Adventure Awaits

Hi again everyone! Did you miss me? I missed you guys! For those that don't know, this is a sequel to my fic Crimson Temptation. I recommend you read that one first. However, you definitely do not need to read Crimson Temptation to enjoy this fic. On the other hand, Crimson Temptation is really short so I don't see why you shouldn't give it a glance if you are so inclined.

In my last fic, Crimson Temptation, I say Finn is 13 even though it takes place in the fourth season a little after Return to the Nightosphere/ Daddy's Little Monster. I know the creator said Finn is 14 in the fourth season, but the headcanon for this fic is he actually turns 14 in the middle of the fourth season, which is what this fic is about.

Also, Jake was a baby when Finn was; however, he is 28 when Finn was 12. The explanation? Dogs mature a lot faster than humans. So where Jake may be 14 human years, he is 28 (or so) in dog years. Also, please don't look too closely at the dog and human ages in this fic. It will all fall apart if you do.

Thanks so much to by beta Forgotten Hero for looking over this chapter and helping me with the grammar, and more importantly, making sure I say true to the characters.

Disclaimer: I do not own Adventure time and I make no money by posting this fic.

Chapter 1: Surprise Visit

Being a teenage magical dog kind of rocked. All the other teenage dogs in the neighborhood wanted Jake on their side for sports because of his stretchy powers, they always invited him over to hang out, and he considered himself well-liked by pretty much everyone in town. The extra attention Jake received might also be attributed to his older brother, Jermaine, who was loved by everyone in their town and whose popularity was then extended to Jake. His brother was only four dog years older than him, and Jermaine was always seen as the mature, dependable one out of the two brothers. Sometimes it got on Jake's nerves that his dad referred to Jermaine as 'the responsible one' as if Jake couldn't be responsible. Just because Jake was fifteen and didn't have a job like Jermaine did at his age, or because he would rather go out with his friends than finish his chores, didn't mean he couldn't be responsible if he wanted.

The unyielding sun beat down on the little field the teenagers were playing in. The heat of the day forced the dog group to take a break from playing pawball and rest in the shade of the trees.

"Jake! Jake!" a young voice called, and the pack of dogs looked up to see a small creature running towards them with all its enthusiastic might.

Lacy, a pale dog with long shaggy hair, snickered to herself. "What, were you supposed to be babysitting today, Jake?"

Jake frowned at his friend's snarky comment and made his way out from under the shade to greet the little seven year old human boy.

"Hey, bro," Jake greeted with a toothy grin, placing a hand on his brother's head affectionately. "What's up?" He noticed a new band aid on his brother's forehead beneath the white bear hat he almost never removed. "How did you get that?" he asked.

"Oh." Finn placed a hand over his new injury and gave his older brother an embarrassed smile. "I tripped when I was out with mom today."

Jake chuckled. "No dude, you have to come up with a better story than that." Finn tilted his head in confusion. "You have to come up with an adventurous story! One where you take out a bunch of monsters twice your size," Jake explained as he punched the air to emulate a fight. "You have to make the story as awesome as you can, alright?"

"Alright!" Finn nodded enthusiastically. "Ask me again, Jake!"

"Okay." Jake paused, and then with as much enthusiasm as he could muster he asked, "Finn! Oh no!" He grabbed his brother's shoulders to add to the dramatization. "What in Glob's name happened to you?"

Jake's acting sent Finn into a fit of giggles.

When Finn was able to recover from the laughter, he put on a serious face and announced as heroically as possible: "Don't worry, Jake! I beat all the bad guys! There was this evil ghost monster with… with two heads! And this werewolf with no head! And a vampire! The king of the vampires! But I beat them all with my magic sword!"

"Did you?" Jake gasped, pretending to be impressed. "All that and you only came out with a tiny scratch! Well done!" he complemented, and Finn beamed.

After a second, however, Finn's face fell into a frown.

"Wait, Jake, isn't this lying?" he asked, pouting his bottom lip in worry, "and isn't lying wrong?"

Jake waved his hands around in utter disregard for Finn's concerns. "Nah, nah, nah, it's not lying. It's a story, dude, like pretend play!"

"Oh! Okay!" Finn agreed. "Someday I'm going to be the best adventurer and it won't be pretend anymore!"

"Hey, hurry up, Jake!" Rodney called from the group of dogs in the shade. Jake noticed his friends had decided they had spent enough time cooling off and were ready to start the game again.

"Coming!" Jake called over his shoulder. "Hey, Finn," he began, already smirking in anticipation of the excitement that would soon come from his little brother once he asked his question. "Do you want to play pawball with us?"

Finn squealed and jumped up in down in pure excitement. "Yes, yes, yes!"

Jake laughed. "Okay then, come on. You can be on my team."

Finn followed his brother, practically skipping alongside him as they walked to where Jake's friends were waiting.

"Hey, if it isn't the mini adventurer," Lacy teased, "Fight any new monsters lately?"

"Yeah!" Finn announced, "A two headed vampire! And a ghost with no head!" he paused in confusion. "Wait, no… a king with no head…no …that's not it…"

Jake's friends snickered at the human boy and Jake narrowed his eyes. He knew his friends well enough to know their laughter was far from kind. He placed a hand on Finn's head. "Finn is going to be joining us for a game, alright?"

His friend's laughter subsided almost immediately. Jake's ears perked up; if his friends had something to say then they should just say it.

"Jake," Rodney began, "can I see you in private for a moment?"

"Umm." Jake and Finn glanced at each other in confusion, both shrugging their shoulders at the same time. "I guess?" Jake agreed.

Honestly, Rodney should have been more explicit because apparently the word 'private' really meant 'everyone in the group besides Finn', because Finn was now standing alone next to the tree looking on as the group of eight dogs talked some distance away.

"Jake," Rodney began with some concern. "You're my best friend so I'm going to just say it: Finn can't play with us."

"What! Why?" Finn had played with them plenty of times before. Jake didn't see the problem.

"He's can't keep up with us!" Joey, the largest dog in their group, explained. "He's always holding up the game!"

"But he can ride on my back! It's not that big of a deal…"

Jake glanced over at Finn who had found a large stick and was now pretending it was a sword and was using it to fight invisible monsters.

"You say that, but then he always does his own thing," Rodney explained. "He can't run as fast as us, he can't kick very far, he's not a good player, Jake." The rest of the dogs nodded.

"You're not a good player either, but you don't hear me complaining," Jake muttered.

Rodney gave him a look. "Jake…"

"So what!" Jake blurted out angrily. "So he's young, it won't kill you to let him play one game!"

"It's not just that he's young," Lacy corrected, stepping forward slowly. "We've been around him ever since we were pups, but he hasn't changed that much. He's just… slow. It took him forever to learn how to talk or to do anything on his own. It's just kind of sad…"

Jake felt a growl build up in his throat, but he attempted to swallow it down even though it made his insides burn. "He's human! You know humans age differently than dogs!"

"No, Jake, no one knows anything about humans. When was the last time you've heard of anyone seeing a human?" Joey asked pointedly.

Jake's ears flattened against his head. Humans had been missing for decades, maybe even centuries. Everyone was astounded when Finn had just appeared out of nowhere.

"Listen," Lacy began, "I know he's your… umm, brother or whatever, but he should probably be with other humans, not with dogs. He doesn't really fit in, you know?"

What? How could she even say that?

Jake could hear his heart pounding in his ears and he clenched his fists to his side.

"Lacy," Rodney warned quietly, "that's a little uncalled for."

"What!" she defended. "I'm just saying…"

"What she's trying to say," Rodney talked over her as Lacy continued to grumble to herself, "is Finn should probably play with creatures on his own level, or at least wait until he is old enough so he can keep up with us."

Lacy scoffed. "Yeah, like that's going to happen."

Jake squeezed his clenched fist tighter and he felt himself shake with anger. He wanted to scream; he wanted to punch Rodney right in the snout, yell at him and inform him that Finn was a much better best friend than he was being at the moment.

Instead, he said, "Fine, Finn won't play if that's what you guys want."

Rodney sighed in relief. "Thanks, Jake. I'm glad you're not taking this the wrong way."

Jake rolled his eyes and turned around to face Finn. "Is there a right way to take it?" he muttered to himself.

Finn was no longer playing with the stick he had found, and instead, he was sitting on the roots of the tree with his head in his hands.

Jake approached the little human and sighed dispiritedly. This was not how he expected today to go. "Finn," he started out cautiously. "I know you wanted to play pawball with us, but it's really hot and I'm getting tired. Why don't we head home? I think mom was planning to bake some pie today."

Finn nodded, unusually subdued. "Yeah, okay…"

"What?" Lacy yelled. "Jake, you have to play! We need you on our team!"

Jake whirled around to face her, giving the female dog an unusually harsh glare.

Before Jake could snarl any of the comments that burned in the back of his throat, Finn jumped up and grabbed his paw. "Let's go home, Jake," he requested quietly.

"Jake, we didn't mean you have to leave!" another one of his friends shouted, but he just ignored them as he and his brother headed down the road to their house.

Finn was quite as they traveled down the gravel road together. Usually, Finn was running ahead, climbing on rocks and jumping out of trees.

"You okay, bro?"

"Why are there no other humans around?" Finn asked suddenly, tilting his head upwards so he could look at his brother.

Jake sucked in a breath and came to a halt. "You… heard us," Jake said slowly while mentally cursing his friends.

Finn nodded and kicked a rock at his feet.

"I'm really different," Finn admitted sadly.

Jake absentmindedly adjusted his brother's hat. "Yeah, you are," he agreed gently.

"I-I don't fit in."

"Finn…" Jake protested, but his brother just shook his head.

"I don't belong," Finn whispered, and it broke Jake's heart to hear in his voice how much Finn really, truly believed that.

"Finn." Jake gripped Finn's shoulders in reassurance. "That's not true. You do belong, with us. With mom, and dad, and Jermaine… and the best brother in the whole world: me!"

Finn giggled a little, though his eyes were still somber.

"Who cares what those guys say? Who cares if you're different? Everyone in Ooo is different!"

"Yeah, but that's not the same. Dogs are like other dogs, house people are like other house people… no one is like me."

"I know, man, but that doesn't mean you're alone. You have your family. You belong with us."

"But what about my human family? What happen to them? Why did they abandon me?" Finn looked like he was about to cry, but he was holding back. Dad had told him that only babies cried, and ever since Finn had tried not to 'act like a baby'.

"Finn, remember what dad always says? Blood doesn't make a family. Family is people that care about you. You already have a family, so does it really matter if you don't know what happened to your human one?"

Finn frowned down at the ground. "Yeah," Finn said, slowly nodding. "Yeah it does matter, Jake."

Jake sighed. "Yeah, okay buddy." That wasn't the answer Jake wanted, but he wasn't surprised either. He couldn't just expect Finn to ignore the difference between himself and his adopted family or never wonder where he came from. He put his arm around his little brother's shoulders. "Come on, let's go home."

Half an hour later, Finn and Jake were sitting comfortably at home stuffing their face with their mother's apple pie. The pie had lifted Finn's spirits almost immediately and he was now grinning ear to ear while informing Jake about what the two of them should do for the rest of the day.

Jermaine walked through the front door, most likely just getting off work. "Hey guys," he greeted.

Finn jumped up immediately and ran to greet the oldest brother. "Jermaine! You're home! Guess what? Jake and I are going to the creek!"

Jermaine smiled down at the little boy. "That sounds fun, Finn! I actually have to talk to Jake; you should go grab your backpack and make sure you have everything you need."

"Okay!" Finn ran off to his and Jake's bedroom to get his bag.

"What's wrong?" Jake asked gruffly, feeling semi-defensive. When Jermaine wanted to talk it was usually about something Jake had done wrong.

Jermaine shook his head. "Nothing's wrong, man, I think it's nice you want to take Finn to the creek, but I was thinking I would give you a break from looking after Finn. I saw your friends were playing in the field when I walked by. Why don't I take Finn and you can go hang out with them?"

"Well, what if I want to go to the creek too?" Jake snapped, crossing his arms.

Jermaine blinked, surprised at his hostility. "Whoa, okay… I think I missed something here. What's wrong?"

Jake turned his back to his brother. He really didn't want to talk about it. "Nothing… those guys are just jerks is all."

"Ah," Jermaine commented. Jake glanced back at him, and Jermaine had a knowing look on his face as if he understood. But the thing was, Jermaine didn't understand, he couldn't. Everything had been so easy for Jermaine. The older dog would never know what it is like to live in the shadow of a perfect older brother, or understand how heavy the expectation had gotten now that his brother was moving out in a few months. Finn was the youngest so their parents didn't expect much from him yet, and Jermaine was the oldest so everything he had done was impressive and wonderful because there had been nothing to compare it too. Jake, on the other hand, was stuck in the middle. He was expected to do just as well as Jermaine or better, and he wasn't able to get away with acting immature like Finn.

Jermaine was never home anymore either, because he was either working or with his girlfriend. It was like their brother had already moved out and abandoned them.

And the way Jermaine was talking about Finn… it was like he was a burden that they had to take care of. Finn was far from a burden; Jake liked doing things with Finn often more than he liked hanging out with his "friends." He knew Jermaine didn't see their younger brother as a burden either, but after what his friends said about the human boy, Jake was feeling a bit defensive.

"Okay, I'm ready! Let's go!" Finn shouted, almost tripping as he ran back to them with a large green backpack that was almost as big as him.

"Good," Jermaine praised. He glanced over at Jake. "Why don't we all go to the creek together?"

Jake couldn't help but smile at that idea. It had been a long time since the three of them had hung out together as brothers.

The doorbell?

That's weird, Jake thought as he glanced around the Treefort. Were they expected anyone this early?

"I'll get it!" Finn shouted as he jumped over the couch Jake was sitting on and did a flip.

"Dude, do you know who it is?" Jake asked his more-hyper-than-usual brother.

"I think Marceline may have come over early." Finn opened up the door and froze. From the angle Jake couldn't see who is was.

Suddenly, Finn squealed and jumped on the visitor.

"Jermaine!"

So, Jermaine will be a character in this fic and I'm going to take a lot of creative liberty with his character, since we don't know much about his personality. I think you guys will like his role in the story; it will definitely keep things interesting. There will also be no romance in this fic as usual. I really should write a romantic AT fic one of these days though… I kind of really want to…

Also, this will probably be the only "flashback chapter" we get to see, but yay for setting the basis for the rest of the fic! So, I hope you enjoyed the start of this much longer sequel. The next chapter will be out soon. Please review and let me know what you thought so far! For those of you who know me, you know how much I appreciate reviews.