A/N – This takes place at the end of the evening that started in Chapter 10: Caller.

Hitting

Ferb stepped aside and held the door for Vanessa as they entered the D. E. I. building and walked to the elevator. He considered tonight his first "real date" with her, and things had gone swimmingly. She had loved the French café he had suggested for dinner, and he had enjoyed the movie she had chosen. They had been chatting about their evening as he had driven her home, and now they had settled together into a comfortable silence as he prepared to escort her to her father's door.

Well, Ferb admitted, he wasn't feeling entirely comfortable. He was thinking about the anticipated good-night kiss, and was a little concerned that he would get her to the apartment door and start to make his move, only to have her father come bursting out with some Boyfriend-repel-inator in his hand. Not quite how Ferb was hoping to conclude the evening.

The elevator door closed, and Vanessa pressed the button for the Penthouse floor. The car began to rise skyward, and they exchanged a matched pair of suddenly bashful smiles.

"I had a great time tonight," said Vanessa.

"As did I," he replied. Pausing only briefly, he added, "I wish we could do this more often."

"Christmas break starts in just three weeks," she assured him. "I'll be back then for a nice, long visit."

Gazing into the indigo pools of her eyes, Ferb savored the moment. He was alone with the girl he had loved for so long as she looked up at him with a sweet and – dare he imagine it? – adoring expression. All at once, he knew exactly what to do.

"Are you claustrophobic?" he blurted.

The question clearly surprised her, but she answered, "No. I don't think so…"

The words were hardly out of her before Ferb was hitting the stop button on the control panel, and the elevator jolted to a halt. He turned toward Vanessa with a subtle curl of his lips. A shadow of confusion washed over her for an instant, then she realized his intentions, and an enchanting smile lit her lovely face.

Any uncertainty he felt as to the next step was swept aside as Vanessa advanced on him. As her body made contact with his, he instinctively snaked his arms around her waist and held her close. Her hands slid up his chest and across the breadth of his shoulders with a lazy, curious touch, then they crept behind his neck and drew him down to meet her lips. Ferb closed his eyes and sank into the kiss, relishing the intoxicating taste and scent of her. As his head began to spin, he staggered back against the wall, pulling her along. The soft, warm weight of her pressed into him, and he reached to cradle her head in his hand, his fingers tangling in her hair. He could feel her clutching at his biceps, testing his strength, and this provoked a soft growl in the back of his throat. Vanessa responded with a muffled murmur of satisfaction, then the long kiss began to break down into shorter ones, punctuated by quick gasps for air.

"Fer—" Her sweet voice struggled to form words. "F-Ferb—" A deeper breath, then, "Ferbouche…"

Blinking, he raised his head to look at her. Through a haze of bliss, he saw her smile, and heard her whisper, "You really are a genius." Her lips gave his one last caress as she reached out a trembling hand to start the elevator again.

Stepping apart, they shared a look of mutual delight as they went to work on composing themselves before they reached the top floor.

A/N – Talk about serendipitous! After doing "Caller," I got inspired to write this kissing-in-the-elevator scene, and the last random word I had left was "hitting," and I thought, hey, yeah, I can use that, and… Here it is! Up to now, I've written most of the romantic stuff from Vanessa's point of view, so it was interesting to switch to Ferb this time.

Well, only one more to go. The 12th and final Vignette was actually one of the first ones I wrote, but I held it to the end because I thought it would be a sweet and fitting finale for this sequence of stories. You'll have to wait till tomorrow to see what it is…