Disclaimer: I do not own Adventure Time or any of its assets, just my OCs.

The bubbling of lava from outside was the sole sound filling the empty throne room of the Fire Kingdom. It was late evening, with the warm red colors of the molten rock producing a gorgeous aura of light across the lands. This glow poured through the windows of the palace, filling it as well with the pleasant source of crimson.

Even with the heavenly light show however, the mood of the fiery girl sitting upon the throne could not be lifted. She was the single being within the chamber, as the former ruler of the kingdom had been relocated to the dungeons after everyone realized how annoying he was suspended from the ceiling. With that, the new flame king was left by herself in the large and severely empty throne room, contemplating the events of that day.

She sniffled, and then wiped away the final tear that had just managed to escape her eye. The smudge of lava was cast off of her finger and landed with a light sizzle on the volcanic floor below. Even though the worst of the ruler's upset reaction was now over, she was still quite down at what had transpired. As the light of the magma outside continued to brighten the room regardless of the setting sun, Flame Princess gazed up at the front gate to the palace, holding her eyes there as if expecting someone to come through and return to her.

"Why…why did it come to this?"

She closed her eyes.

"Is it my fault, for still caring about him so much?"

Her mind's clock turned back to several hours earlier, when her most treasured friend had made his choice to temporarily break away from her, convinced his emotions were close to shattering the locks he had placed on them and jeopardizing their relationship…

o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o

The flame king was busy as always, organizing various projects and posting royal decrees to keep the kingdom in line. Sitting with a table in front of her, the young ruler was swiftly sorting through various documents; papers that confirmed or denied dozens of different acts that required her permission to implement. Every few seconds, she would stamp a page with the Fire Kingdom seal, proving that she had at least looked at it.

It was near impossible to read them word for word, nothing would ever get done. The king was forced to skim constantly and even then it still took hours to get through the entire stack of orders. Periodically, FP would sigh, feeling like her job would never end, which was technically true, unless someone felt like overthrowing her, and that wouldn't exactly be the best move. At this point however, the fire elemental would almost welcome a nice kick out of the palace.

She'd been running the place for a little over two years now, carefully restructuring the society of her violent and deceitful people to become a prosperous and well-rounded nation among the kingdoms of Ooo. It had been successful, producing ties with several former enemies and new allies from lands that seemed beyond possibility.

As FP was reflecting on the irritating routines of royalty, she suddenly lost her grip on the stamp she was using, which flew into the air. She gasped, knowing it would be a real pain to retrieve such a small object from the mess of citizens, documents, and garbage spread around the throne room.

Luckily enough though, a quick hand caught the item just in time, firmly grasping it with expert accuracy and slowly bringing it in and handing it back to Flame Princess. The ruler smiled, gazing with thanks at the person who made her duties just bearable enough to push on.

Finn was grinning warmly from the spot next to her, where he was assisting the king with the approvals and rejections. The human has spent several months studying the laws and regulations of the Fire Kingdom, determined to make himself qualified to judge the piles of acts and requests that were filed to FP every day. She, of course, couldn't ask for a more dedicated friend.

Deep within her mind though, Flame Princes knew there was a part of her that still had feelings for the boy, a part that had ultimately forgiven him for his immature actions and actually hoped that one day they could possibly start over, as more than just friends. Sadly, that day seemed quite far off, evidenced by the endless work that they now both endured almost daily.

Obviously Finn couldn't come over every time, there were other responsibilities the hero had to the rest of Ooo, which had only become more difficult since his brother Jake had gone on an ominous journey to the edge of the continent several weeks prior. His only words of his quest were that he had to do it alone and that he had to do it for his beloved Lady Rainicorn. Finn respected his sibling's decision, regardless of his hidden objection.

Now here he was, giving up what little free time was available to him to help the fiery girl with her necessary affairs. The two had actually proven to be quite the team, with a near perfectly synchronized cycle of actions that significantly reduced the time taken to originally get through the paperwork. Whenever the pair broke their old record, they would celebrate by using the gained free time to go out and have some fun, usually by surfing on a magma stream or messing with a group of lava golems on the outskirts of the city.

At long last the final 'thump' was delivered onto the surface of a summons to court for a recent criminal. The documents for the day were finished. Flame Princess fell back into her throne, exhausted mentally, but luckily only her hand was cramped up, meaning that if they had increased their pace from the last best one, she could still hang out with Finn after the palace business was finalized. The throne room's occupants began filtering out, leaving just a few inhabitants besides the king and her friend.

"So, how'd we do?"

FP waited patiently as the flame shielded human tapped a stack of papers on the table and looked to the scheduling sheet nearby. He smiled with a sense of triumph at the results and turned to inform her majesty.

"A full eight minutes earlier than that one crazy fast run we did a week ago."

If her arms weren't so unresponsive due to constantly using them, FP would've jumped over and hugged the hero to show her excitement at the achievement. Then she thought, 'eh, what the heck.'

With some significant effort, the flame king reached over and stretched her hands out to grasp around the boy's body. Unfortunately, they weren't quite long enough and she ended up flailing them in frustration. Finn noticed the ruler's struggle and grinned while shaking his head. He moved over to the throne and allowed the fiery girl to finally complete her intended act.

"Way to go Finn! We're awesome!"

The human laughed at the comment, happy that his friend was filled with joy at the success of that day. After a minute however, he felt something change. FP's gleeful jitters had stopped. At that moment, the fire elemental was no longer giving him an excited embrace, she had her eyes closed and her expression seemed relaxed, as if taking time to enjoy the position she was in.

Feeling nervous, the hero gently separated himself from the hug, making the king look upon him with worry. A few seconds later though, she realized what she'd been doing and quickly turned away from the human.

"Sorry; got carried away."

Finn brushed it off and tapped the armored shoulder of his friend's royal garb, smiling humbly.

"It's fine FP. So, you want to go back to that one volcano? I heard it blew out more lava, it should make the surf down even more awesome."

The flame king gazed excitedly back to the boy and stood up.

"Heck yeah! Let's go!"

The two teenagers were about to race off toward the front gate before a voice sounded urgently from the side of the room.

"Wait! Your highness! There's one more!"

A castle informant ran up to the pair, waving a single paper in his hand. The poor guy panted for a few seconds before handing the slip to Finn. The human examined the form for a moment before his expression sank to one of mixed regret and sadness. FP noticed and immediately inquired.

"What's wrong Finn; you want help with that one?"

The hero closed his eyes and lowered his head, holding out the document to the king. She accepted it with concern.

"Actually, I can't do this one…because I was the one who requested it."

Flame Princess's thoughts drifted into confusion. If it was something he himself had written up why was he so disheartened by it? After staring at the boy for a moment, FP took the time to fully read the paper. Her eyes grew wider as she went further and further down the page. Finishing, the girl looked back to the human in shock and dismay.

"Finn…this is…why would you…request an assistant for me? You're already the best one for the job! I mean, I'm not obligating you but why are you sending this in?"

Her voice was growing more scared by the minute, not helped by the hero's lack of response. The informant had politely back off, sensing the tension in the air. Eventually, Finn gazed over into the fiery ruler's amber eyes, which were practically trembling.

"FP, I…I need to get away…from you…for a little while."

The king could barely keep herself from tearing the document in her hand to pieces from the strain of taking in her friend's words.

"Wh-what? Why?"

Her tone was pleading, revealing how lost she was as to her companion's actions. Finn looked away, instead staring out to the side of the throne room.

"I've…been having trouble holding back those feelings, and I don't want to risk upsetting you with old emotions."

He gazed back to Flame Princess.

"I think we need some time apart so that my head can filter out these thoughts. I did what I could to make today the best possible, including the extra fast speed at which I was working so that we could have one last hangout. So, after we're done surfing lava, I'm gonna head out, and stay out, for some time."

The flame king's face seemed close to bursting with tears.

"But…Finn…we can work past that. I understand that you still feel that way sometimes but that's no reason to just leave. Please, don't do this, you're my best friend."

The human held up the stamp he had been using, trying not to look the fire elemental in the eyes as he encouraged her to sign the request. FP stared at the object for a moment before suddenly slapping it out of his hand, making it bounce several feet away. Her face was contorted with both despair and anger.

"NO! This is rhombus Finn! Stop being so stupid!"

The human recovered quickly from her outburst and silently walked over to pick up the stamp. He headed back over to the fiery girl and gave her a piercing and pleading look in the eyes.

"Flame Princess, just do it, please, I need this. I care about our friendship too much to risk so much because of my lack of control. Just give me a few weeks."

He was basically begging at this point; even prepared to get down to his knees. The flame king stared at him in continued disbelief, but the hero could sense that she was slowly giving in. In a flash, she snatched the stamp from his hand and turned to the table they had set up to work. She stomped over to it and harshly smashed the seal of the Fire Kingdom onto the document, holding it out for the informant to take to the proper channels. The fairly nervous man reluctantly took hold of the paper and bounded as quickly as possible out of the palace.

Finn walked over and reached up to place a hand on her shoulder, but declined the last second and simply sighed.

"You still want to go surfing?"

After a minute of waiting, the boy watched the ruler nod weakly and turn around. Her head was hung low enough that he couldn't quite see her eyes. Finn frowned sadly, wishing it hadn't come to this. However, it was something he needed to do and he hoped Flame Princess would accept that.

"Come on," he said, motioning for the king to follow him out of the throne room.

The fiery girl said no words as they headed down the short corridor to the front gate, nor as they exited through the doors. She didn't even say anything while flying herself and Finn all the way to the volcano's peak, where they both grabbed a slab of molten rock and prepared to slide down the glowing orange stream.

Although she did her best to hide it, there were thin streaks of lava traveling down her cheeks.

She did not have any fun for the entire activity.

o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o

Flame Princess stood up from her throne and began making her way to bed, driven to the brink of passing out from all the emotional strain of the day. Perhaps a good rest would clear things up. While strolling down the hallway, she recalled Finn's final words before he left the kingdom:

I'm sure you could find another friend just as good as me if not better. Heh, just don't forget about me, ok?

The last part was meant as a joke, but FP took it seriously, thinking how absurd it would be to misplace the human in her mind. He was her most valued confidant, a person who had taken the time to earn her trust back and become a beloved friend. Where would she be without him?

As FP made it to her room and simply collapsed into bed, she let out one last sob, feeling as if she had just lost a part of her heart.

Crickets chirped steadily as Finn entered the tree fort, still holding a frown that was glued to his face since he had departed the Fire Kingdom. The boy set down his pack and proceeded to climb up the hollow ladder in the willow to reach the bathroom. He was covered in a fair bit of ash from the lava surfing and definitely didn't feel comfortable sleeping in such a state.

After a quick five minute shower, the boy dried off his golden hair and quickly brushed it so as to not wake up with a rather unpleasant hairdo. Finn had abandoned his bear hat a while ago, leaving it in his treasure room as a reminder of the old days when he and Jake went around kicking evil butts and grabbing loot. Jake had become more distant after Finn's sixteenth birthday, regularly heading out on solo missions or trips without telling his bro where he was going.

It made the human sad to think he was being intentionally left out, but he didn't question it, the dog had his own serious agenda and there was no need to interfere when the magical canine had pleaded regularly for his sibling to not bother with the activities. While it was noble to remain such a loyal homie, Finn was left on his own a majority of the time.

Of course, this issue was fixed by offering to help Flame Princess, giving the boy almost a daily dose of hang time with the fiery girl. True it was mostly to help her with kingly duties but he didn't mind, it was all the better to see the fire elemental happy for his assistance. That smile; it made him feel warm inside, and unfortunately, became the problem.

Finn sighed as he let himself fall on his back into bed, pooped from the day's events and greatly troubled at how badly Flame Princess had taken his temporary leave. He really didn't want to ditch the overworked king, but there was no better option than what he had come up with. In a few weeks, his mind would settle down and he could return, eager to resume his promised assistance to the fire elemental.

A loud yawn escaped him, letting him know it was time to go to sleep. Finn reached up to his bedside table, preparing to snuff out the small candle he kept there to light up the room at night. However, he hesitated, gazing into the flame with a mixture of sadness and longing. He wasn't trying to deny it; he still felt a great attraction to FP, so much that a certain piece of his heart would always hope for her to one day be back in his reach, this time with the added benefit of not being as much of an immature and reckless kid.

Finn just couldn't bring himself to extinguish the light, feeling as if he'd caused enough harm to fire for one day. The boy frowned again and sat back against his bed board, thinking of how to deal with his own decision. For one, he had to get his mind off of Flame Princess, as was the whole point of his departure.

He remembered what he had said to the flame king: find a friend to keep her company. Perhaps he should take his own advice. After all, without either Jake or FP, what could the human possible do all day? There weren't nearly enough monsters to fight as there had been a year or two ago, since most of them understood not to mess with villages and kingdoms while Finn was on the job.

The boy had reached the point in every hero's life where the evil guys just wouldn't even try anymore. It was remarkably boring, in addition to the fact that every known dungeon had been practically emptied out by the young adventurer. The treasure room was difficult to navigate through at this point; one had to more or less swim through waist high piles of gold coins and jewels.

The candle was steadily growing shorter. Finn decided he would fall asleep when the flame died out on its own, still refusing to harm the gentle combustion dancing upon the wick. Tomorrow's plans ran through his mind as the flame came closer and closer to the bottom. The human decided that in the morning he would take a map of Ooo, pin it to the wall, and fire a dart at it blindfolded. That way, it was a guaranteed adventure to find a new companion to hang out with, and who knows, they may become a righteous friend who could be there at any time, sure to keep the hero busy with various journeys as his new counterpart.

The fire on the wax flickered dangerously, having run out of space to keep moving down. The melted material formed a messy perimeter around the dying flame, spilling some of its contents onto the wood of the table. Finn didn't worry about it; he just allowed his lids to cover up his blue eyes, casting him into hopeful dreams of the future as the gentle flame went dark.

This idea has been stuck in my head for like a month and I figured I should get it out. So...should I go on?

Please tell me what you think. Later.