A/N: Alright, I recall some guest users who reviewed suggesting that I add a dynamic between Phineas and Ferb (btw, in this headcanon, he's in London), as well as some background FerbNessa stuff. Idk why but I ship older girl - younger guy couples (e.g. Wendy x Dipper from Gravity Falls), it's only a background pairing as I'm focusing on Phinabella plus my OCs.
Bella was pissed. Not because Phineas didn't text her a sweet Valentines message yet, but also, she has a full day of classes. She was aware that her boyfriend had a shift at the bus garage to cover for one of his colleagues when he played in the sportsfest – both would be particularly busy on this day of hearts and love. The mass comm freshmen were assigned to do a project proposal, which was due before spring break this March. This caused unrest among those guys as they only had a month and a half to complete it, in addition to their other academic requirements.
During a two hour break, Bella, Jessie, and Princess were accompanied by Gretchen, Stacy, and Adyson; the latter thought it would be best if she hung out with her former Fireside Girl comrades every once in a while. They were at a diner just outside campus called Coastal Clear, which sported a nice view of the NYC Harbor Inlet and the Statue of Liberty. It was a common place for students to hang out there, and since it was lunch time, the diner was jampacked.
"I can't believe it. Gretch finally landed herself a date!" Adyson ranted. The girls were talking about their respective days for the night since it was Valentines day.
"Calm down A, you're more excited for my date than whoever you're going with." Gretchen riposted.
"I still don't know where Phinny's gonna take me tonight!" Bella added.
"Here's hoping him and Kelly aren't planning on a double date Bella." Stacy chimed in, "I just don't feel comfortable having friends join us on our date. No offense girl."
"None taken Stace. I'd feel the same if I brought Jessie or Princess as third wheels or vice versa, with Phineas and his colleagues."
Jessie and Princess glared at the ravenette Latina. "Hey!"
"Come on guys, I don't want you to effort being our third wheels." Bella continued.
"You're so lucky I'm taken at the moment." Princess said flatly. Jessie, on the other hand, groaned indignantly at her friend's comment.
"Why is it every time we talk about dating, I'm the odd gal out!" Before anyone could interject, the waitress came to their table.
"You girls want another round of peach pie?" she offered. The girls agreed to have one more slice each, with one exception.
"OMG I'd love to, but I have to cut my carbs." Jessie grinned, rubbing her belly.
"Really Jessie? Cut carbs or cut your expenses?" Princess sniggered, causing a roar of laughter from the other girls.
"Fine, I'll just take one more slice." the blonde cheer captain replied to the waitress.
At the bus garage, Phineas had a full working day – two brake jobs, an A/C cleaning job, and breaking in a new coach. Him and James were together on the latter job – James drove the first leg, while Phineas took the return trip. The duo left at 5 minutes before 10 AM and made their way to Philadelphia, an hour-and-a-half drive from Danville, to conduct tests on performance, passenger comfort, and amenities. The tests went off without a hitch; as for the drive, since it had snowed just recently, they couldn't drive to the maximum speed limit.
By 2:30 in the afternoon, the two mechanics had just pulled in with the test drive unit – over an hour behind schedule and with Phineas driving. He parked it in front of an empty work bay when a certain black woman called just as he turned the engine off.
"Hey Phineas!" Holly yelled, "Someone's looking for you."
"Unless that's Dawn, can you tell them we just got here." Phineas riposted, disembarking from the bus.
"You're in luck dude, it is me." Dawn appeared from behind Holly, whom returned to the bay she was working on prior to their arrival.
"Oh hey there chief, what's up?"
"Can you drive me to Newark at corporate? I have a meeting with the HR head about getting us some more interns." Dawn explained.
"We're gonna take this lot?" the redhead pointed at the bus they just brought in.
"No, silly!" his boss laughed, "I wanna save you the effort of finding parking for this new girl, so your truck is fine."
"Oh." Phineas replied, dejected.
"I take it you love these newly rebuilt Volvos?"
"Hell yeah." James beamed, "Engine's quiet, tranny shifts like a dream, and I love this power adjusting – wait, did you say rebuilt?"
"Yup. Remember that time when we collected those 50 Hino RK buses from Danville Express last year?" The two men nodded. "Well, the guys in Baltimore did the rebuilding. They swapped out the old Hino chassis and engine with brand-new Volvo B8Rs, but they retained the bus bodies." Dawn explained.
The trio talked about how they were given the privilege to test-drive the rebuilt bus, and how they wished they could've got a contract to rebuild at least a couple of those buses. Just then, Phineas' phone rang and saw Bella as the caller ID.
"Excuse me for a sec." He walked to a quiet part of the shop and answered his phone. "Hey babe! What'cha doin'?"
"Trying my best not to rage on this stupid project proposal in cultural communication. It's due before spring break." Bella huffed, before she reverted to her normal sweet tone. "Anyways, what time are you gonna pick me up? I'm all done by three, but I still have soccer practice til five-ish."
"How's five-thirty sound?" he offered, "I'm done with my job orders for the day, but Dawn and I are gonna head to Newark for a corporate meeting."
"You going on a meeting? Now that's something new."
"She's the one going. I'm only gonna drive her there and back here."
"Alright honey." Bella giggled, "By the way, where are we gonna go tonight?"
"I'll give you a clue: wear a dress." her boyfriend teased.
"Is it one of those semi-casual getups? Coz I swear, if you're gonna wear that greasy work shirt of yours-"
"Yes, it's semi-casual, and no, I've got an outfit Kelly picked out for me."
Bella giggled softly. "I'll see you later then, love you!"
"I love you back!" Phineas ended the call as he walked back towards where James and Dawn were chatting. Turning to the latter, he asked, "Shall we go?"
"Yup." she nodded.
The drive to Newark was mostly uneventful, save for a small accident up on the road, causing a slight delay on their arrival to the JAI Express corporate HQ. Phineas and Dawn shared their plans for their respective Valentines dates tonight, which lightened the mood. Normally, a manager-employee relationship like what these two have would be frowned upon, saying that it isn't the 'traditional' way of doing business. But since the 29 y/o Latina is a millennial and some of her employees are older than her, Dawn is viewed as the cool older/younger sister to the JAI Danville garage crew.
When they arrived at the HQ, Dawn told the redhead she'd be in and out in two hours tops. He decided to pass the time by video-calling Ferb, who was in London; a 5 hour time difference from the US East Coast. He saw his step-brother online on Messenger and pressed the video call button, which rang for a moment before the green haired man came into the camera view.
"Hey bro! How's the English life?" Phineas greeted.
"Same old, man. Vanessa adjusted pretty well to living here. Oh wait, I'll call her." Ferb called his girlfriend, then a moment later, she came into view.
"Is that Phineas?" she squinted her eyes to get a good look.
"Yes love," Ferb replied, then snuck a kiss on her cheek. "Say hi!"
"Hi Phineas!" Vanessa greeeted.
"Hi 'Nessa! How's life in London?" Phineas called Vanessa by the pet name he gave her. At first, the voluptuous brunette despised the name, but as time went on, she thought it was cute having her boyfriend's brother give her a pet name.
"I love it so much!" she smiled, "Are you on a day off?"
"Nope. I'm waiting on my boss who's on a meeting. She asked me to drive for her since we didn't have much work to do."
Ferb and Vanessa shared their life of living in the UK, where they share an apartment in London with the former's cousin Eliza and her fiancé. She's only a year younger than Vanessa but is a month older than Candace. While Ferb took on civil engineering at Camford-on-Oxbury, Vanessa got into the fashion industry as a designer for a well-known clothing brand in the UK. She moved in a month after Ferb started his classes there, and thanks to him and Eliza, the Drusselstein-born woman acclimatized smoothly to the English lifestyle.
By the time Dawn returned from her meeting, Phineas was still busy talking to Ferb and Vanessa, and didn't even notice her until she was inside. "Oh, you're back."
"Yep." Dawn peeked at Phineas' phone, "Who's that?"
"It's my step-bro and his girlfriend. She's 6 years older than him." He returned to his phone, "Guys, I'd like you to meet Dawn, my manager." The two lovers greeted the 29 y/o Latina, who simply smiled at the couple.
Dawn and Phineas talked to Ferb and Vanessa for a while before the latter couple bade goodbye; the drive back to the garage was mainly quiet - except when Dawn shared boring details about her prior meeting. When they arrived, she handed Phineas a small envelope that had his and Bella's name in the front. Since his payday wasn't due until next week, he was confused as to what the envelope may contain.
"What's this?" he asked.
"You gotta open it to find out." Dawn smiled, looking at her engagement ring.
Phineas dug the envelope open, revealing an invitation for his manager's wedding. A purple and gold themed card that read out 'YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO THE WEDDING OF ERICA DAWN AND JASON FRANCIS'. Below were the date of the wedding, set for March 24, and the venue is at a garden villa on the outskirts of Danville.
"No way!" he exclaimed, "You just gave me a reason to wear a suit in spring break!"
"You better bring Bella there, or else I'm cutting half your salary!" she teased.
"I hate it when you drop the salary card." Phineas shot back sarcastically, although the smile on his eyes proved otherwise. "But seriously, I'm happy that you and Jason would finally tie the knot after all this time."
"Me too. 3 years together, yet we're engaged longer than we became BF/GF – he wasn't my first but he's my last." Dawn blushed.
After accompanying his boss back to her office and punching his time card for departure, Phineas drove back to his apartment to fetch his girlfriend for their Valentines date. He first took a shower to rid of the smell of grease, before wearing the outfit Kelly had put out for him – a pale beige short-sleeved polo, dark brown jeans, and a pair of black dress shoes. Once he fixed his hair and splashed on his favorite perfume, Phineas headed for his girlfriend's apartment on the adjacent building. He rang on their doorbell and a few moments later, revealing his ravenette Latina girlfriend, wearing a lacy black dress, a black choker with a silver heart in the middle, and matching black and brown wedge sandals.
"Hey baby." she greeted seductively.
"Woah," Phineas gasped, "Y..you look lovely."
"Thanks." Bella blushed, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him in for a kiss. "You look handsome yourself."
"I wanted to try something new. You might think I'd have a rack of my usual attire or something." he teased.
"Can't say I'm surprised." Bella said sarcastically. "Let's go!"
The couple drove to the Chez Couteaux, a classy, semi-casual French restaurant in Middleton. Phineas ordered chicken cordon bleu and bisque, while Bella had beef bourguignon and Caesar salad. The waiter offered them French Merlot, to which Phineas politely refused, stating he's driving. Instead, the waiter returned with Henriot, a brand of French champagne, and served it to the couple. After the main course was finished, they ordered a crème brûlée, to which they shared.
"Who would've thought a simple bus mechanic could end me up on a date like this." Bella said, in awe at how fancy their night had been.
"I wanted to make a good impression." Phineas shrugged.
The Latina blushed profusely. "Aww. But you know honey, you could take me out anywhere as long as I'm with you."
Back at the house, Phineas offered Bella some red wine he stored for 'special occasions'. Since this happened to be one of them, they drank way more than what they can tolerate, especially Bella. Unlike Phineas, she wasn't used to drinking alcohol, let alone getting drunk as a skunk. This caused her to be more forward with her redhead boyfriend, initiating make out sessions like there's no tomorrow and even got his shirt off.
"Mmm," Bella grinned deviously, after pulling from her lover's lips. "I could get used to that aftertaste." She ran her hands across Phineas' naked chest, feeling the muscles he'd accumulated from work and play.
"Me too babe." Phineas cooed.
They continued to make out and strip some more, until eventually, the two young lovers fell asleep on the couch – with Bella on top of Phineas, laying her head against his chest. They were so deep in their sleep that they didn't notice Kelly arrive from his date, around 10:30 PM. Fortunately for him, both Phineas and Bella were mostly clothed – shoes were scattered on the floor, as well as a polo and a black strapless bra, which he knew for certain did not belong to Stacy.
Let's hope they don't get a serious hangover. Kelly murmured before he went to his room.