Disclaimer: Don't own Phineas&Ferb or any of it's characters

Rating: T

My first fanfic for these two since... ever. Feels like forever as well, not just in time, but in difference of writing style and experience. Still, I hope you enjoy.

"You sure this is going to work, Ferb?"

"It'll take some doing, but he'll come around. And you've tried everything else."

She sighed, annoyed, but he was still right. "I just um, gotta be literal? Exact?" she asked again.

"Basically."

"Well, he doesn't understand sarcasm" she admitted, toying with the bow in her hair. "Or mixed messages that could mean something else, or overt hints... *sigh* yeah, I've got little else to try."

"Just give him room to breathe when you reveal it" he merely said, then walked off; giving the two of them their privacy.

She breathed in and out, then steeled herself and opened the backdoor door. "Hey, Phineas" she greeted.

"Hey Isabella" Phineas greeted back, not currently looking at her because he was searching for some spare parts.

She ignored that. "Whatcha doing?" she asked, a little coyly by instinct.

He missed it, as usual. "Searching for parts" he said, now looking at her, his arms full of bolts, nuts and other such things. "I'm not even sure what it is I'm building, but I'm gonna try it without Ferb today; it's part of our bet."

"Cool" she said, genuinely interested, before reminded why she was here. "But while you're doing that, can I ask you something serious?"

He simply shrugged his shoulders, smiling. "Sure, part of our bet is if I can carry on deep, serious conversations while I build my thing. It's a subsection."

"You have subsections in your bet?"

"Well yeah."

A beat, then: "Fair enough" she said a little brightly, then watched as he continued to work on whatever it is today. "Alright Phineas, there's something I've always wondered about-"

"Yes?"

"-aside from 'understanding' the concept" she continued, secretly air-quoting the word behind her back. "-what do you think? A-About romance itself?"

"Hmm?" he breathed, blinking, pausing in his work. "That's an outta-nowhere question. Do you mean a non-analysis over the subject?"

"...basically" she said slowly, carefully; meanwhile, her heart was starting to pound.

Phineas glanced up, then continued with his work. "I've never quite thought about it like that" he admitted, like it wasn't a big deal. "And to be honest, I always thought that thoughts about romance could wait until puberty - whenever that happens to me, being less than fifteen."

Her spirits sank a little. "You mean, that you're incapable of understanding romance, or flirting? Or even if you did, you wouldn't be sure what to do?" she asked, wanting to know. However, in the back of her mind, she thought this was still working; as long as he thought it was a simple conversation and nothing more, Phineas was content to talk about just anything. A literal-minded mindset if ever there was.

"Incapable?" he questioned, glancing up again before looking back down at her, his hands still working. "No, I understand just fine, but I wouldn't be sure how to react - because so far, I haven't gotten a romantic overture that I recognized-"

"Yeah, that you recognized" she thought ruefully.

"-and anyway, like I said, that's the territory of puberty, and why waste the time of simply being a kid?"

She lit up slightly; here was her chance. "What if you could do both at the same time, just being yourself?" she asked brightly, before adopting a fake 'oh no' tone. "Then again, that'd be close to impossible-"

"Impossible is my middle name" he said mildly, briefly walking past her (for what he was building). "Only thing is, as I wouldn't be the one to start things, I'd have to get a romantic overture just to try that in the first place."

"Well, we could make a start on that" she said to him sweetly.

"What?"

"On the mixed messages you've been sending!"

He blinked four times, one right after the other, and the last one delayed after the others. "Mixed messages?" he asked, glancing up, opened his mouth to say something before thinking better, and thinking some more. "Wait a minute, to Ferb, Buford, Baljeet-?"

"To me!" she exclaimed, almost shaking.

He looked at her blankly, but not disbelieving. "Romantic mixed messages?" he eventually asked, to which she sighed and nodded. "I-I'm sorry, Isabella, but when did I ever send you such messages?"

Giving him a fairly -_- look, she pulled something from her dress. "Well, why don't we just take a look" she said wearily, then unraveled it with one hand. The bundled-up list in question fell to the ground, then continued unrolling toward Phineas, around him three times, then past him way out of frame. Phineas followed this every movement, waited in silence as it stayed out-of-frame, glancing at her (she didn't change expression) - then the still-unrolling scroll moved across the top of the fence in the background, his eyes following this, even as it moved out-of-frame again. In far shorter time, it came back into the frame, just in time to stop unrolling a foot away from him.

"Wow, that's a really long list."

"Yes, yes it is."

"Wasn't it heavy? And how did you carry that without me noticing?"

"You have no idea" she breathed, before blinking. "...and I'm not sure" she admitted faintly.

Another beat, them looking at each other before: "Okay" he said, with his usual cheerful tone, before his attention returned back to the scroll. "But where do I start?"

"At the end, with the most recent examples" she supplied, heart pounding.

He did so, picking the very end of the scroll. "Hmm" he breathed, looking at it. "That picnic basket... yeah, that could have a romantic overture, if intentional" he admitted, before continuing, his nose poking the paper. "Let's see, then there was that giant puppet Fireside Girl, and I asked you if you wanted to take that next step... I thought something was weird about your reaction. Hmm, the commentary, steampunks-versions-of-ourselves-that-we-weren't-actually-present-for... the shoes?"

"Hmm?"

"What about me ignoring your shoes is a mixed message?"

"Because we were at a Halloween Bash party, Phineas" she said. "I was trying to invoke a Cinderella moment by having you pick up my shoe and return it to me, but you misunderstood -aside to herself: again- twice. But after that, you said it was better if we both danced with no shoes on, and we did dance together."

"Oh" he breathed, blinking once. "Ohhh, that makes some more sense."

She went -_- again. "Is the big picture piecing together or not?" she asked, spirits still sunk.

He glanced up, then back at her, but not answering - despite herself, she saw the time passing by as a comical day-to-night-then-back-to-day cycle going by. Didn't actually happen, but it might as well have done so.

"...I think so" he said, rather hesitant. "The problem is, I don't know what to do; I didn't think I needed a romance plan this early" he continued, throwing up his arms a little.

"If you're worried about this affecting our friendship, you don't have to! No matter what we think of each other, I'm always gonna be here to help with your Big Ideas" she said soothingly. "Well, except for when Fireside Girl commitments or other matters interfere, but still."

"Well that's a relief" he said, sounding more like himself, for the moment. "However..."

"You don't know how to take this revelation" she breathed, sad.

"I'm afraid not."

She started walking. "Right, I'll just be going then" she breathed, sad, but still thinking this was enough progress for a lifetime.

"Isabella-"

Despite the hope, she turned her head. "If you're gonna say that I can help with what you're building, save it" she breathed, sad, but still smiled. "You and Ferb have a bet; I don't think my interference would be fair."

"That's not what I was gonna say" he said quickly, heavily surprising her, especially when she saw that he was nervous. "I may not know what to do exactly" he continued, "but if I've been causing you trouble with these mixed messages I never knew about before, I can't just ignore this, can I?"

She tried really hard not to jump the gun here. "...I guess not" she said, facing him, about five feet away (giving him his space).

"Still, even if this ended with me being with you, Isabella, romantically, I wouldn't know what to do" he said, thinking. "Wait, wasn't there something about couples enjoying the physical benefits, while still only being friends? What was it called again? Friends with... uhhh, something with a B-"

"Benefits" she eventually supplied.

"Yes, that's it!" he said cheerfully. "What do you say?"

"...I really don't know" she said honestly.

"Hmm?"

She sighed again. "Well... this whole ridiculously-extended summer, I've been wanting us to lead toward a romance, Phineas. I'm overjoyed that you're fairly okay with being friends-with-benefits, I am! Just- I was hoping for more. Guess I simply had my expectations too high."

"I'm really sorry, Isabella" he said sincerely, coming closer to her, and putting his arm around her shoulder (in the friendly way). "But I didn't even know I was causing you trouble, until now."

Much as his arm was making her feel warm, she didn't dare do much more, other than smile and blush a little. "You still don't have to do this, Phineas" she said softly. "Not if you don't want to."

"Do you not want me to, Isabella?"

"Absolutely not!"

A beat, then: "I'm gonna assume you meant the 'not' part" he said mildly, before scratching at his chin with his free hand. "Still, I simply won't know how to make a first move" he added. "Of any kind, least at first."

"I can teach you" she said shyly, blushing again. And to start, she took his free hand in hers.

He looked at this, opened his mouth to say something, only to say like that for awhile – then he slowly closed it, looking between them again. She was relieved; at least he appeared to be thinking that this could be a romantic moment, and he wouldn't wish to potentially ruin any of those. Still, after enjoying it the first few seconds, "You had something to say?" she teased.

"Yeah, I was gonna ask if this was one of those romantic holding hands moments" he said, then chuckled. "They can be misinterpreted as just friendly, you know."

She giggled as well. "Well it was an attempt at one" she said softly. "But you didn't want to ruin it, even with the obvious urge to ask if it was such a moment. That's progress."

"Sweet."

"And one more thing" she added slyly.

"Hmm?"

She grabbed him by both cheeks and kissed him, making his hands jerk.

"*gasp* Isabella!"

"Now I'm done" she said with a giggle, liking that look on his face.

He touched his lips with his hand, then slowly laughed a bit. "This is gonna take some getting used to" he said mildly.

"Yeah" she agreed, before smiling. "So, what were you thinking of building with those nuts and bolts?"

He easily slid into that explanation – she heard a few words of it, but took the moment to go 'Yes!' behind his back, silently squeeing before snapping back to normal.

I don't think there's much more to add here lol