Chapter 12

Finn and I were 13 again and were playing hide and seek in a spacious field with tall grass and the whimpers of tiny gnomes preparing for their harvest. I bobbed up out of the grass and shook out my short, curled hair. Straight ahead, I saw the little white bear ears always donned by my Finn.

I giggled out of sheer glee and ran over the grass to tag him. Of course, my big pink dress is never quiet, so he heard me coming and began running away from me laughing his head off. I caught up to him and tackled him to the ground.

"No fair, you cheated!" he said.

"How do you cheat at running?" I said, giggling.

"I don't know, but I'll get you back for it!" He had a mischievous smile and began to tickle me all over my ribs.

I rolled over, threw my head back, and we both laughed wildly.

"Finn!" I said between laughs, "Stop! I'll get you!"

I managed to shove his hands off me and tickled him back. He squirmed and jerked when I tickled him by his tiny love handles. When his voice got hoarse with laughter, I bopped him on the head, "You're it!"

Then I ran. I knew he was behind me. I had adrenaline coursing through me, making me feel alive and excited. No royal obligations. No people trying to take Finn. No worrying about the ethics of being with Finn.

For the first and only time ever, I was just experiencing the pure joy being a kid falling in love for the first time.

I had just begun to shimmy up a tree when I heard a voice say "Bonnibelle that is not very lady-like."

I jerked my head around in shock to see my mother before she gave me a rebellious little smile, "Mind if I join you in being un-lady-like?"

I jumped out of the tree and screamed "Mama! Where have you been?"

She hugged me tightly. "You know I've been in Aaa and now I'm…" her voice began to fade. I felt my fingers go through her; she was turning into wisps of smoke right before my eyes.

"Mama?" I shouted, grabbing the air in panic, "What's happening? Are you coming home? Why have you been gone so long?"

I fell to my knees, hung my head down, and let the tears fall.

At some point I must have lay down in the field and fallen asleep. I felt a warm gentle finger wiping the tears from my eyes. When I opened them I saw Finn inches from my face, poking out of his sleeping bag, with a concerned expression. He had the hint of a smile when I looked into his eyes.

Before he had the chance to say anything I burrowed myself into his chest and hugged him close to my body in the grass. I heard a little gasp of surprise from him and then he quickly squeezed me back whispering "It's ok, Peebles. Don't be scared."

While we were hugging I realized how much shorter than me I was. I finally realized that memory was only a dream. My spirit sank when I realized I was 18 again and I pushed him away suddenly.

"Did I do something wrong?" he asked in a bewildered voice.

"Why were you sleeping so close to me?" I lashed out. I stood to get further away from him.

"I wasn't! Aww, PB, please don't think I'm pervy! I heard you crying in your sleep and I came over to wake you up! That's honestly all it was." He looked ashamed and confused.

"I don't need you to wake me up from nightmares, Finn! I was dreaming about something really personal and I'm an adult who can handle my own personal issues." I was pacing back and forth now. I was not sure why I was so angry, but I just was.

"Well, I don't get it!" cried Finn, tossing his hands up. I looked at him in shock; he'd never once lost his patience with me.

"What, Finn?" I growled.

"Well, you woke up and looked at me so sweet. Then you hugged me so tight and I never wanted to let you go. Then you bounce up and you're all yelling at me! What the glob did I do wrong?" His voice had grown increasingly higher as he talked. He sat up and put his head on his knees. I felt a huge pang of guilt as I realized he wasn't mad at me at all- he was blaming himself.

I kneeled by him and put my hand gently on his arm. He didn't move.

"Finn?"

He was silent, but looked up at me.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have blown up at you and you deserve an explanation."

"Ok…" he mumbled.

I sat down next to him and stared off, remembering the vivid sensations from the dream. Closing my eyes, I said "I dreamt about the time we were playing in the field."

"Oh." he smiled, hearing I still thought about that, but then looked confused. "Why would that make you all crazy?"

I sighed. "I also dreamed about something else at the end. Something I've been very nervous about- nothing to do with you, though!" I reassured him quickly. "Just something that's been on my mind."

"Oh." he said, too timid to ask for deets given my recent scene.

"Anyways, the dream felt so real. When I woke up I thought I was still 13 and-"

"That's why you hugged me like that." said Finn flatly.

"Well, yeah, I'm glad you understand." I smiled gently. "When I realized that I was 18 again, I was just confused, worried, and conflicted. That seems to be how I always am these days. I was angry that we couldn't go back to that field for realsies."

Finn stood, looking towards the ground. His face looked contorted and distraught.

"Finn?" I was not liking where this was going, "If it makes you feel better, that time in the field really is one of my favorite memories ever."

"But that's all it is for you. It's just a memory." he said slowly. "You're not able to have that same feeling now; like I do. The formula didn't work, Princess."

"What are you talking about? I haven't aged a second since I-"

"Does that really matter?" asked Finn, sounding exasperated, "You were mad because I'm still too young, and you were embarrassed about hugging me so tightly, like you would have when you were 13."

I hung my head, "You're right."

"Why did you even take that formula in the first place?"

"Because, Finn, I want to have that with you again. We just might have to…" I was not sure if he would take this well, "wait a few years. I know that we're going to be the same age, but we're not right now, and liking you in this way is just flippin' me out!" I grabbed my hair and pulled at it, "I am so tired of feeling wrong every time I like someone!"

"Princess?" his voice was soft and calm, "I'll wait for you. I don't like seeing you conflicted like this. I don't want you feeling all weird with yourself because of me."

"I'm sorry, Finn."

"It's ok, PB. I mean, I'm the one I asked you to take it slow and then right after that I kissed you! I know I've been sending you mixed signals, but my body has been telling me to do weird stuff lately. I'm should be saying sorry." He fidgeted with his hands, looking uncomfortable.

"It's ok, Finn. I've been doing the same thing. I kissed you back, didn't I?"

He nodded with a dopey smile on his face.

"Look," I said, "instead of apologizing all day, we've just got to agree to put our feelings aside for a few years, ok? You concentrate on finding your family and fighting evil, I'll concentrate on ruling my kingdom, and we'll both concentrate on being friends."

"Ok, sounds good." sighed Finn, but he looked distracted. He then turned to me and quickly said, "Please, can we kiss just one more time?"

"Do you really think that's a good idea?"

He groaned, "Probably not, but it's so weird! I want to wait until I'm a little older to date you, but when I'm around you I feel all funky and I…" he trailed off and looked away from me. Wow- Jake really needed to have that talk with him.

"It's cool, Finn." We just sat there for a few minutes, watching the waves. I was actually pretty glad I was able to get that off my chest. I just hope it had not hurt Finn too much. There was only one thing I didn't say- I didn't want him to wait for me. If he actually found other humans, it didn't seem right for him to wait for the chance to be with me. Wouldn't the next step after finding humans be to integrate into their society and eventually marry to help save his species from the brink of extinction?

What if he was one of the only males? He'd probably have to have several wives in order to have any hope of saving his species (I read many cultures used to do that). I shuddered and cast a sidelong glance at my innocent little Finn. Had he actually thought that far ahead? Surely he could love a human girl more than a girl mutated in a petri dish with a wad of gum for a dad that had to take an age freezing potion to be appropriate for him?

"Finn, what if we're not right for each other?"

He glanced at me sadly, "I think we are, but I'm not going to try to convince you. I'm going to try and show you. In a few years when I get all this junk done, I'm going to be the man that you need me to be."

What if Finn wasn't even worried about making more humans? What if he just wanted to find some sort of sense of belonging- some rite of passage? He didn't seem to think me not being completely human made me a bad match for him. I just wondered if he would feel different if he actually met other humans (aside from his aunt).

I thought about how amazing it was that he'd actually found his aunt just by chance under a manhole. Then that his sister just so happened to be friends with my uncle and we were going to meet her that same day. What if finding all the humans was this easy?

Jake, Susan, and Beemo emerged from the woods soon after that with breakfast and we set off my uncle's castle. We got to the kingdom within an hour and we all gasped. Mama was right when she said that it was bigger than ours. Spires of pink and white candy stripes must have been twice as big as the ones back home, and cupcake towers dotted the horizon below them.

Walking through the town, candy people instantly recognized me as part of the royal family, and began to clear a path and greeted us pleasantly with small bows and curtsies. A few of them seemed to know my name and we heard it whispered every so often.

Once I even thought I heard a little lollipop boy whisper "Who's that fleshy kid that looks like Miss Fiona?"

How well known was this girl here?

Jake waved to all the people saying "yo, what's slippin', how ya doin'…" He clearly enjoyed the attention.

Susan stared hungrily at every citizen who addressed her and her hands shook with the effort to restrain devouring the citizens.

Finn was strangely quiet and his eyes looked all glazed over. He completely ignored all the chatter and town noise around him, with his eyes fixated on the castle. When we reached the Peanut Brittle doors the size of trees all he did was stare upwards, like he was a computer in the process of crashing.

"Are you ok, Finn?" I asked once I'd caught up to him.

"Gleeeeghhherrrmg." he groaned.

I shrugged and banged the big knocker on the door. A tiny peppermint person in a maid uniform answered and her eyes widened in shock.

"Princeeeee?" she said in a high-pitched voice.

I heard steps and then my uncle was in the door staring with his mouth open. He and I were the same age- Mama's sister was quite younger than her. I hadn't seen him since I was 15 when he came to visit our kingdom for the summer. He hadn't changed much; he was just a little taller, with shorter hair. We looked like we could be twins. I always wondered if he was straight. He stuttered a little bit and then shook his head to compose himself.

This was not the welcome I was expecting. "Umm, hi Uncle Gumball? It's me, Bonni."

"Bonnibelle, hello! It's so good to see you! Why didn't you write to say you were coming?" He leaned forward and awkwardly hugged me.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think it would be a big deal. I wanted to surprise Mama."

"Ahh, I see." said Gumball with a concerned look and nodding to himself. "Well, come in, make yourself at home. You must be tired from your journey." He walked in and beckoned for us to follow him.

"Oh it wasn't too bad!" I started, "We had this amazing chicken tournament that-"

Gumball stopped in his tracks, whirled around and said, "I'm sorry, Princess, but I must tell you. Your mother is not well."

"What?" I said angrily. I could not believe she had not told me in her letters.

"Please don't be mad. She didn't do this to hurt you." he stopped and looked behind me, as if he just barely noticed Finn, Jake, Susan, and Beemo.

"It's ok." I said, waving my hand towards them, "Whatever you have to say to me they can hear."

His eyes had locked on Finn. "You? Are you human?"

"You're slam-bammin' right I am!" said Finn as he cocked one eyebrow and put his hands on his hips.

Gumball blinked several times and said, "Sorry, I know I must seem like a spaz, but you just look so much like-"

"Fiona?" I finished.

"How did you-"

"Well, seeing Mama was only one of my purposes of coming here. Finn, this is my uncle Gumball, but he's closer to my brother. We spent every summer together when we were kids before he had to take over this kingdom when he was 16." Finn stepped forward and high fived him before pulling him forward into a bro hug. Then I pointed, "This is Jake- Finn's brother, Susan- Finn's aunt, and Beemo, their tiny video game system, who pretty much just came with us because he's terrified of the vampire who's house-sitting for them."

"Wow, ok." said Gumball nodding, "Not to be blunt, but why did they come with you? Is Finn your betrothed for the kingdom who you took to meet Beatrice?" Beatrice was the name of my mother.

"Why would you assume that, Gumball?" Finn looked hurt at the bite in my words and I flashed him an apologetic glance. I was mainly just getting ticked that he was avoiding telling me what was wrong with Mama.

"Oh, I am sorry to be presumptuous, I-"

"Just let me see Mama, Gumball."

He sighed, "Ok, but just you. She is not strong enough for any other visitors. I can have my maid take your human friend into the forest to look for Fiona if you like."

"Actually," said Finn as he stepped forward, "may I please come with Princess Bubblegum? I think it's important to meet her mother."

"Why is that, young Finn?" he asked skeptically. Finn leaned in and whispered something in Gumball's ear, which was met by a knowing smile and a clap on the shoulder. "Very well, Finn." Then he turned to Peppermint Maid, "PM, please see that the rest of our guests are fed and showed to their quarters."

We were instructed to vigorously wash our hands and then walked down the hallway following Gumball. I didn't bother asking Finn what he'd said to Gumball because I knew neither of them would tell me. Gumball stopped at the door at the end of the hallway. It was twisted with red licorice and had a purple-grapey hue that matched the tone of Mama's skin. My heart was beating so uncontrollably that I wondered how Finn couldn't hear it.

Gumball turned to us, "Please, don't be shocked. Don't say anything to her that may stress her. If she can't manage to explain everything to you then I will when you come out. I'm sorry we've kept this from you, Bonni."

Finn and I both nodded obediently. He nodded back curtly and slowly creaked open the door, "Aunt Beatrice? You have some visitors." I heard a faint, weak voice answer.

We walked in and saw this massive bed with no one in it. Finn and I both looked around in confusion until we saw Gumball motioning to the bed.

When I looked closer, I saw that on top of the bed, was a much tinier bed with a spread around it that looked much like a dollhouse living room; on the sheet, there was a tiny bedside table with tiny books and a tiny lamp. There was a tiny licorice rug with a small china plate of food crumbs on top of it. On top of the miniscule bed, used tissues the size of dandelion seeds were scattered messily.

"My Bonnibelle, I didn't want you to find out this way." came the smallest voice I'd ever heard. I leaned in to see a head the size of a large butterfly's poking out of the covers. She I heard the small chrip of her sneeze and she pulled another little tissue out of her dress.

"Mama?"

She struggled to sit up. Her lavender skin was pale and I could see little bags under her eyes.

"You are just as beautiful as I remember you, Bonnibelle. Will you bring me up to your face so that I can hug you?"

She spoke so sweetly that I could not help but honor her strange request. I cupped my hands awkwardly around her feather-light body until she kind of fell into them. I brought her up as smoothly as I could up to my face as she kneeled on my palm.

She struggled to stand and collapsed on to the bridge of my nose. I felt the strange sensation of her squeezing my nose and saying "I am so sorry I didn't tell you."

I wondered what Finn thought of all this. From the corner of my eye I could see him standing unsurely next to a chair by the bed. He must have known not to introduce himself yet. This was my time with her.

"Why, Mama?" was all I asked. I was in no mood for the royal formalities I'd known my whole life. I wanted answers.

She looked around the room and her eyes rested on Finn, going slowly up to his hat, "You've recovered the memories from the Noodler, haven't you?"

"Yes." I said curtly.

"Then this is Finn?"

"Yes, Mama."

Finn smiled nervously, "Hello, Ms. Bubblegum."

"Come here, boy, let me look at you!" she said with tears in her eyes.

Finn stepped forward and carefully cupped her into his hands. She touched his face slowly and said, "It is so good to see you alive."

She looked at me and saw my lack of confusion at her reaction to Finn, "You've recovered your memory from the Noodler?"

"Yes."

"Well, good. I don't know how you did it, but it will make my story much easier to explain. I suppose you should both sit down."

Finn set her back onto her bed and my mother went on to tell about the foreign policy trips she always went on to Aaa when I was a child. My suspicions were right- she was going over there about the goat-pigs, to protect Finn, and everyone in our kingdom as well. For years she was a stellar diplomat, getting most of the followers of the goat-pigs to stop hunting humans and sign peace treaties. The goat-pigs were all sterile, rogue results of military experimentations that the Lich cloned for his own purposes, so slowly they began to die off over the years. However, when the last, strongest, and most stubborn goat-pig assassinated Gumball's parents, it was taken as an act of war.

Mother waited for the soldiers of Aaa to find the convict because she did not want to leave me with the kingdom at such a young age. However, when there were no possible leads after a year, she decided she had to take personal action for the justice of her little sister and brother-in-law. She knew more about the culture of the goat-pigs than any other candy people did from working with them so intimately to create peace. She lied to me about needing to help Gumball rule the kingdom because she did not want me to worry about her and have it affect me ruling the kingdom. Gumball, while he was young, had excellent advisors and had relative peace with the citizens, who seemed to band together under the tragedy of the assassinations. Most of the letters she wrote to me in the first 6 months were from the wilderness- searching, homeless, and in camouflage clothing- yet she made up fake, boring details about life in the castle that I never thought to question. In reality she'd only been to the castle twice before her illness and that's when she met Fiona. I always knew my mom had combat training during the time of the Dog-Rainicorn war, but I had no idea she could still use it.

I felt every notion about what it meant to be royal change inside of me. Here was my mother, the "bad liar"- sacrificing everything for her kingdom, but being a lone rogue in the process; not the role of the queen and sheltered diplomatic nerd she'd raised me to be.

She said that when she finally found the last goat-pig, he was hiding in an abandoned zombie library learning dark sorcery. However, she did not know this until she threw a spear through his chest with sickening accuracy. As he lay dying, she felt her body grow weak and saw everything growing bigger around her.

Seeing the sorcery books around her in the pool of the creature's blood, she pieced together what had happened very quickly. He had put a curse on his own body that whoever should kill him would shrink until her body was too weak to stand and she fell over dead as well. That was the only reason no one had killed him yet; he usually warned enemies what would happen to them, but my mother was so stealthy that he never got the chance to do that.

Knowing a bit of sorcery herself, Mama said a quick chant to negate the effects of the curse. She stopped shrinking when she was no bigger than a butterfly, but she could not undo what had already been done.

She summoned the falcon who usually delivered my letters. He took pity on her and instead delivered her to Gumball's castle. She wanted to return to Ooo, but Gumball insisted on caring for her while his staff of private investigators looked all over the land for a way to reverse the curse. She agreed that was probably the best thing since she was sick at the time. She did not know that she would almost always be sick. The curse lowered her immune system incredibly. She always feared that she would not make the journey back, and was always scared to have me have to go through her seeing like that.

I was angry, but how could I say anything when I knew she got sicker from stress? I deserved to know and she lied to me under the ruse of protecting me. What if she had died and I never got to say goodbye to her because of that lie? It was in the past now, though. I was actually a lot like her- willing to do anything to protect my kingdom and the people I love, but to afraid to get intimate in personal relationships. I kept Finn's past from him telling myself it was because he wasn't ready, but really I was scared of how close it would bring us.

We talked a little about her journey. I said that I would bring her back on The Morrow and do research myself in my lab to restore her health. She deserved to be in her own home once more, and we were sure she could make the journey if I designed her a sanitized chamber to make the journey in. We decided to let her rest and were about to leave the room.

I knew what this meant, though. I would not be making the journey with Finn.

"Excuse me, Bubblegum? May I have a moment alone with your mother?" he was solemn and I knew he realized we'd be saying goodbye soon, too.

I thought it was a strange request, but I only gave a melancholy smile and backed out of the room.

About ten minutes later, Finn came out of Mama's room with an oddly chipper expression.

"What was that all about?" I asked.

"You'll know some day." he said with a wink.

I rolled my eyes, "Well then! Nobody wants to tell poor, sheltered Bubblegum what's going on! Everyone's afraid I'll explode if they tell me anything!"

"No, it's not like that PB! I'm just not ready to tell you, ok?"

"I can understand that." I said, smiling. I was the girl who kept his past from him for months, so how could I be annoyed at him for this?

"Soooo, that was pretty whacky, with your mom being tiny, huh? She sounded like she was pretty kick-butt back in the day. Are you alright, Peebs?" he said, looking up at me.

"Yeah, it's just-" I let out a long sigh- "a lot to take in. I probably won't see you for a very long time."

"I know." he said flatly, lowering his eyes from mine.

"I know you've got to be in a rush to meet Fiona, but do you want to take a walk? Just one more time for us before everything gets even crazier?"

He nodded and took me by the hand. We didn't say much. It was like there was all this pressure for the moment to be special and that just made us both overly formal.

In the forest I stopped. We'd already been walking an hour. "I need to work on that chamber for Mama, Finn. Do you want to just, you know, say farewell here?" I did not like long goodbyes.

Finn looked away, with his hands balled into little fists, "Yeah, I guess that's math. Bye, Princess. I like-like you. A whole lot."

"Fare thee well, sweet Finn. I will write to you every week, my knight."

He swelled with pride at me calling him "my knight" and promising him letters, "I won't forget you, Princess! Every monster I slay will be in your name! Whether we find more humans or not, I will come back for you!"

"Finn, I-" before things could get any more mushy, we heard a loud noise coming from deeper in the forest and the scream of what sounded like a girl.

Finn drew his sword and spun around. "Someone's in trouble, Princess, I've gotta go!"

Finn ran off and I followed close behind him. As I got closer the screams sounded less like cries for help and more like the yells of an experienced fighter.

Finally, in the clearing, I saw a gigantic, shaggy, brown, magical wolf shooting neon-colored light beams out of its mouth at what looked to be a teenage girl. She was dodging so quickly that I couldn't really see anything else about her.

I heard Finn's wild war yell above me as he leapt on top of the wolf and strung his hands around its neck. The neon-colored beams started to shoot into the sky as the wolf struggled.

"WHY ARE YOU PICKING ON LADIES, WOLF?" Finn yelled.

"I'm not, we're just practicing!" the wolf choked. "Please get off me, Mr. Human, I didn't know this would be a 2 against 1 fight!" Surprisingly, even though it was 10 feet tall, the canine had the voice of a small girl.

"Oh," said Finn bashfully as he hopped off her, "Sorry, m'am."

"Hey, kid, what the stuff do you think you're doing? I had her right where I wanted her!" came the feisty voice of the girl.

Finally she was still and I could see her clearly. My mouth fell open. It was Fiona- it had to be. She was a cute, curvy girl with knee socks, a skort, a sword, and that same white rabbit hat she had as a baby. Her face was very similar to Susan's, although she looked a lot like Finn, too. Coming out of her hat, I saw one very thick, wavy lock of Finn's trade mark hair that I was so obsessed with recently.

Her and Finn stopped when they saw each other and just stared. Then they walked up to each other, cocked their heads, and started to do a weird little dance.

Finn did the spaghetti arms dance, and she copied. Fiona flipped her sword through the air and struck it through a nearby log, and Finn copied. Then, at the same time they both took their swords out of the log and began to slowly clang them against each other. Before I could figure out what was going on, they were in a full blown sword fight with each other!

Great. They haven't even spoken yet and they were already fighting. I watched helplessly as their swords clashed against each other and they both just barely dodged the other's blows. After 10 minutes they finally slowed down, realizing they were pretty evenly matched.

"You're not too bad." Smiled Fiona, not sounding the least bit winded. "We should fight junk together."

Finn just nodded.

"So, um" Fiona started, "Why do you look like me? Are you human?"

"Yeah. You're Fiona right?" smiled Finn.

"Whoa, oh my glob, another human? I thought I was the only one!" she pranced around with her hands on her cheeks in glee, but then stopped dead with one foot still in the air, looked back at Finn, and said slowly "Wait, how do you know my name?"

"Because I came here to find you." said Finn nervously, "I'm not just human. I'm your twin brother."

EPILOGUE

The next morning I had already finished Mama's chamber and we were ready to leave (I stayed up all night).

"I'm going with you." said Jake to me as our whole posse gathered to see us off.

"What, Jake? Why, bro? I know PB has to leave, but why you, too?" Finn's eyes were a little moist, but he wiped them subtly and quickly. His newly found sister next to him was tougher than he ever suspected and he did not want to look like a weenie in front of her.

"Finn, I know you may not understand, but I need to be there for Lady Rainicorn. I've missed her like crazy sauce the past few days and she's going to need help with royal duties now that PB is gonna be researching a cure for her mom." He searched Finn's face for a reaction before saying, "And I think I'm gonna propose to her, dude."

"WHAT?" he squealed. Susan's eyes got big, exclamation marks flashed across Beemo's screen, and even Fiona, who had barely met Jake, covered her mouth and gasped.

Jake groaned, "Dude, I'm sorry. I'm 28, though, and Lady is the best girl I've ever met. I love her. It's time for us to go on our own journeys, bro. You've got Fiona and Susan. I'm going to miss you, man."

"It was supposed to be you and me, adventuring like always." muttered Finn.

Jake sighed, "I knew you wouldn't understand."

"Nah, man, I do. More than you know. Go to Lady, dude. It's what you gotta do." Finn pulled him into a tight hug and Jake let a soft whine escape from him as Finn scratched behind his ears.

Finn looked at me next. We'd already said what we needed to the previous day, and there was no need to get mushy in front of all these people…or so I thought.

Right before I mounted The Morrow with my mother in her chamber and Jake, Finn stood on his tip toes and kissed me softly on my cheek and wrapped his arms around me. His lips brushed my ear as he whispered, "I will probably be your age when you see me again. Maybe then you'll be ready for me to tell you that I love you."

He stepped back and waved casually like he'd just told me about the weather. I blushed hotly and gave him a subtle nod. Then I flew off, on our separate journeys.

Finn's first letter arrived 4 days after we returned to the castle:

"Dear Peebles,

Fiona is awesome. She likes Susan. Susan pets Cake too hard. Cake is Fiona's friend cat.

How is your mom?

I miss you.

I got to fight a mushroom-turtle face yesterday.

Whack whacka boom bang and then I was like SMOOSH! He slayed.

Righteous.

You are pretty,

Finn"

Wow, Finn was right. He was not very good at telling stories. Oh well, hopefully he would get better. I smiled as I started my letter back and wondered how long his journey would take him.

Author's note: That's the end of this part of the story, but there will be a sequel! I have a basic idea for it, but I am still hammering out deets, so if you have any advice, requests, questions, or feedback, I'd love to chat!

When I started writing this story I did not like Princes Bubblegum much, but writing from her perspective has made me love her. By the end of this story, I feel she has grown out of some of her flaws, like being obliviously manipulative and aloof, and has embraced her connections with others and explored who she is outside of the royal role she was raised to have. She has a lot to be confused about and is still figuring stuff out by the end, but what 18-year-old isn't? Her most redeeming qualities are that she cares deeply for others and she is a complete nerd, despite the prissiness of her appearance.

I have gotten more drawn into Adventure Time than any other show, because I have always been fascinated with post-apocalyptic settings, and with whacky, trippy magic, and this show combines both of those things! I love Finn's spazzy, brave, random, but extremely innocent and chivalrous personality brought to life by amazing voice acting! As an additional perk, my attention span is much longer when I can see bright colors (that's why I never finished Skyrim).

In answer to a question I've gotten more than once, yes, I have seen all the AT episodes, and I allude to them a lot in my story. However, as a disclaimer all fanfics seem to shove in somewhere for liability, I do not own any of the AT episodes! Pendleton Ward, your mind is a masterpiece.

Thank you again to all the people who offered me feedback and support on the story! This was my first fanfic and it's been quite fun! I am neutral to most AT pairings and would not mind writing a story about a different one.