Review Responses (HOLY CREPES YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST 10?!):

Roberto: Thank you!

The Nephilim King Michael: Thanks! Finn has a rocky start in this fic.

awesomelatt56: I shall! Thanks! It's only a seven shot so I'll definitely finish it.

10do: Thank you! It's weird, I had thought Fubblegum would have been big, but you're right.

Odradem: Thank you! I tried very hard to make the first chapter good and to make Finn in-character, so your comments mean a lot!

Abiyasha: Thank you! Sorry for the wait.

Astrid Hofferman: Thank you! I really like to see that role reversal, because I think if they ever did become a thing it would be because of the Princess, not Finn.

Antrxx: Yeahh… my updates aren't exactly good.

Oddly Ginger: Thank you, that insanity is exactly what I've been trying to convey! Like, that's why I love Adventure Time. It's real but absolutely nut.

Noah101: Hehe, I'm glad, it just came to me one day and I cracked up.

Chapter 2: FinnBQ

Princess Bubblegum had drifted through mild dreams through the night, but near dawn they began to take on a grim tone. The last one she dreamt involved the Marshmallow Kids falling into a fire pit, Bonnibel lacking any means to reach them and only able to watch in muted horror as their screams rose into the air along with a sickly sweet smell that slowly turned acrid.

As such, after her eyes burst open, her breathing quick and her body covered in a terribly unpleasant cold sweat, she was quite mortified when her nostrils were greeted with something that smelled equally as burnt, if not more so. A second later, and she remembered whom Finn had gone to see the past night, and that he had stayed out abnormally late as well.

Bonnibel usually didn't enjoy playing the game of jump to conclusions, but when she leapt off of her math-mattress, her gelatinous body quivering in fear, all she could imagine was finding a lump of ash next to Finn's white bear cap.

The truth was grizzly, but nowhere as extreme; she found the hero just outside of his room. He kinda looked like beef jerkey, with long streaks of burns and general charring present upon his entire body. In all, he looked incredibly messed up, the Princess reminded of victims of Fire Wolf attacks she had treated. After a quick analysis though, she determined he would survive, breathing out a long sigh of relief and immediately began to consider what healing methods she could muster on such short notice.

"Crap… I'm so sorry PB… I was supposed to get to my Cyclop's Tears last night so you wouldn't have to see me and… worry," Finn whispered, "worry" emerging as a grunt before he turned on his side and began to cough as if his lung was attempting to file divorce with his body. The Princess leapt to a stand and sprinted to his room to find the tears, disbelief that she hadn't thought of them at once running through her. The fact that the only logical explanation for such a blatant error was her own emotions getting the better of her at the sight of her close friend so horrifically wounded did little to settle her concern.

Bubblegum nevertheless returned quickly, coating the young boy in the healing potion and watching with bitter relief as his sears reverted back to smooth, peachy skin. She hadn't even considered that his shirt had burned off before now; his bear cap was thrown to the side and in good condition (unsurprising since it seemed to be indestructible, considering that as far as she knew he had owned it for his entire lumpin' life), but otherwise all he was wearing was his tight, blue shorts.

The Princess swallowed as the words "tight blue shorts" echoed in her head. Bonnibel knew Finn was getting more mature, but she had not expected his body to already be filling in with wiry muscle that gave a much more desirable definition to his boyish fat.

While she had always consider his pudginess… cute, it had never struck her as truly attractive, thought she knew many other females in Ooo who found it desirable, from LSP ("Oh. My. GLOB. I mean, his chubz love handles aren't really lumps, but do a bit of squeezing, and he might as well be a frickin' camel."), to Marceline ("When I squeeze his belly from behind he squeals like a little piglet, and I swear Bonnie, it's wayyy too adorable. I could almost puke."). Somehow during Bubblegum's less-than-PG thoughts her hand had ended up on his love handle, which she suddenly realized she was squeezing with mirth.

The hero giggled, and Bubblegum rescinded her hand with haste, flabbergasted that she had crossed such an obvious line; he was dating, for Glob's sake, not to mention that being so physically affectionate was contrary to all of the damage control she was currently in the midst of.

"…Oh, Princess… um… I don't mean to not be rad, or something," The young man replied after he caught himself, rolling away and blushing profusely. She matched it as her eyes zeroed in on little specs of bubblegum her grip had imbued onto his skin.

"No, NO, I'm so sorry, that was completely out of line, Finn!" The candy girl cried out, bowing low in apology. "Your upper body is just incredibly pleasing to the eye as it fits the male-archetype I enjoy, so I started squeezing unconsciously, and—" Her face might as well have popped, so mortified Bonnibel became after it struck her that she had spoken so sexually. Scientifically and articulately, yes, but still much too sexually. She might as well have just slapped his buttocks, stuffed him into a waffle suit, and poured syrup down his chest, for Grod's sake.

The Princess winced, flummoxed from her obvious signs of arousal that probably were striking the boy, who's stomach fat she had just groped, just as hard.

Finn's beat-faced stare of disbelief made it clear that he knew at least half of what she had just said, and she couldn't blame the youth for smiling awkwardly a moment later, having unexpectedly won a true compliment from her regarding his physique. And somehow, that red tinged face pulled into a confused but touched grin made her train-wreck of actions worthwhile.

"I-I really appreciate you helping me, with the tears," The hero started (the Princess filled with gratitude that he had decided to shift the subject), now on his feet and folding his long, shining hair into place.

"Don't mention it, Finn," She answered, smiling warmly at him. "It's good that I stayed over." Finn's face fell for a moment, and Bonnibel immediately began to overanalyze this, deducing her foolish lack of self-control in terms of flirtation had perhaps begun to wane on him, or worse, that he was just going through the motions out of obligation and didn't want her in his presence whatsoever.

"I-It is, Princess, I'm really glad you're here. It's been way too long since we did some junk, just the two of us," He returned, not meeting her eyes, and refuting her hypothesis. At "just the two of us", hazy memories of pranking Lemongrab and staring at sunsets from the towers of the Candy Castle filled her mind.

Finn coughed, obviously unable to put his feelings into words. "It's… it's just…"

"…H-How did you get burned?" The Princess asked pleadingly, tired of beating around the bush while knowing full well the answer, and desperate to lock onto a subject not involving the two of them.

The boy's face hardened and his eyes chased a few cracks upon the wooden floor before he sighed, opting to go with the truth as far as she could tell.

"Flame Princess lost control of her flames for a few seconds, and we were in a grassy area," Finn began to explain, speaking slowly, his voice quaking here and there. "I mean, you know, PB. She's a Flame Elemental. And, you told me specifically after we nearly made Ooo go boom with that… kiss… that she's even unstable for them. It really wasn't her fault, and she kept saying she would carry me back if she could, and that she should get help, but I didn't want to scare her, so… I told her I'd be fine and came back alone."

Bonnibel nodded, smiling despite feeling nausea reminiscent of eating bad nachos in the pit of her stomach. "You could have gotten hurt, you silly goose," She replied in a failed attempt at lightheartedness, gently punching his shoulder. "Be more careful, k?"

"Agk! My shoulder! My adventuring days are over! Now all that's left for me is becoming a living statue! I shall stand in the center of the Candy Kingdom, forever pelted by bird-stuff!" Finn exclaimed suddenly, rearing over and spinning to the ground dramatically, hurling his tongue out of his mouth and closing his eyes.

The two shared a warm smile and a laugh, the Princess especially amused and comforted by his antics and offering a hand to help pull him back up.

"But… seriously, I know. I'll be more careful," Finn said a moment after, his smile catching as her own faded. "PB? What's wrong? You can say it."

"…It's just," She whispered, reaching her arm out and squeezing his shoulder. "Did Flame Princess lose control because you mentioned me spending the night?"

"…I mean," The boy began, frowning. "Yeah, but it's not your fault, Peebles. And it's not hers either. It just happened, and there's no reason we can't hang out today. That would still be rad as a happenin' Dan playing a jam on a tin can. Ya know?"

Bonnibel smiled through her ache that she had nearly indirectly incinerated him, as well as a still lingering fear that the Fire Elemental had not been quite so innocent as Finn claimed, and replied, "You're right. I just… don't want to hurt you."

As it turned out, before that verbal miscue could result in another gawky exchange, a loud shout from below made things even more uncomfortable for the both of them.

"Yoohoo! Finn honey!" Jake's voice rang through the Tree-Fort. "I'm hoooOOOOOOME! And you didn't even burn the house down! Guess you and FP didn't try werkin' your way up the tiers then, hehe. If you don't get to nine before you're 16, I'm kicking you out! Ain't no slackin' when it comes to love. You have to grab yo' hunny, drab some mesquite BBQ sauce on your lips like your smackers be some tender chicken, and get lucky in Kentuck—"

Princess Bubblegum's face was unfortunately very near melting in embarrassment, whilst Finn had simply taken the exponential increase in romantic tension as a cue to put on his clothing, when Jake walked into the hallway they occupied and became well aware of the right-in-the-unresolved-feelings bomb he had set off.

Upon finding the Princess and Finn in the hallway, alone, the candy girl waving at him weakly and his brother still wiggling his shirt on, the dog's eyes expanded. Jake raised a finger as if to speak, before lowering it and shouting, "EVASIVE ROLL!" careening through the wall and landing who-knows-where within the fort.

"I brought some nice bubble tea we should totally drink as we pretend the last several minutes never happened," Bonnibel said quickly, feeling almost childish because of how terribly things were going.

"S-Sure, Princess. You mind getting a pot ready while I use the Jeffrey?" Finn asked, his teenage mind far from functional, and as such completely blanking on the slang term for toilets and latching onto the first name that also started with a "j" he could think of.

"Okie dokie. It's a slow brew, so I'll get to it," Bubblegum answered, spinning on her heals, and walking away as casually as she could manage.

Thankfully, the process of making tea always soothed her, and in a minute the waft of fresh cooking leaves began to spread through the kitchen (though lighting the kettle on fire with Finn's sword hadn't done great things for her whack angst).

The giant mess of accidental, risqué hinting and misspoken statements had nearly worked their way out of her head when she detected raised voices from above her. The Princess was completely willing (too willing, most would say), to allow the end result to justify the means; she hadn't build her kingdom by being a complete sweetheart. As such, eavesdropping was not below her, especially if the conversation was obviously ABOUT her.

The battle morality was quickly losing came to an abrupt end when the voices reached shouting, Bubblegum standing still with a blank face as she listened in.

"Jake, I'm telling you NOTHING HAPPENED. Nothing. And how many times do I have to send my words into your ears before you STOP teasing me with all that tier-junk! The Princess looked as red as a plum, mang."

Bubblegum rubbed her shoulder anxiously… she could only remember Finn sounding this mad once in her life, and it wasn't a memory she was very fond of: the day she had tried to explain the failings of him and Flame Princess, and he had misunderstood and berated her, thinking her petty and jealous.

"LISTEN bro, I'm sorry, I didn't know she was here, but you can't just keep telling me nuthin' smeckzy was going on when you were SHIRTLESS in front of her! I'm not that thick! Heck, you know me, I can become really thin! So thin the lies hurt, Finn. THE LIES HURT!"

Bonnibel felt herself flush in a mixture of disbelief and anger (and maybe a little something else) at what Jake seemed to be implying.

"FINE! PB WANTED TO SPEND THE NIGHT, AND WHEN I WENT TO ASK FP IF IT WAS KOSHER, SHE ACCIDENTALLY BURNT MY TOAST, OKAY?! I HAD MY SHIRT OFF BECAUSE I RIPPED IT OFF WHEN I WAS GOING TO GET CYCLOP'S TEARS TO HEAL MYSELF, BUT I PASSED OUT BEFORE I COULD, AND I DIDN'T PUT IT ON UNTIL AFTER SHE HEALED ME WITH THEM. NOTHING. HAPPENED."

Oh, glob. Jake actually thought she had…

The Princess sighed deeply, palming her forehead before beginning to jog toward the shouting, determined to end the brothers' bellows.

"THEN WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING? You wouldn't be shouting if NOTHING had happened! Finn, I get it, you might have made a mistake, or maybe I caught you in the middle of one, it's alright! One time this Jack Russell Terrier nearly wrapped her leash around me at this bar by distracting me with an enchanted stick! The important thing is that, at least from what I can tell, I stopped you before—"

"JAKE THE DOG, ARE YOU IMPLYING THAT I, PRINCESS BONNIBEL BUBBLEGUM OF THE CANDY KINGDOM WOULD KNOWINGLY ENGAGE IN ILLICIT ROMANTIC CONTACT WITH A CLOSE FRIEND WHOM I KNOW TO BE IN A RELATIONSHIP!?" The pink girl shrieked as if she were a harpy with her talons tense upon rounding the corner, both males gasping at her presence, Finn's terrified face growing into a smile at her support while Jake slowly lowered his butt onto the ground and drooped his ears.

"…I just thought it looked a little shady," The dog grumbled, averting his eyes from Bubblegum and scratching his stomach.

"Well, I can assure you that regardless of how it looked, nothing of that nature happened," The Princess replied, softening her tone significantly and making sure her countenance did not divulge that her words weren't completely truthful.

"…Well, fine. Sorry I shouted and cart-wheeled through the wall," Jake huffed, his apology ringing quite insincere. "I was just stopping by for some Laser-Badminton with Finn, but I guess I'll head out, since he's got you." Without another word he gripped his legs onto a nearby window, and after giving them blood frosty glares, slung himself out like a slingshot.

Finn looked like Jake had stepped on his heart with a stiletto as he watched his brother disappear into the horizon. Bonnibel racked her mind for an apology, or words of comfort, or anything at all to just cut the silence that was weighing so thickly.

"…Is the shouting over? Why do you always fight!" BMO whispered, peaking its head out from behind a doorway and running up to Finn, karate-chopping his legs as electronic tears ran down its screen.

"…BMO, shhh, it'll be alright," The Princess whispered, squatting and smiling cheerily at her favorite sentient-game-console.

"Yeah, little buddy, common', stop leaking pain from your face," Finn added, but BMO would have none of it.

"No! NO! I cannot!" It cried dramatically, leaping back and pointing at both of them. "Love is tearing this family apart, and I cannot take it! I'm going into Sleep-mode, and if you try to turn me back on, you, you… snapper-whipper's, I will run away and join a band of Cantaloupe Gypsies!" With that, their troubled friend pressed one of its buttons and fell over.

"…Well, that's burnt cheese-burgers," Finn sighed, patting the console on the head before lifting it into his arms, and carrying it down the stairs. Bubblegum followed, watching as Finn plugged in BMO and then jumped backwards onto the couch.

After seating herself next to him a tad more daintily, the candy girl cleared her throat, and turned to face him. "Finn, I'm really sorry your affairs are so scrambled right now, and that… well, that I've made them worse."

"…Hey, Princess, don't get caught in a funk too," Finn replied, forcing a smile but doing a heckuva job making it look genuine. "It's not your fault. Me and Jake have just been… a little cranky around each other, since he's going to be a dad, and hasn't been around. And…" He grimaced, rubbing a spot on his abdomen Bonnibel recalled had been particularly torched.

"If it's about you and Flame Princess, you don't have to tell me, but I'm here if you wish to," Bubblegum whispered.

Finn slumped over, and the Princess was positive his hat's little nubs even began to droop. "Jake always is running his yapper about how I shouldn't talk babe-biz with other girls I've—with other girls I know," Finn began, rolling sideways so his head was resting on the couch's arm. "But, I disagree, cause how am I s'posed to know what ladies like if I can't ask 'em? And it also doesn't make any sense because if I want good advice, I would ask people with huge brains, right?"

"I mean, that is logical, assuming you mean people with high intelligence when you say, 'big brains'," His companion replied, suddenly conscious of her cranium's magnitude.

"Fo sho! Smart peeps is what I mean, not big mind-lumps!" Finn answered, groping his head as he spoke. "And if I wanted to ask the smartest people I know, I'd start with you, because you have calculations coming out your ears!"

Bonnibel blushed and laughed simultaneously, an image of the Pythagorean Theorem pouring out her pink hearing-apparatus amusing her to no end. "Well, I guess me telling you this is already breaking Jake's rules, but I think you should speak with whomever you wish," She finally replied after composing herself.

"Well… then, yeah. Me and FP have had some… issues," Finn said slowly. "She gets really upset, ya know, because sometimes we'll just be lying on the grass next to each other, and our face-windows will get tired and BAM I'm on fire. She's so nice, but feels horrible about how often I get hurt… and I don't mind the burns, but seeing how sad and disappointed she gets…"

"…I'm sorry, that's awful," Bubblegum spoke, to her surprise meaning her words entirely. Such a relationship sounded very sad. "You… Glob, Finn, I don't want to sound this way, but you don't think you'll ever get seriously hurt, right?" She asked very hesitantly, watching him come near shouting her out in anger to breathing shortly.

"No, PB. She would, like, never—"

"Finn! I know you think I don't like Flame Princess, and maybe I have thought she isn't best for you and that she would hurt you, but you know I understand!" The Princess pleaded, grabbing his hands in her own. "It would never be in anger! Or intended! She would accidentally hurt you, but still, I worry…"

She let go of his hands and slid into the couch. "And I've already hurt you so much…" Her hands slapped against her round cheeks in shock at her lack of self control.

Finn remained silent before he fell onto her in a hug, squeezing tightly, and saying with sniffling, "Princess, no, it's kay, I totally… heart-feel you! I know all your hurt was… accidental, too." He smiled his big goofy smile as he leaned up, still crying as he wiped his nose with his arm. "You know how much you mean to me."

More than I'll ever realize, and maybe deserve, The Princess thought with sudden derision towards herself.

"You wanna play Badminton, Prubs?" Finn asked, fixing her crown for her with another grin and holding out his hand. She grasped it, and off they went.

It was a glorious battle; Bonnibel's powerful lower body strength and Finn's all-out enthusiasm colliding with gusto, numerous dives and back-hand saves making every point vital.

Finn got the best shots in with the laser, naturally, sniping the Princess multiple times in the arms, legs, and abdomen, but never her face, which even in the middle of combat she found sweet.

So though Bubblegum was his superior game-wise, her body began to lag behind his due to his sharp-shooting and Finn began to press his advantage. It did not take long for the youth to be begin pounding the birdy with great strength, and quickly accrued an insurmountable lead. She was then honorably defeated, and rather than give a finishing blow, Finn tackle-hugged her and they both fell down laughing.

They spent the rest of the morning watching the blue sky, their arms just touching and their voices giddily rising and falling like the flickers of the Fire Elemental watching them in shock. So as Finn and Bonnibel felt bonded once more, and both perhaps felt older feelings stir, Flame Princess sulked off, boiling and seething with a mix of rage and desperate hurt.

You know, Fubblegum really is adorable. I love making PB so brazen and then apologetic. Also, just writing Finn is a joy. Next chapter will be a bit more angst, though.

Smokybear gets its fair shake here; at any rate, FP is not an antagonist, just caught in a bad situation. Marceline comes in next chapter too, giving advice to the disgruntled pink Princess. Nearly a third done, seven-shots are weird, yo. Thanks for reading!