This is the longest story I have ever written and finished. It also happens to be my first ever five-and-one, though it hopefully won't be my last. Enjoy, and please tell me what you thought!
One
Eight year old Isabella Garcia-Shapiro hid behind the door in her room. She and the Fireside Girls were having a pillow fight in her house. Currently, they were scattered around her house and yard, attacking each other with pillows. The rules were, every time you were hit, you had to take a one minute time out. The only way to win was to be the only person not on time out.
Some of the girls took the offensive approach, and went hunting for their foes. Isabella's plan was more defensive. It was her home, she knew exactly the best spot to hide, so she could ambush anyone coming in.
Hearing some noises on the other side of the door, Isabella readied her pillow. The footsteps came rapidly closer. Three...two. One!
Isabella pushed open the door and leapt out of her room with a warrior yell, belting the person in front of her with her pillow. Caught up in the adrenalin, it took her a few seconds to realise that someone was calling her name. "-bella? Isabella?"
Phineas.
Quickly, Isabella lowered the pillow. "Hi, Phineas!" She beamed. "What are you doing here?"
Phineas gave her a quizzical look, but answered the question. "I came to ask if you will be mine forever and ever! Marry me, Isabella!" Phineas then inexplicably turned into a centaur, and they rode away together.
She sighed. "I'd love to..."
"Okay!" Isabella snapped out of Phineas-land in time to see Phineas walk back down the hallway.
"Wait, what happened?" Suddenly, a pillow hit her from behind. "Oh, darn."
Two
Two years later, Phineas and Ferb's project of the day was a bed making machine. However, to test it out, they used a giant bed, and a giant machine, on the basis that any problems would be easier to spot. Buford and Baljeet operated the Sheet Folder, Phineas and Ferb had the De-Wrinkler, and Isabella was in control of the Pillow Fluffer.
The giant bed was perfectly folded and made, when suddenly a ray of green light hit the machine. "Look out!" Phineas shouted.
The boys ran for it as the sheets went flying through the air.
"Phineas, help!" Isabella screamed. She was stuck in the Pillow Fluffer, her foot jammed under the controls. As she tried to wiggle her foot loose, her other foot hit the controls, and sent the pillow flying towards Phineas. It hit him, and with a surprised gasp, he was flung into the tree in their backyard.
Another ray of green light hit the machine, and it all suddenly disappeared. Isabella, her foot no longer trapped behind the controls, limped as fast as she could over to the tree. "Phineas? Are you okay?"
Phineas's head popped out from the tree. "Hi, Isabella. Did you see where the machine went?"
Three
Three years after that, thirteen year old Phineas Flynn was sitting on the couch with his best friend, Isabella. Despite years of hinting, Phineas had still not noticed her crush on him. Isabella was starting to think he never would. Beside her, Phineas was chattering away about a new idea. She interrupted him, "Phineas, do you like me?"
He looked startled for a second. "Yes, Isabella, of course I like you! You're my best friend! I've known you forever."
Isabella, exasperated, kept going. "What about as more than a friend? Do you like me as more than a friend?"
"More than a friend?" He started to blush, not meeting her eyes. "Well, Isabella, I've known you forever, and you're my best friend, and you've always been there for me, and-"
"Phineas?" Isabella asked sweetly.
He looked at her. "Yes?"
Before he could say another word, her lips met his, as the metaphorical fireworks exploded all around them.
When they finally stopped, to catch their breath, he asked, "So will you be my girlfriend?"
She hit him with a pillow.
Four
"How could you do that?" Seventeen year old Isabella screamed. Phineas looked uncertainly at her tearstreaked face from the doorway of her bedroom. "Don't you know how much that meant to me? That bracelet was from my grandmother! Couldn't you have a little consideration?"
Phineas tried to intervene, but Isabella didn't give him a moment to interrupt. "It was the last present I have from her, before-!" Too choked with tears to continue, she threw a pillow at him, but Phineas was too shocked to duck.
"It really mean that much to you?" he asked.
Isabella turned to look at him, tears streaming down her face. "It was special, Phineas."
Phineas ran over to the bed to sit beside her. "I'm sorry, Isabella, I didn't know. I never would have taken it if I had known how much it meant to you."
He held up one closed fist, a shy smile on his face. "Maybe this can make things better?"
Isabella's face filled with awe at the sight of her locket, fully restored.
"I'm sorry, Isabella," Phineas said, looking down. "I didn't know how much it meant to you. When I noticed, I repaired it for you. Is it okay now?" He looked hesitantly up at her, and was met with a kiss that proved yes, it was all okay now.
Five
Isabella knocked on the door of the Flynn/Fletcher boys' apartment, holding the embroidered pillow that she planned to give Phineas for their ninth anniversary. "Phineas? We were going on a date tonight, remember?"
She listened for a reply, but heard only random clashing, and something that sounded suspiciously like a fire alarm. "Phineas?" She called, letting herself in. "Please don't tell me he's forgotten again," she continued under her breath.
Walking into the main room, she stopped short at the sight in front of her. Phineas was bent over the kitchen sink, one arm down the drain, while a pot bubbled noisily on the stove top. Phineas turned to look at her, his arm still down the sink. He smiled weakly. "Hi?"
Isabella took in the whole sight, then giggled at the ridiculousness of it all. Still giggling, she walked to the stove and turned it off, taking the pot off the heat. Carefully taking the lid off, she sniffed it, and drew back at the smell.
"What were you making?" she asked Phineas, who was still trying to do something with the sink.
"I was trying to make a soup for you, but something went wrong, and it started bubbling too much, and I didn't know what to do!" Phineas burst out, looking at her the best he could from his awkward position at the sink. "Ferb said he would help if I wanted, but I wanted to do it all myself, because it's a special night, and I wanted to have everything perfect the night I propose!" He stopped short, realising the secret he had spilled.
Isabella looked at him, stunned speechless by the revelation, still holding onto the pillow that she had planned to give him.
Phineas opened his mouth to speak, but something down the drain distracted him. "Got it!" He said triumphantly. He drew his arm out of the sink, holding in his hand a little box.
"Isabella Garcia-Shapiro," he said, going down on one knee right there in the kitchen. "I've been your boyfriend for the last nine years, and I know that you are the girl I want to spend the rest of my life with. Will you marry me?"
Isabella stood there for a moment, just long enough that Phineas started to worry, then she screamed. "Yes! Of course I'll marry you!" She pulled him up and kissed him passionately.
As Phineas opened the jewelry box and slipped the ring on her finger, he begun babbling, "I'm sorry I couldn't make it perfect for you, Isabella, I know you deserve it, but I couldn't work out how to cook like that, not like Ferb can, he offered to help, but I wanted to do it myself, because I wanted to have everything perfectly just for you-"
Once the ring was on her finger, Isabella slapped him over the head with her embroidered pillow, then stopped his mouth with a kiss.
Plus One
One year later, Phineas was making a speech at their wedding reception.
"This woman, my wife," he said, looking at the beaming Isabella, "is the most amazing woman in the world. I've known her since we were four years old, and I knew then that she was incredible. She's been at my side ever since, and never given up on me, even though it took so long for me to figure out how amazing she truly is. In fact," he said, reaching down and grabbing something from underneath the table, "I may never have noticed if not for this."
With a flourish, he pulled a pillow out from under the table. Isabella clapped her hands to her mouth as she realized it was the pillow she had hit him with the night he asked her to be his girlfriend. Phineas grinned as he held the pillow over his head. "All's fair in love and war!" he said as he threw the pillow at her. She caught it, only to be hit in the face with another pillow. Catching it before it hit the floor, she saw that it was the pillow she was holding the night Phineas asked her to marry him.
She held both pillows close, and buried her face in them, eyes filling with tears of joy. After so much waiting, all her dreams had come true. Gently, Phineas pulled the pillows away from her face, and kissed her. "I love you, Isabella Flynn. I'm so glad you married me."