Phineas POV

After we finished our breakfast, Isabella and I worked on cleaning up the dishes to relieve Mom of some of her duties. You would think that it would be incredibly awkward doing dishes while more than handcuffed to somebody else, but it was actually more productive then if we would have done them separately. Even though our hands had been merged for less than a day, we were already used to each other and could work as a team to accomplish seemingly anything. I would hold a dish under the flow of the faucet while Isabella would clean it with the scrubber. Then I put it in the dishwasher and the process would repeat. I just hoped that it would last.

And of course, my hopes had to be dashed when we answered the door to the delivery man, holding some parts. Those parts were needed to assemble the molecular separator and separate Isabella from me. There wouldn't be any more of that strange and exciting stuff (I still don't know what to call it) between Isabella and me, we wouldn't be around each other anymore.

"Hi Phineas," he said."Here's the shipment of parts you ordered for today. Its funny, I usually find you in your backyard."

"Yeah," I said, "We'd normally be up and at it, but I lost track of time this morning -" Isabella gave a little squeak and blushed "-and broke my streak of beating the alarm clock."

"That's too bad. I've gotta go deliver some parts to a Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz now, hope you kids have fun!" And with that the delivery man left, leaving Isabella and I staring out at the street depressingly. I began brainstorming ideas to prolong the creation of the molecular separator longer, but then realized that if we didn't get unstuck soon, we wouldn't be able to shower or do things like Isabella's Fireside girls. Besides, Isabella was probably tired of being around me constantly. Drat.

I let out a sigh. "Well I guess we can get unstuck now," I said, finally breaking the silence in a very unenthusiastic tone.

"Great," she replied in a similar manner, her eyes downcast.

After another moment of silence we trudged back to the living room where Buford, Baljeet, and Ferb were now playing Settlers of Catan. I'm not sure how they managed to get the whole game set up and get this far in the game in such little time, but Baljeet was winning with Ferb a small margin behind. Buford had not progressed a single step and was complaining about how Baljeet had cheated by being too smart.

"Its not fair!" he grumbled, "I'm telling you, there should be an IQ limit on this game, and yours is too high! Normal people like me can't compete!"

"Well maybe if you did your homework instead of forcing me to every day of the year, you might have acquired a little more knowledge! Did you ever wonder how I got so smart, its because I had to write every essay and complete every math worksheet TWICE!"

Buford and Baljeet continued arguing while still somehow still progressing through the game at a rather quick level. It was fairly entertaining to watch them, but then I saw that the clock read 11:10 and realized that if we wanted to seize the day, we would have to start right now.

"Hey guys," I said with false enthusiasm. "I know I already told you yesterday, but I know what we're gonna do today." I forced a smile, but it was strained, and I bet everybody noticed it. "We just got the parts from the delivery guy, now we can reassemble the molecular separator."

"Good!" Buford said, standing up and throwing his resource cards on the coffee table, "I was getting tired of being beaten by this nerd!"

"Wait!" screeched Baljeet, "I'm about to win! I just need one more turn!"

"Nope," Buford replied, "You had your chance and now its gone! You lose! Haha!"

"And for the record," Ferb said, "I think I just won." Indeed, Ferb had beaten both of them while they were arguing with each other.

After Baljeet checked, he let out a frustrated yell and ran outside. We followed him to the backyard and started work on rebuilding the molecular separator. As we were worked, Buford and Baljeet continued on with their usual frenemy conversation and occasional threat, but Isabella and I (and obviously Ferb) stayed quiet. It wasn't really awkward, I was just unhappy about having to be separated and wasn't in my usual energized mood.

The project took a lot longer than usual to finish because of my less-than-normal vigor, so it was already noon when we finally completed it. Isabella and I stood in position a few feet away from the others, me holding the separator.

"Well, here goes," I said to Isabella, glancing at her. She gave me a smile, but it looked like she had an almost pained expression. I flipped a switch, and the machine shot a ray at Isabella and I, too bright for any of us too see. We shielded our eyes and I felt a strange bubbly sensation come across my hand and up my arm. As the light died away, I looked down to see that though we were still holding hands, they were no longer combined!

I let go of Isabella's hand and brought mine up to eye level, making sure that each of the fingers worked by grasping at the air. I saw that Isabella was doing the same, checking to make sure her hand was back to normal. The machine had done its job, but I was still feeling rather down. "Why can't I cheer up?" I thought.

Suddenly I had an idea. We could make an emotion changing machine to get me out of my gloomy mood and back to normal! I thought for a bit that it was a selfish idea that would only benefit me, but then I remembered that Isabella had been looking sad too. That way, other people could use it too, and it made me feel less guilty.

"Hey guys," I said, "I know what else we're gonna do today. In case you haven't noticed, I've been feeling kind of down lately, and I think we should use the molecular separator parts to build an emotion changer machine that can change everybody's attitudes. Anybody up for it?"

Everyone agreed that building an emotions changer machine sounded like a good idea, even if it wasn't particularly fun. The emotion machine would look like a tall, white dome about the size of Perry, and would be equipped with a touch screen and laser to shoot the emotion. Work was started immediately to complete the project, and I had a bit more incentive now that I knew I could soon get out of this somber mood. Ferb and I worked on creating a light ray connection between the brain and the machine to transmit the emotion, while Buford and Baljeet welded the body of the machine together. Isabella worked solo on the electronics, and before we knew it, the emotion changer was complete.

Before we could use it, Candace came out to see what we were working on. When she saw the strange contraption set up in the backyard, her eyes narrowed and she yelled "Phineas and Ferb, what are you guys up to?" Ferb went over to explain to Candace, holding his hand out at me to say "I'll use the machine later."

"Okay guys," I said, "Who wants to feel what?"

"Oh, me!" shouted Baljeet, raising his hand. "I want to become really smart!"

"Is that really an emotion?" I heard Isabella say, and I shrugged, scrolling through the options on the emotion changer's touch screen. Sure enough, it was on there, even if sophisticated wasn't actually an emotion. I aimed the laser at Baljeet and pressed the fire button.

The laser let out a wavy purple beam that hit Baljeet and surrounded him with a purple hue. When it disappeared, Baljeet was left looking exactly the same as he did before - I wondered if maybe the machine hadn't functioned properly.

"Yes!" Baljeet shouted, "I just discovered and calculated the last digit of Pi!" Well, I guess it had worked, though none of the group could really tell because Baljeet was already a massive brainiac.

"What about you, Buford? What emotion do you want?"

Buford thought for a moment, and then replied that he wanted to become more tough. Again, this didn't really seem like an emotion, but it was also listed in the machine. I smiled, Ferb had done a great job with the emotion changer's capabilities. I shot Buford with the purple ray as well, and was surprised at the end result. Buford had gained a bunch of muscles and had a more menacing look on his face than before, overall looking like a much "tougher" bully. I had no idea that the emotion changer could alter physical appearance.

"Its just you now, Isabella. What do you want?" Isabella smiled.

"I'll choose whatever you choose, Phineas," she told me, taking my hand in the process. I reddened a bit at this and smiled, then we walked away a bit from the machine to get ready to be zapped.

"Hey Buford, could you shoot us with the happy emotion?" I asked, not wanting to let go of Isabella's hand and do it myself. Buford replied "Sure," in a low grunt, and walked over to the machine. He changed the setting to what I assume was happy, then pressed the button and fired it at us. The purple beam hit us, and I felt a strange, almost unpleasant twist in my brain. When it was finished, I was surprised to feel no happier at all. I still felt depressed from before, and was actually irritated that it didn't seem to work.

"What, why didn't it work?" I exclaimed, annoyed that the machine had malfunctioned. I let go of Isabella's hand, balling my hands into fists. "Dumb machine!" I said, walking over to it and kicking it. The emotion machine let out an electrical static noise, and then the touch screen went black.

"Phineas, you just broke the machine!" I heard Isabella say, and I turned to face her. She was staring angrily at me, hands on hips and her eyebrows scrunched together.

"Well it doesn't matter!" I shot back. "The stupid machine doesn't even work on us, so I'm still stuck in this depressed mood just like you!"

"What?" she replied sharply. "I was not depressed. I was super happy, especially since we got separated!"

"Well that made me happier too! I am so glad I don't have to be next to you all the time now!"

"Me too! You were starting to drive me crazy, like you are right now!"

We continued arguing with each other, gradually throwing out harsher insults at each other and increasing in volume, until the dispute was beginning to get out of control.

"Don't you learn anything at that little Fireside Girls club?" I taunted at one point. "Maybe it should be called the Firedied girls, because you're all too stupid to even keep a fire going!"

"Yeah, well, they're smarter than you!" Isabella said through through clenched teeth, "You and all your ridiculous, lousy inventions!"

"If they're boring, then why do you even come over every day?" I responded. "Why don't you just stay at home since we're such boring people!"

"Yeah, well, maybe I will!" she jeered in my face, stepping forward, and I shrunk back just a little, fire burning in my eyes.

Ferb POV

After I finished explaining to Candace our latest invention, she stormed inside yelling "Mom!". Of course I knew that she was trying to bust us for building these things, but I wasn't worried. She had never succeeded anyways, and probably wouldn't anytime soon.

I followed Candace inside to use the washroom, and when I was finished Mom asked me to help her fold some laundry. I graciously helped her and thanked her for being such a great Mom, but secretly itched to return to the gang. When we finally finished I ran back outside, and was surprised to hear ... fighting?

I opened the back door to see Phineas and Isabella yelling at each other in a fearsome dispute. They kept throwing insults at each other, and for no explainable cause. "Phineas and Isabella never fight, what could have caused this?" I thought to myself. I then thought of a cause, and turned to look at the emotion machine. The screen was black, but I just had to shake it to fix it. When the display flickered on, I gasped as I read that the setting was not on "Happy", but on "Angry"! I then realized that Phineas and Isabella were only fighting because they had been shot with an angry emotion, they would never act like this in their normal selves.

I saw that a Baljeet and a bodybuilder-body Buford were awkwardly watching the whole thing, and I motioned for them to come over. They walked over to me next to the machine, still watching the fight. I pointed at the screen which read "Angry", one of my eyebrows raised.

Understanding dawned on Baljeet's face, he now recognized why Phineas and Isabella were quarreling. Buford, however, did not understand.

"They were hit by an angry ray, not a happy one," Baljeet explained, and Buford let out a loud "Ooohhh".

"Whoops" Buford said, an embarrassed expression on his face.

"What is it?" Baljeet asked him.

"I may have forgotten to make sure the setting was on happy."

I had an idea on how to get them out of this mood. We would just zap them again with the happy emotion, and the problem would hopefully be solved. I whispered my plan in Baljeet's ear, and then he addressed the fighting couple.

"Hey Phineas! Isabella!" Baljeet shouted over their clamor. "Stop fighting, I need you to stand next to -"

"Stay out of this Baljeet!" Isabella yelled back, interrupting. "Phineas needs to learn some respect!"

"What do you mean, I need respect?!" Phineas scoffed, "Your the one who just interrupted Baljeet, just like you always do!"

I was about to call them myself, but then I noticed and watched as the now-buff Buford (I assumed he used the tough setting) began to shrink back to his normal stature. In a moment he no longer possessed any dangerous-looking muscles and was back to regular old Buford.

"Aww man!" Buford said over the commotion, "I thought I was going to have these forever."

I realized that if Buford's 'emotion' was wearing off now, that meant that Phineas and Isabella's anger would wear off in any second too. I decided to wait for it to finish, but right before it did, Phineas let loose an insult far worse than the others.

Isabella POV

I couldn't believe how mad I was. For some inexplicable reason, I just felt this overwhelming feeling of hatred at Phineas emanating from my brain. There wasn't any concrete reason as to why, but I was just really in the mood to argue and to make Phineas feel bad. Ever since he had built that stupid emotion changer earlier today, I just felt like I wanted to kill him (figuratively)!

"Why are you being such an idiot right now?!" I yelled at him. "Just admit that it was your fault, not mine!" I wasn't even sure what we were accusing each other of, but it was an easy way to fight, and I liked it.

"MY fault?!" he jested, "If anything this was your fault, you've got serious problems if you can't see why."

"There is NOTHING wrong with me!" I yelled ferociously, "It's YOU -" I pointed at Phineas"- who's the problem! Maybe the your blaming me now is because I didn't get any sleep in the night because I had to sleep next to you and your snoring!"

"Are you kidding?" he shot back. "You're the one who climbed into my sleeping bag during the night, it's your fault you couldn't sleep!"

"Yeah, right!" I yelled, "You probably just moved me in there in the night because you're a creep and you LIKE me!".

"Like YOU?!" he sneered, an evil grin coming over his face. He then started laughing and even cackling a bit, bending over to get enough air. Each one of his (and my) insults kept getting me fired up, but this one just startled me.

When he calmed down a bit, he told me the worst insult of everything he had said that night. "You actually think I'd like you? What is there even to like?! If you want somebody to like you, you need good looks, smarts, and a good attitude, NONE of which you have! Maybe you should see if your pet chihuahua likes you!"

That remark hit me hard. All of my anger dissipated at once, replaced by a new growing sadness and despair. My huge crush I was head-over-heels with had just told me that nobody, let alone him, would ever like me, that I wasn't cute or smart enough. I just stood there, staring into his eyes, my mouth slightly open. His expression slowly turned from one of hatred to a blank expression. "He doesn't like me, he hates me," I thought, and my lower lip started wobbling. I started breathing in and out faster and faster, and I felt tears coming on. "No!" I thought, "I can't let everybody see me cry!". But I couldn't control it, and tears started running down my face. I tried suppress my crying a little longer as I stared back into Phineas's eyes. Suddenly I couldn't hold it any longer and let out a loud sob. Then I ran out of the Flynn's yard, crying all the way home to my house. I opened the front door and ran up the stairs, tripping on a stair and spraining my ankle in the process. But I didn't care. I limped into my room and slammed the door, then collapsed on my bed and cried.

Phineas POV

I watched as Isabella ran out of my backyard, sobbing all the while, and then ran across the street, presumably to her house. I just stood there, unsure of what just happened. I felt all of the anger vanish from me at once, as if it were never there in the first place. I saw that all of my friends were staring at me in not anger, but shock. Even Ferb had his mouth gaping open at me.

"What..." I said quietly, trying to figure out what had just happened. "I didn't mean to make her cry," I said to nobody in particular. I couldn't believe I had just done that. This was all my fault, I was the one who had started arguing with Isabella, it was me who had started yelling and was being so mean! Why were we arguing, I never argue or say mean things! What we were arguing about didn't even make any sense, but at the time I couldn't see reason. I felt like such a huge jerk, almost everything I had done to her after our separation was mean in some way or another. I just ruined our great friendship, and what's worse, I had recently taken a liking to Isabella, there's no way that anything between us would happen now.

"I'm sorry guys," I said, "I don't know what's happening to me today. Do you think you guys could forgive me?".

"Its Isabella you've gotta forgive, Phineas, not us," Buford said.

I sighed, walking over to our tree, and sat down. "It won't matter," I said, "I just wiped out our entire friendship, there's nothing to save". I bowed my head down and sighed, feeling sorry for myself. I was actually entertaining the idea of hitting my head against the tree when a voice spoke up.

"That's a lie and you know it" Ferb stated broadly, as I looked up in surprise. "You've known Isabella since you were 6, and this is the first time you guys have EVER even insulted each other, let alone got in a fight. And what you said to her was wrong, and we all know that, but now we're past that and you have to clean up the mess you made. One fight isn't going to destroy your relationship, no matter how serious. Now you'd better get over there and apologize now, and go get back your best friend!"

I looked at Ferb again as inspiration struck. Yes, the fight was terrible, but I could get Isabella back! I thought of all the great memories we had shared, especially the collection of new additions from the past 2 days.

I stood up with a smile on my face and hugged Ferb. "Thanks, bro," I told him. Once I let go I looked at Buford and Baljeet. Both of them were now smiling and nodding their heads, urging me to go on.

I gave them a nod before walking out of my backyard and to the Garcia-Shapiro's with determination. Yep, time for me to make amends.