Snapshot
Cezille07
Disclaimer: It would be nice...to own such a successful franchise...but no, I don't own Phineas and Ferb. ;D *psycho laugh*
He took his camera out, and despite the late hour and the obvious blackness which was the only image the lens could handle, he began shooting around him in a panoramic manner.
Pictures, they say, express a thousand words. Or immortalized a single instance in the fluid motion in time, a stark reminder of that moment, of the sweet communion between the photographed and the photographer.
The air was crisp with the scent of roses, white and red ones in rust-red pottery. The ground was carpeted by a layer of thick but soft, moist grass. Dew gathered on the lens, but he merely wiped at it with a fold of his clean, white sleeve, and turned to face the true beauty he had been wanting to capture.
Vanessa, for once, had decided to trade her signature black garments for a bright, spring blouse, and a rainbow-colored shawl tied around her waist. She looked at the faint stars with a glisten in her dark blue eyes, which had always entranced him. Tonight, she was the single most beautiful object in the world, with that half-smile painted on her rosy lips and her soft hands laced around the thin stem of her empty wine glass.
"Dad," she finally said playfully, when she noticed him staring at her with the camera posed for a shot,
"what are you looking at?"
"I'm so glad you like it here," answered Heinz. He pulled his collar loose and gulped. That was partly a lie. Years of personal tumult, physical pain, and public humiliation were more than enough to repel the very thought from his mind. Gimmelschtump was the last place he would've gone for any reason.
But she smiled. She either saw through the faraway look in his eyes, or was simply better than him at forgetting old grudges. "Thanks for taking me here," she whispered as she stepped toward her father and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. Goosebumps erupted on her skin at the warmth of his hesitant touch. "This is the best gift you've ever given me."
"It's nothing, the fares are always cheap to here and—"
"I mean this moment, Dad."
Silently, he agreed. The decision to spend the weekend here was unspoken and mutual. He, because Perry left his home a mess yet again after an overkill victory. She, because of some unfortunate boy he would secretly get revenge on once they returned to Danville. But here, now, Danvillian concerns melted beyond the sanctity of father and daughter, bonded in a moment that cannot be replicated by circumstance nor intention.
This worn-down motel they stayed in was rank with floral odors and the stink of century-old wood, but up on the rooftop, overlooking the city proper and the enclosing forestry, lights dancing by the uneven streets, the stains of remotely human afflictions evaporated. Tonight was a different world, a new promise.
"My baby girl," Heinz piped, a grin tugging at the corners of his lips. "Say Inator..." he said, and raised the camera for the night's millionth shot.
**END**
A/N: The "night's millionth shot" implies they're happy there, forgetting all their cares in Danville and just enjoying their family moment. :)))