Phineas coughed as the smoke filled his lungs. Being outside, the smoke lifted quickly enough to reveal Ferb raising an eyebrow at his brother, who was sitting cross-legged and cross-armed a few feet from the failed invention.
"I'm out of ideas, Ferb!"
Both of Ferb's eyebrows shot up now.
"No, Ferb. I was doing that for Isabella. First I've got to figure out how to ask for her mom's blessing."
Ferb nodded, understanding as well as urging him to continue.
"I thought about introducing her to the future Isabella so she could say if she was happy, but that seems like a space-time continuum disaster waiting to happen, so I thought about showing her the future on a screen instead, but I can't get the frequency right. So I went for a classic, but the cooking/cleaning/dancing robot won't work right, and—"
"Phineas," Ferb interrupted. His brother gazed at him expectantly. "You can do something simple, you know."
"Simple?"
"Yes. Simple. Have you thought about flowers?"
Which landed Phineas on the front stoop of the Garcia-Shapiro home with a bouquet of them twenty-four hours later.
"Oh, Phineas! What beautiful flowers. Unfortunately, Isa's out right now—"
"I know," he told her, voice cracking. She's with Candace doing wedding stuff. The flowers are, umm…for you, actually."
Isabella's mother's eyes were sparkling.
"I see…Would you like to come in, Phineas?"
"Yes please."
It took a few moments of Phineas sitting on the couch, but Mrs. Garcia-Shapiro found a vase for the flowers and placed them on the coffee table.
"They are certainly beautiful. Did you grow them yourself?"
Phineas gulped.
"No, actually. I thought about it, but someone else had already done a great job growing these. Then I thought about altering their genetic structure, but something like this just doesn't get better, you know?"
Vivian was smiling as she nodded.
"The way I figured it, they just needed someone to take care of them."
"And could you take care of them, Phineas?"
He knew exactly what they meant. They were talking about something more beautiful, more alive than those flowers. So he nodded solemnly.
"I can. I want to."
They were silent for a few moments before he continued.
"Mrs. Garcia-Shapiro, Isabella and I have taken some risks, you know, together and individually, and I've done my best to be there for her through all of it, to take care of her when she needs it, and I just want—"
"Phineas?"
"Yes?"
"Do you love her?"
He swallowed. "You know I do."
She grinned.
"You have my blessing, mijo," she replied, as she stood to give him a hug. "I'd say welcome to the family, but that's long past, don't you think?"
Phineas agreed as he got swept up in her wave of gushing as she asked about the ring and his plans for asking her daughter.