Hello, all! This is my first fanfic ever on this site, so I'm looking for feedback. Crtitiques, critiscms, even flames are welcome! Hopefully you'll enjoy this enough to review it, and if you don't...well, I'll still be happy you read this.
Disclaimer: I don't own PnF.
"Isabella? What...are you doing?"
Phineas Flynn was very confused. Right now, he was currently standing in his house. Nothing abnormal about that, except for the fact that it was the middle of the night. And it was pouring outside. And he was alone. In the darkness. With Isabella. And she had just grabbed his hand.
Phineas repeated the question. "Isabella...why are you holding...my hand?"
"Because the power's out," Isabella answered matter-of-factly.
"And..."
"It's dark."
"And..." he prompted once more.
"I wanted something to grab on to."
"Why..."
"Because I was scared!" There was no mistaking the tone of annoyance in Isabella's voice now. Phineas hated to pester her once more, but he was still severely confused.
"But why did you feel the need to-"
"FORGET IT!" Isabella exclaimed angrily, throwing her hands up in the air, effectively destroying the connection they had just had earlier. "If you don't like it, than FINE!"
Uh oh. He had done it now. "Sorry, sorry. If you want to hold hands because you're scared, than that's fine. I was just wondering why yo-"
Once again Phineas was cut off by yet another angry yell that escaped Isabella's lips. He was left scratching his head as he heard Isabella storm off in rage, muttering foul words under her breath. Honestly, Phineas had no idea what had just happened.
He thought back to how the night started. Earlier, his parents had allowed him to host a bit of a movie night for his friends. Buford, Baljeet, Isabella, Django, and of course Ferb, had all gathered in the living room at 7:30 with copious amounts of popcorn to watch a movie (it was some animated movie, either Despicable Me or Megamind. He didn't really remember because of the popcorn war that had taken place during the movie).
Anyways, after the movie ended, his mom had sent Buford, Baljeet, and Django home, muttering about boys and popcorn messes. Isabella had been permitted to stay, mainly because she lived right across the street and she hadn't taken part in the popcorn shenanigans. He remembered putting another movie on and relaxing in the recliner, while Isabella curled up on the couch and Ferb retired to bed, bidding them a silent goodnight.
Next thing he knew he was waking up to a boom of thunder that was so huge that it shook the house. Evidently the storm had been biding its time. In the couple of hours that had passed since the other boys left, the weather had gone from peaceful night to torrential downpour, complete with thunder, lightning, and a power outage. He had slowly advanced in the complete darkness, waking Isabella and informing her what happened. He had just been getting ready to navigate to the basement to find a flashlight when that had happened.
Phineas sighed and felt his way through the darkness. He honestly didn't get girls. Isabella had totally snapped at him just now for nothing! And then there was the incident from earlier...
Flashback
"Movie time!" Buford's gruff voice sounded surprisingly girly uttering those words.
"I will get the popcorn!" Baljeet ran into the kitchen and returned with a gigantic bowl of popcorn with Django on his heels.
"No, no, I'm not done yet! I didn't add the sugar and caramelize the..." The artistic boy's words died in his throat as he saw Buford begin to gorge himself. "I wasn't even done..." he murmured sadly.
"Aw, can it, paint boy. You don't need to add all your artsy stuff to everything! This is the way Buford likes it!" He proceeded to shove his mouth full of popcorn.
"Really? Paint boy? That is the best you can come up with? You are really off your game today, Buford." The bully paused mid mouthful to glare at Baljeet with an 'Oh no you didn't' look. Baljeet wisely said nothing more.
Phineas, who had previously been absent, appeared with a blanket and a couple of pillows.
"You going camping, Phineas?" Django asked jokingly. Phineas grinned. "Nope, I just plan on getting extra comfortable tonight."
It was at this moment that Isabella spoke up. "Hey Phineas...speaking of comfort, wanna sit next to me when we watch the movie?" Her perky tone and hopeful look could have convinced a stone to dance.
"Nope!" Apparently, Phineas' skull was thicker than rock. "I got my seat right here!" He flopped down on the soft, and noticeably single seating, recliner.
"Oh." Isabella's face drooped to a point of sadness that would've made a puppy cry.
Phineas noticed her depressed look. "Don't worry, Isabella!" Her expression perked up. "I'm sure the other guys would be happy to sit with you!"
The sound of Ferb's forehead palm could be heard through the commotion of 3 boys scrambling to sit on the couch, squishing Isabella.
"Oh, yeah, best seat in the house!" Buford whooped as raised his arms in the air. This did nothing to help Isabella feel better about her situation. Her face slowly turned red in anger as Phineas continued to speak.
"See, Isabella, I knew that would make you feel better! And you're so happy now, too! I know you so well..."
End Flashback
After that, Isabella didn't talk to him throughout the entire movie. Yep, he thought, Girls are definitely strange.
Phineas continued feeling his way through the living room until he came to the kitchen. He paused, trying to discern Isabella's location in the darkness through the heavy sound of the rainfall. Yep, there it was. He heard someone speaking under their breath at the far end of the kitchen. He crossed the room, muttering a "dang it" when he tripped over someone's bag, until he came to her.
"Hey, Izzy, what's wrong?" He moved his hand to put on her shoulder, missing twice before he found his mark. "What did I do?"
To his shock, Isabella shrugged his hand off angrily and he felt her turn away from him. "Nothing." Even Phineas' oblivious self couldn't miss her cold tone.
"Don't say that. I know that something's obviously bothering you."
Isabella snorted. "I'm surprised you do." She sighed, and her tone softened. "Look, Phineas, I don't wanna talk about it right now, okay?"
"Um, yeah. That's fine, I guess. So, um, I was gonna take a look in the basement for a flashlight, so uh..." Phineas barely made out Isabela's profile nodding and began his short quest for the flashlight.
He felt his way along the kitchen wall until he came to the opening that led to the hallway. Turning into the hallway, his fingers searched for the familiar feel of a doorframe. Second door on the left...got it. He searched for the doorknob until he felt the cold metal graze his fingers. He opened the door and began slowly advancing down the narrow steps, grimacing as his feet became caked with dirt from the unswept basement stairs. Maybe this wasn't the best idea in the world, he thought grimly. Phineas stopped and turned around, making his way back up the stairs.
Phineas was by no means scared of the dark, but climbing into a basement alone...at night...in the dark...Yeah. Not the happiest prospect in the world.
He slowly made his way back to the kitchen. He stopped and listened closely. He could just barely make out the sound of Isabella breathing over the sound of the torrent outside, which meant that she was still nearby.
"Isabella." It came out as a whisper, even though he hadn't intended it to. Her head jerked up, startled.
"God, Phineas, you scared me! Where's the flashlight? Could you find it?"
"Um...well...I was actually wondering if...you know...you could come down with me to help me look. Cause...um, I was a bit nervous." Even in the darkness, Phineas could make out Isabella's smile, her white teeth faintly reflecting what little light there was in the house.
"Of course, Phineas!" She made her way over to him and grabbed his hand for the second time that night.
"Ok, so it's, uh, this way, I think. Follow me." He mentally slapped himself. What else was she going to do? He was holding her hand. Wait a second...he was holding her hand. Suddenly he began to feel a bit uncomfortable, and it all emanated from where their hands met. He couldn't stop thinking about how warm her hand was, or how soft it felt, or how sweaty his was, or how it felt so right, or...
"Phineas, are we going to the basement or not?"
He forced himself to snap out of his stupor and began retracing his route, this time with Isabella in tow. And he was most certainly was not thinking about how his hand was getting more and more sweaty, or how their shoulders bumped a bit, or how his stomach kept jumping around...
Phineas found the door, and they slowly began their descent down the steep stairs. When they reached the bottom, Phineas let go of Isabella's hand with both relief and reluctance.
"Ok, the flashlight should be in a box on the right side of the basement. I think..maybe."
"Wait, your right or my right?" A question that was difficult to answer since he couldn't see which direction his friend was facing.
"Um...my right. The right that you would take coming down the stairs."
"Ok," Isabella responded.
They were both began advancing in the darkness to search for the flashlight, when Phineas tripped over an old toy with an "Oof!" He landed on something soft and warm, thankful that the object cushioned his fall. He tried to get up, but ended up tripping again so he was positioned directly on top of it. What's with me tripping today? he thought with a sigh.
Once again he prepared to rise from the floor when he realized object couldn't be...
"Isabella?" Phineas said in shock. Apparently, he was currently on top of his childhood friend. His mouth hung agape and he was too flustered to even think about getting up.
Any possible moment of romance was interrupted, however, by a light shining in his face. The flashlight.
"Phineas...what are you doing?" The owner of the voice, and the flashlight, was Isabella. Which meant...
Phineas looked down. What he was laying on was not, in fact, Isabella: it was an old coat rack that held a dusty coat. He scrambled up faster than eggs on a buttered pan, blushing profusely. He looked up and quickly down again at Isabella. "Um, I actually thought..that that...was..."
He didn't get to finish before Isabella made the connection and started bursting out laughing. His face turned even redder as she was pointing at him in hilarity and tears threatened to fall out her eyes.
Unfortunately, neither Phineas nor Isabella was paying attention to the flashlight. The beam was flying around the room sporadically as she shook with laughter, and then...CRACK. The flashlight fell to the ground, and both kids heard the sound of the bulb cracking. Once again, they were plunged into darkness. They both just stood there for a while, until Isabella finally squeaked out, "Sorry." Phineas could just imagine the guilty look that must be on Isabella's face.
"Don't worry, Isabella, you didn't mean it!" Phineas exclaimed a bit too cheerfully. Truthfully he wasn't too happy about the way things had gone, but this was Isabella he was talking about. He couldn't remain angry at her for any space of time.
"But that was the only flashlight, and I broke it because I was laughing at you, and..."
"Isabella, it's fine. Don't make a big deal out of this. We can just...uh...go back upstairs and wait for the power to come on!" He attempted to infuse as much optimism as he could into his words, but judging from Isabella's silence she wasn't buying his reassurance. He heard her sniff, and something inside him softened. He couldn't stand to see Izzy sad. It just...it was like having summer without sun. It didn't feel right.
Phineas jumped over to Isabella and gave her a tender hug. He could feel her momentarily freeze up, but then she relaxed and hugged him back, melting into his embrace.
As they stood like that, his arms around her waist, her head on his shoulder, Phineas felt something...something so strange in his chest. It was kind of like butterflies, but different and more raw. This feeling was like a hunger, like he had to have more, like he was empty, but satisfied at the same time. As they stood like that, in the dark, Isabella's sniffles subsiding as he held her longer, Phineas felt...complete.
After a few more minutes of comfort, Phineas pulled away from the hug. "Ready to go upstairs?"
"Yeah," Isabella replied, markedly more happy than she had been a few minutes ago. She grabbed his hand, and once again they went up the stairs and felt their way through the kitchen, coming to a rest on the couch in the living room.
They sat there quietly for a couple of minutes, the only sounds being their breathing and the strangely comforting pounding of the rain on the roof. Finally, Phineas' voice penetrated the air of silence that had fallen between them. "I wonder why Ferb isn't awake."
"What?" Isabella was startled out of her thoughts and turned to look at where his voice was coming from.
"I was wondering why Ferb isn't awake. Mom, Dad, and Candace are heavy sleepers, but Ferb is a really light sleeper. I would've thought he would be the first one woken up by the thunder."
Isabella shrugged.
"Isabella? You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Then how come you didn't answer?" Phineas asked quizzically.
"I did-" Oh yeah. "Oops. I forgot that you couldn't see me." Isabella said sheepishly.
A few seconds passed. "Well?"
"Well what?"
"Why do you think Ferb isn't awake?"
"I don't know!" Isabella was more than a little exasperated at Phineas' irrelevant questions.
The conversation lapsed into silence again. After a few minutes of quietness, Phineas eventually spoke up again. "Well, Isabella, it doesn't look like the storm's gonna pass anytime soon. We should probably go to bed."
Isabella struggled to hold back a protest. This would've been the perfect opportunity to get close to Phineas, but honestly, the redhead was right. She was about to acquiesce to his suggestion when she replayed his words in her mind.
"Wait...did you just say we should go to bed?" Isabella asked with disbelief and the tiniest bit of hope laced in her question
"Yeah! It'll be fu-". Phineas' smile died on his lips as he realized the implications of what he had just said. "No, no, I meant that we would just, like, go to sleep at the same time, not sleep together or anything!" The panic in the boy's voice was clearly evident.
Isabella sighed. Of course it was too good to be true. Unless... Isabella smiled to herself as she thought of a plan that, if executed properly, would hopefully get her closer to Phineas.
Isabella gave a fake sigh. "Ok, Phineas. I'll just go sleep on the recliner then."
She clambered off the couch and into the nearby recliner as Phineas exhaled with relief. For a second there he had almost thought that Isabella might take what he said the wrong way. Climbing onto the couch, he pulled his blanket, which had fallen to the floor when he had woken up earlier, onto the couch with him and covered himself up.
Laying on the couch in darkness, Phineas thought about his earlier hug with Isabella. For some reason, there had just been something special about it. He had hugged plenty of people before: His mom, his Dad, Candace, Perry, even Ferb at one point or another. A hug was just a hug, a normal way of displaying affection for someone. But what had happened with Isabella was so different. He still had a kind of tingling on his shoulders where he had rested her arms, and he ached for that feeling of comfort he felt while in her arms.
Maybe it was something I ate, Phineas thought. Maybe the popcorn Django made had some kinda weird side effect on me that...Ugh, who am I kidding? It's Isabella.
The thought itself gave him shivers. Isabella. The girl who had been his best friend (not counting Ferb, of course) since the age of 8, the girl who helped every day with their inventions, the girl who had single handedly saved the galaxy (or was it the universe?) with her cuteness, the girl across the street for as long as he could remember. And he was currently feeling some foreign emotion for her. The frustrating thing was that he had no idea what this new feeling was! Was it shyness? Was it jealousy? He had heard someone say that that gave you a weird feeling in your chest.
Unfortunately, at that moment Phineas' thoughts were interrupted before he could make the vital connection.
"Phineas, I'm cold," Isabella's voice quivered, bringing him back down to earth.
"You are?" Phineas's brow wrinkled in confusion. "I'm actually kind of..." He trailed off mid sentence and looked down at his blanket. "Oh my gosh, Isabella, I'm so sorry! I totally forgot that you don't have a blanket!" He quickly stripped the blanket off, berating himself for being so inconsiderate. "Here, have mine!"
But apparently Isabella had other plans. "No, Phineas, you don't have to do that! Then you'll be cold instead."
"No no no," Phineas insisted. "I don't need a blanket after I hogged this one from you! Here, take it." Phineas held out the comforter in the general direction of the recliner, but Isabella didn't take it.
Instead, she spoke. "Well, Phineas," she began, (it occurred to him how Isabella's voice had just gotten 100 times shyer than usual), "we could share the blanket."
Phineas' mouth went dry, his heart basically stopped beating, and he began dry sweating. "Sh-share?"
"You can just scootch over a bit on the couch, and I can...you know..."
Oh man. Oh man oh man oh man. He was done. If Isabella came within a foot of him, she would be able to hear his heart beating, his blood pounding, his thoughts racing. But if he said no, that would probably hurt her feelings. And God knew he didn't want to hurt her feelings any more than he already had that day...er, night. Phineas forced his mouth to open and he uttered a response through his lips. "Okay."
He didn't even get to finish the second syllable before Isabella came rushing over, which was amazing in itself because it was pitch black in the room.
"Wow, Izzy," he said nervously. "You must be cold."
"Oh yes...I'm freezing up."
Phineas slowly lay down on the couch again and pulled the blanket over him, making sure to leave an open spot for Isabella to lay in. She climbed onto the couch with him and pulled the blanket on, desperately hoping that this wasn't some moment from Phineas Land that her mind conjured up.
As for Phineas, the poor boy was a wreck. He had already been confused enough about their hug earlier, and to have Isabella laying here, on the couch with him? He was surprised he hadn't combusted yet. Isabella's thigh was touching his, and it took all his self control not to pull his his leg away.
But the worse was yet to come. Phineas heard Isabella sigh dreamily, and then she scooted over so that her body was pressed up right...against...his.
WHAT ARE YOU DOING! CAN'T YOU SEE THAT I'M ALREADY MESSED UP ENOUGH AS IT IS! That's what he wanted to yell, but he was too paralyzed to do anything. And then Isabella's hand found his under the blanket, which was enough to shock him out of his stupor.
"I-Isabella?"
"Yes, Phineas?" she said sweetly, her request laden with innocence.
"Why-I mean, um, like, uh...what are you, um...doing?" I've stuttered more tonight than I have the rest of my life combined.
"What's wrong? You don't like it?" Any less oblivious boy would have heard the seductive undertones in her voice.
"Yes! I mean, uh, no, but um...like, I don't not not not like it but it's, um-"
Phineas' next words were cut off by Isabella, who moved closer and put her nose on his. In that instant it was like a dam broke in his mind. With the suddenness of an ambush, he mind was flooded with images of him and Isabella...kissing.
No no no no no, stop! I can't think about her like that, she's my friend (but she's so pretty) and I can't hurt her (and nice) and ruin our friendship (and sweet) and..
"This is nice." Isabella whispered the words to Phineas, her breath tingling on his face, and that was it. That was Phineas' breaking point. If he didn't take preventative measures in the next five seconds, he would do something that he would regret forever.
Quickly, he wrenched his hand from Isabella's grasp and wrapped his arms around her waist as tightly as he could, pulling her closer towards him and resting her head on his neck. He heard her gasp in surprise, and then wrap her arms around his neck.
"Oh Phineas..." she mumbled.
They stayed like that for a few minutes, his grip eventually loosening from a vice grip to a tender embrace. He heard Isabella softly breathing, her soft inhalations and exhalations coinciding with his own.
Well, the good news was that he finally got rid of those thoughts about kissing Izzy. The bad news (or was it good news?) was that the feeling he had had in the basement was back again, only this time ten times stronger than before. It was by far the strangest, maybe the best feeling he had ever had in his life. It was like...it was like his chest was so empty, but so full at the same time. His stomach felt all clenched and knotted and his heart was beating so fast. And it was all Issabella-centric. He could feel her arms around his neck, smell her hair that still had a faint scent of cinnamon despite a full day having passed, feel her tiny breaths on his neck. It was like he was...well, he couldn't explain it. It just felt wonderful.
Sighing, he subconsciously tightened his arms around her and closed his eyes. Tomorrow, perhaps, he'd talk to Izzy about this crazy night, but for now, he just lost himself in the peaceful moment.
Right before he fell asleep, a lightbulb went off in his head.
Could this feeling be...love?
He thought about it for a second, and then shook his head to himself. No way.
~•~•~•~•~
Ferb was rather confused when he awoke in the morning. The first thing he noticed was that the digital display for his alarm clock wasn't showing. Sitting up, he observed that the familiar sound of the radio he slept to wasn't present, and Phineas was nowhere to be found. When he went to the bathroom, he shook his head as the light remained off after he flipped the switch, immediately connecting the dots. Power outage, he thought with a sigh.
Taking his toothbrush and toothpaste downstairs, Ferb was wondering what the cause of the power outage was when he saw something strange. There were multiple objects littering the floor, and the basement door was open. Ferb cautiously advanced, closing the door quietly and gripping the toothbrush like a weapon. He finally came to a halt in the living room, satisfied that no unwelcome guests had decided to visit the house last night.
He took in the scene. Popcorn still littered the floor, making him crack a smile as he remembered the popcorn war last night. Two of Phineas' pillows were lying on the ground, unused. Then he looked on the couch and his eyes widened. There lay Phineas curled up with Isabella on the couch, her frizzy black hair tangled up with the wild red hair of his brother. A blanket covered the two, but it was plain to see that they were really close under there.
Ferb placed his toothbrush down and whipped out his phone, taking a picture of the sleeping couple. He smirked as he imagined what must of gone on last night. He immediately texted Buford the picture and smirked again. He so owes me 20 dollars.
He froze as he heard Candace stomping around upstairs with all the grace of a drunken elephant. Apparently, his sister had woken up.
"MOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM! Phineas and Ferb made the power go out!"
When she got no response, Candace growled and stomped down the stairs, sporting some very unflattering Ducky-Momo pajamas. Her eyes narrowed as she spotted her green-haired brother.
"What are you two up to? When I find out..."
Ferb didn't even bother responding: he just pointed to the couch. Candace's expression went from angry, to shocked, to giddy in moment. She giggled in her typical Candace way and rubbed her hands together diabolically.
"Phineas, you are so busted!"
So, what'd ya think? Was it horrible, great, somewhere in between...let me know. Remember, this is my first story, so PLEASE R&R!