Work Text:
As his son (technically stepson) came down the stairs, Lawence knew what was up. Phineas only dressed nicely for big occasions, and by all accounts, the most common of these had to do with Isabella. After all, they were dating now; at least that’s what Lawrence had been told, and selling out was just one step along the banials of courtship, but Phineas clearly wasn’t thinking about all that. After all, he had a girl to get to, and to that extent, Lawrence completely understood his behavior.
“Another date with Isabella?” He cordially asked, breaking Phineas’s focus. “You must be doing something right.”
“How do people always know?” Phineas uttered. It would be one thing if it was just his family and friends who put two and two together so clearly, but when librarians and grocery store clerks and unfrozen cavemen knew with a single glance that he was in love, it almost had to mean he was missing something obvious. It only took him years to pick up on the fact that the girl who routinely made literal heart-eyes at him had a small thing for him, so it was entirely possible he was missing something here as well.
Lawrence, being that he, unlike what he claimed, could not read his son’s mind, replied to this dumbstruck inquiry in a distinctly British way. “It’s very easy to tell.”
“Yes, but Ferb...” Phineas began to ramble out, before remembering that:
- Ferb was Ferb, so of course love was effortlessly easy for him.
- Semi-panicked rambling probably wasn’t a good idea if he wanted to sound sane or reasonable-minded, as opposed to overtly smitten, lovestruck, or any other word in the romantic dictionary.
With this being mentally noted, Phineas reset himself and continued along a more reasonable train of thought. “Okay, never mind that, but what is it about me and Isabella that people find so... obvious?”
Lawrence smirked slightly. “Well, for one, you two are teenagers.”
While Lawrence was enjoying the incalculable plus sides of parenthood, Phineas was decidedly less enthused. “Yes, but there have been billons of teenagers before us who were also in love.”
Sensing his son’s distress, Lawrence’s smile dropped as he thoughtfully leaned against the kitchen counter. “Let me rephrase it like this; why do you love Isabella?”
Phineas, predictably, was unable to come up with a clean response. Sure, Isabella had asked him very similar questions before, but she was Isabella. She wasn’t trying to judge him; she was trying to love him, and that made a world of difference.
“Because... well... you see...” Phineas eventually managed to stutter out. It was only once a backing track mysteriously began that he regained full confidence in his voice. Jubilantly, Phineas started to sing and dance around.
She's got every quality
From A all the way to Z
It's easy to see she's the perfect girl
She's got every single thing
That makes up my wildest dreams
Sometimes I still can't quite believe she's holdin me cause She got it all
My heart, my soul, my wishes
All of my love, my hugs, my kisses
Everything that means anything at all
All of my life I've spent a hopin'
I could give someone such devotion
Every sweet memory I can recall
She got it all
You know that I admit
That someone to love like this
Only existed in my prayers
Until I saw her face
I knew I'd found the place
Where I could keep my every faith eternally 'cause
She got it all
My heart, my soul, my wishes
All of my love, my hugs, my kisses
Everything that means anything at all
All of my life I've spent a hopin'
I could give someone such devotion
Every sweet memory I can recall
She got it all
All of my life I've spent a hopin'
I could give someone such devotion
Every sweet memory I can recall
All of my heart, my soul, my wishes
All of my love, my hugs, my kisses
Everything sweet memory I can recall
She got it all
She's got it all
“I think that explains it... partly.” Phineas stated upon finishing up the song.
Slowly, Lawrence exhaled, collecting himself and pondering everything he had just seen. It wasn’t the fact that Phineas had sung something that had him taken aback though; it was the subject matter. Even though he wasn’t Phineas’s biological father, Lawrence had still felt that he had inherited some of the paternal instinct that comes with the role and certainly felt an intimate connection to his thoughts and feeling, but Lawrence hadn’t known that Phineas was that deeply in love. Sure, it was the most obvious thing in the world that he and Isabella had a thing for each other, but for the feeling involved to be that big... Lawrence was reeling, but not panicked.
“Ah. Well, you see son —”
“Oh my!” Phineas suddenly interjected. “I’m going to be late for being early. Sorry dad, but we’ll catch up later.”
As Phineas hustled out the front door, Lawrence let out a sigh. Not a worried one mind you, but a calm, nostalgic one that called back into the blissful follies of his own youth, where he grew older on the quite English countryside without a care as to what tomorrow would bring. Given, those days had long since passed, but he remembered them nonetheless.
“Oh well,” Lawrence said with a shrug, “that’s young love for you; always in a hurry to get wherever it is that they’re going, even though they don’t know where.”
“Are you talking to yourself again, honey?” Linda asked from the bathroom, slightly startling her husband.
“Yes dear, sorry.”
Inspired by the linked article:
The Happy Songwriting Accident That Led to Kenny Chesney’s First No. 1 Hit - American Songwriter