Sleepover

Saturday, eleven days until move-in.

I own nothing!

Seated next to him on the futon, Isabella watched Phineas in the flickering candlelight, his eyes seeming to sparkle as she awaited his response. He considered for a minute, alternating his attention between her face and their hands, as he fidgeted in her grasp. With a grin she leaned in, giving him a quick kiss before pulling back with a gentle smile.

"It's okay," she reassured, recognizing his nervous energy, "we can finish the scrapbook first." While he had gotten better about it over the years, she could tell that it still bothered him to leave a project unfinished.

"Thanks," he breathed, visibly relaxing.

With a squeeze of his hands she stood up and walked over, turning on the lights as he slid back down to the ground and reached over, tapping the glowing cylinders. Setting the candles and rose aside, he stacked the book and the remaining supplies on the table as she again joined him on the floor.

"Alright," he chuckled, "maybe we can actually get through these this time," picking up a stack of pictures.

"Don't worry," she replied, "I'll try not to distract you too much," as she placed a hand on his leg. Leaning forward, she grabbed a few sheets of construction paper and set them on the table in front of them.

They then began going through the photos of their adventures, adding and arranging them on the colorful pages. A few of the pictures he had brought were unsurprising to her, their picnic when they were younger had been pretty obviously romantic, and he of course had remembered that the rollercoaster that year had been her favorite. That he had brought pictures of Bubble Land, however, gave her pause.

"Didn't almost everything go wrong with this?" she questioned, holding a photo of the large, mostly transparent amusement park.

"I...actually have a confession to make," he grinned bashfully, "that whole thing was actually just an excuse to spend time with you. Most of it was never even meant to work."

"You mean, when we got stuck together in that bubble...?" she eyed him incredulously.

"Yeah, that…" he looked away, running his hand through his hair, "that wasn't actually an accident."

She watched him for a moment before tittering quietly. "So that's why you waited until Ferb was gone."

"Yeah," he agreed, returning his attention to her, "I couldn't have done it with him around, he definitely would've figured it out."

At that she nodded; with how observant Ferb was she could only imagine how difficult it had been for Phineas to have kept his feelings for her a secret all these years. Setting the picture on a new page, she returned her attention to the photos.

Her pictures of Paris were of course no longer a surprise, but she still saw him tense up a little at them. She drew his attention with a squeeze of his leg, leaning closer with a reassuring smile as she kissed him gently.

Once she drew back he watched her quietly for a moment, considering. "I know you're not upset, but I do still wish I hadn't ignored you back then."

"Well," she smiled at him warmly, "if it would make you feel better, I'd love to go back."

"I think we can do that," he smiled, before returning his attention to the remaining pictures at hand. Reaching over, he added another to the sheet containing their adventures when younger, this time of a large haunted house.

"I think that was the first thing I...well, we built just for you," he grinned in reminiscence, before shaking his head with a chuckle. "I guess going through it together kind of defeated the purpose, though."

"It was still a lot of fun," she smiled, leaning gently against him.

Letting his hand fall to hers, Phineas leaned into her, resting his head on hers as he caressed the back of her hand. After a shared couple minutes he straightened back up, kissing the top of her head. With a squeeze of her hand he returned his attention to their task with an, "Alright, last one."

The picture was of them standing together, both in bathing suits and thoroughly drenched, holding their still-soaked pets after their pet play date. Behind them was the pool with water slides, along with various obstacle courses and other events, all made as pet-proof as possible over the course of an afternoon.

"That was so much fun," Isabella smiled widely. "I was actually surprised at how well Pinky got along with Perry."

"Yeah it was," he grinned back. Returning his focus to the picture he chuckled, "I actually never realized before just how fast platypuses are in water."

Handing her a pair of scissors, he proceeded to arrange and trim the pictures on one of the pages while she worked on another. After a few minutes spent passing sticky strips and markers back and forth and making quiet suggestions, they leaned back to admire their handiwork, three pages of summer fun and adventure.

"Well," she smirked at him after a minute, "I guess that just leaves my sleepover," reaching over and picking up the pictures from her seventeenth birthday, as he added the completed pages to the pile before returning his eyes to her with a blush.

"I'm still surprised your mom let me spend the night, even if I was at the other end of the house," he chuckled.

"Oh, trust me," she grinned back, "Mom laid down some pretty strict rules, although they were more for me than you."

"Like what?"

"Well, she warned me not to try and sneak out to the living room in the middle of the night, and you also weren't allowed in my room."

"What?" he chucked, "Did she actually think you'd try and ditch everyone else to come sleep with me?"

"Well, she wasn't wrong," she grinned at his blush. "Phineas, you have no idea how close I came to joining you in your sleeping bag even though you were in the living room. The other girls were actually all on board to cover for me from the start."

"Is that the sort of thing you girls talk about?" he asked skeptically.

"Well, sometimes," she nodded, smiling softly. "In this case, everyone just wanted to give us another chance." Glancing over, she couldn't help but chuckle at how red Phineas had turned. "I probably shouldn't tell you what else we talk about, then," she teased before falling silent.

Setting a final sheet of construction paper between them, he added various embellishments as she arranged the pictures they had just been discussing, quietly lost in contemplation. Watching his hands for a further minute, she returned her attention to him as he completed the page and added it to the stack.

Noticing her silence, he rested his hand comfortingly atop hers where she had again placed it upon his leg. "Isabella...what is it?"

"Oh, I was just...thinking about something Ginger said earlier." Considering for another moment, she licked her lips before continuing, "Would it...bother you, if I asked you to spend the night?"

He chuckled softly, shaking his head, "I don't know how I'd answer that, but no," he continued seriously, "it wouldn't bother me." His eyes widened as he glanced over and realized how serious she was. "Now?" he questioned, suddenly at a loss for words.

"Only if you want to," she responded with a gentle smile, "I don't want to do anything you're not ready for yet." As he opened his mouth to respond she shook her head a little, "Just...think about it for now, and if you need more time that's okay too." She leaned over and kissed him softly, "I'm not going anywhere."

He considered her for a minute before quietly asking, "How do you know we're not rushing this?"

"I don't," she admitted, "but I also...don't think it really matters." Seeing his inquisitive expression she continued, "I mean, it's like you said earlier...this isn't some new crush for either of us, it's not like we're going to base our whole relationship on being together physically. You already mean the world to me, so as long as you're ready, I don't think it matters what we do," she finished with a further blush. "This is just another way I can finally show you how much you mean to me."

"This...isn't just about me spending the night, is it?"

"No," she quietly agreed.

They both fell into silence, Phineas lightly holding her hand as he considered her words, his unfocused attention directed vaguely towards the table. After a couple minutes, Isabella squeezed his hand, returning his attention to her.

"Are you okay?"

"Well," he started, taking a further moment to organize his thoughts, "I don't know if I'm ready for everything you have in mind yet," he returned his eyes to hers as he continued, "but I'm okay, as long as we can figure it out together."

"Of course," she reassured with a smile.

After falling quiet for another minute, he turned to her with a grin, "But first, let's finish this up, I've got something to show you." Leaning forward, he grabbed the pile of scrapbook pages. "Alright, now all we need to do is figure out what order we want these in."

She pulled the book towards herself, opening it past the last page in preparation. "Maybe we should just do it by date?"

"Sure, that'll work," he agreed. "It's easy enough to rearrange anyways, so I guess it's not really that big of a deal." He then began flipping through the pages, offering them to her in roughly chronological order. After a minute of them quietly working together all the pages had been added, the book now about halfway full between the confession and scrapbook.

Glancing over at her he grinned slightly before standing up and offering her his hand. "Sorry about that," he apologized, helping her up, "I didn't think we'd be on the floor for that long."

"It's okay," she smiled back, stretching her legs before joining him on the futon, "it was mostly my fault."

Reaching over, he picked up the book, resting it on his lap. "So, there's actually one other thing this does. You can hide pages in the back cover until you enter a code on the front. I was actually originally going to put the proposal and wedding plans in there, along with this." He then tapped out a pattern on the front cover, resulting in a momentary mechanical hum, as he handed the book to her.

Turning to the new final page, she was presented with a light gray double page spread, blank except for a number of rectangular outlines in black. As she watched, the various rectangles lit up in light blue as the page initialized and content and controls began to appear. After a few seconds the light show stopped with an electrical snap, the holographic field activating, as the upper half of a simple golden band was projected up and out of the page.

Investigating the grid of rectangles near the bottom of the page, she observed that they were now all labeled with things like Material, Setting, and Stone, with left and right arrows contained within. Tapping one a couple of times, she watched as diamonds in various layouts were added atop the band; trying another they switched to emeralds and then rubies.

Eyeing him for a moment, she half-grinned, "This isn't a printer too, is it?"

"What? Oh, no," he reassured, "it's just a designer. You can save designs you like by holding down on one of those squares," he gestured towards the grid on the right of the page, "and tapping it will load it. You can also hold down on the arrow buttons to see a bunch of options at once." Reaching over, he held down Band for a couple seconds until the large ring was replaced with a bunch of similar smaller ones in a grid, varying only in the design of the band. Swiping through them for a moment, he then proceeded to pick the thickest, gaudiest one possible with a little laugh.

"Eww," she frowned unconvincingly, "you ruined it."

"Yeah, I know," he chuckled. "I've actually got a decent idea of what you don't like," he admitted, "but it'd really help me if you can come up with a few that you do."

"Now?"

"Well, if you want to," he shrugged in attempted calm. "Or you can show me next time I'm up, if there's something else you'd rather do now." Glancing over he couldn't help but grin, as she had already replaced the band he had jokingly selected and was now thoroughly engrossed in scrolling through the various settings. After watching her quietly for a minute he leaned forward, placing a hand on her back, as he began to involve himself in the process, providing small suggestions and asking the occasional question.

Three hours later Phineas collapsed onto his side with a groan. "I think I'm ringed out," he confessed, as he watched her continue to toggle between the saved designs for another moment before looking his way.

"Sorry," she started with a small grin, "I'm just having a hard time deciding between these three."

"It's okay," he smiled up at her, "but you don't actually have to pick one. I mean, if you had found the perfect design then that would've worked too, but I mainly just needed some ideas." Pulling out his phone he looked at it for a minute, tapping through a few screens before sending a text, putting it away a moment later after reading the response.

Having finished comparing the three once more, Isabella closed the book and set it on the table as he pushed himself back up into a sitting position. "So," she watched him carefully, "it's getting pretty late."

"Yeah," he agreed, returning her inquisitive gaze.

"Do you...know your answer?" she asked hesitantly, taking his hands.

"I think so," he nodded, "as long as this is still what you want."

"Phineas," she looked at him in concern, "don't do this for me, what do you actually want to do?"

Watching her for a second he broke into a large grin before simply answering, "Marry you," as he tried not to laugh at how flustered she became. After she recomposed herself a minute later, he gave her a reassuring smile, "But for now, I'd love to spend the night."

Sorry this chapter's a bit shorter than the previous few, but this felt like the right place to stop. Let me know what you think?

carlybella - First off, thank you so much for the amazing pictures! So glad you enjoyed the domestic scenes, it was actually pretty difficult for me to tell how well those came out, as I feel like there's a lot of potential there but it's hard to tell how well I captured it.

fangirlwriting - Truthfully, as I've been working on these I sometimes feel like this day is dragging on forever, so it's good to hear that you're enjoying it. Thanks so much for the review!

xFlyHigher - Thanks, I'm so glad you're still enjoying it! Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere, it's just going to take a while to finish this story. No idea what will come after that, but I imagine I'll keep writing, as I do have a couple other ideas I've been considering.