3. (Love)

Phoenix was just plain bright.

Not only in intelligence – he seemed a little above-average on that aspect, but he was kind and sweet, and knew just how to brighten a room and make people laugh. He liked pranks, too, elaborate, Rube Goldberg-type pranks that no matter what made people laugh, even whoever was pranked. In a few simple words, he was the love of Linda's life for the longest time.

He was a singer – a rock star, of sorts, who played a little guitar and drums (he was horrible at the drums, but he still played them at times) and sang. His voice was deep and kind of scratchy at points, but instead of messing up the lyrics, it sometimes made it even better. He poured real emotion into his music, and wrote his own songs. Tiana was probably his biggest fangirl back when she was thirteen and Linda was twenty. It didn't help that her older sister was dating the guy, which led to a lot of picture-taking and embarrassing questions, because Tiana liked to pry when she was little.

Phoenix was his real name, not just his stage name. It was Greek; apparently he was named after his grandfather. Telling her friends that she was dating (and later, marrying) a guy named Phoenix was a strange affair, until they met him and got to know him better.

She loved him. But at times like this, she really wanted to smack him.

"We're going to have a baby!" He shouted at Linda's family's Christmas party – four months after they married – much to the shock of his wife and her family, until he started laughing and said he was kidding. "I just wanted to get everyone's attention, to say I'm going to be an architect. But yeah, we're still trying anyways."

"Do you have any ideas for names?" Tiana jumped in, grinning.

"We aren't naming him Phoenix." The former rock star stated. "That leads to a lot of teasing. Especially if he has red hair." Which was pretty inevitable, since both he and Linda had red hair. Different shades, sure, but red all the same. "We really haven't been talking about it much."

"Because nothing has happened yet." Linda glared at her husband, who only laughed and hugged her close. "That was supposed to be private."

"They're our family, Lin." He whispered back, too low for anyone else to hear. Then, loud enough for everyone to hear, "I was thinking Betty, after you, Mrs. Flynn. Or Gertrude, after my mother."

"You're worried about Phoenix, but not Gertrude?" Tiana wrinkled her nose. "How about Candace? After Grandma?"

Phoenix considered it while idly running a hand through Linda's hair. "Candace Gertrude." Linda snorted. "It sounds kind of…"

"I like it," Phoenix threw in, grinning. "Candace Betty? Betty Candace? Gertrude Candace—"

"You seem certain we're going to name our daughter Candace. What if we have a son?"

"Candace is a unisex name…" He trailed off, obviously kidding. "Clyde? If we have a son?"

"What about your dad?"

"What's so bad about Clyde?" Clyde roared with laughter, unable to keep up an annoyed look on his face for more than a few seconds. Tiana joined in, and soon everyone was laughing. Phoenix said something Linda missed, and the laughter grew. Without really wondering why, Linda did, too, and she'd never been so glad as to not be Lindana anymore. So many stars went down the drain, losing their family and friends, everyone they once loved. Not all of them, but plenty did.

"I love you," Phoenix whispered in her ear, surprising her and shaking her from her thoughts. She smiled.

He always knew how to brighten things up, even if they were already bright to begin with.

This one was... weird. It kind of bothers me for some reason, and I'm a little defensive about posting it.

Word Count: 669 (eventually, they'll get longer. /shrug)

WMGs: Phineas's & Candace's dad was a musician/was Greek (both Candace & Phineas are Greek in origin)/ was an architect (I hinted at this one, barely.)

Why Phoenix? Because it sounds similar to Phineas and fit the whole same-sound first and last name before I realized that Flynn seems to be Linda's maiden name. So I didn't give him a last name. Plus, Phoenix would be cool as a stage name. There's probably been someone with that name, but of well. (And yes, it's a real name. :D)

Fun Fact: Firefox tried to correct "Pranking" to "Planking" and I am now annoyed. :\