glanced at how his... apparently no longer girlfriend, was intertwining her fingers.
"Let's finish our tea and you can finally try my curd cookies, and then we'll talk about everything, okay?" Isabella purred, looking up from under her long eyelashes into Flynn's eyes. "The father of my future children," she added with a sly smile.
Phineas nodded vigorously and smiled.
"Super!" he blurted out happily, and without letting go of their hands, he finally managed to try the pastry the girl had baked. I hope he's his girlfriend!