'Nother one shot. I have the attention span of a squirrel.

My Christmas one shot , although, come to think of it, I might make this an almost yearly story or something. Knowing me though, I'll have seventeen more chapters before this Christmas is over.

Yes, a month (or so) before Christmas. I don't withhold stories, so eh. Don't read it until Christmas if you want. I suppose it's an early Christmas present for you all. Seeing as it's my favorite time of the year. (Because it's cold, for the most part. Don't really enjoy the Christmas day in particular. Eh.)

Also going to be a pretty upbeat story, enjoy. (Even if it is mostly two stories that switch back and forth. Neither really are long enough to warrant separate chapters alone.)

It had always been a struggle for Ice King to control himself. The crown had done so many things to him. He was as close to a superhuman as possible. He was also one of the last beings that could be considered 'close' to human. Sometimes Simon was winning the internal struggle, and sometimes it was the crown. Most of the time however, it was a strange mixture of the two.

"Gunther. Bring me those old things from when I... wore glasses!" He asks his trusty right hand penguin... or one of them at least. He had thrown away those embarrassing videos already, but he still had some stuff that would be detrimental to his reputation if somebody found out. How would he get a wife if he looked like a loser?

This time of year was one of the Ice King's favorite. Nature decided to side with him for once, and he planned on using that to his advantage this year. This would be a fresh start to his life, he would finally have a wife. He'd finally look cool!

His part pet, part sidekick brought a cardboard box with some of the last things that he had yet to get rid of.

A framed picture of his old self and some woman. He wouldn't throw that away today. He didn't know why, though.

Some old junk. The stuff looked like it would fetch a pretty penny if he sold it. He wouldn't sell it though. Why? he didn't know.

Then there was some old book. On any other day, he'd throw it out, but not today. Once more, he didn't know why.

"Wak." The penguin pointed at the book and then added, "Wak wak!"

"Wait, you're telling me that this book can make the ladies fall in love with me?" He asks, to which the penguin nods his head. "Eeeee! I can finally be the ladies man that I've always wanted to be! All because of the En...Enchi...Enchiridion!"

"You sure you don't want to stay here for the party, Finn? The kids want to see their uncle." A voice says over the phone to Finn, who is eating a sandwich while listening to it. He swallows, before answering.

"I want to go, I've already told you that. I've also told you that every single time that Flame Princess comes to the treehouse, it starts catching on fire. You're going to be having so many people there anyway. I promise, tomorrow afternoon, Uncle Finn will come around."

"Okay Finn, see ya' tomorrow." Jake replies, ending the call. Finn finishes his sandwich, and wipes his sweater, making sure there wasn't any crumbs on it.

Now that he thought about it, had he even told FP about the reason why they had this 'celebration'?

Probably not, no need to ruin a good mood. He puts on his scarf, and puts his plate in the sink.

He leaves his new house, a small brick one, and begins his way to his girlfriend's house.

"Wow. That was disgusting..." The Ice King mumbles, placing a long star cylinder thing in his bag. "I hope you were right about needing these jewels. I look stupid."

"Wak."

"Yes I know that Gunther. I was just saying that I look stupid without them." The Ice King looks off into the distance and spots his final stop. "Bubblegum."

The trek to the kingdom was fairly short. Sometimes he wished Gunther could fly like he could, but it wasn't that much of a bother. Freezing the guards on his way in wasn't that difficult either. Idiotic he was, inefficient he was not.

"Princess." He whispered to the sleeping royalty. "Princess... Princess... Bubblegum!" She still didn't wake up. "Oh well." He reached his hand over her sleeping body, and grabbed the crown, and took the jewel and threw the crown aside. "Finally!" He squealed in glee, before covering his mouth and flying out of the window with Gunther on his back.

"What was that?" Bubblegum sat up slightly, mumbling before taking a look around, yawning and laying her head back down on her pillow.

"Hey darling." Finn said to Flame Princess as he approached her house. Usually he didn't enjoy the heat that the home gave off, but after walking for a few hours through the snow, it was a welcome sight.

"Hey Finn." She was a welcome sight to him as well. They had been dating for a little over two years now. While it had been wonderful, it should have been even more wonderful. Either she hurt him when they kissed, or he got that magic spell placed on himself and he couldn't feel the kiss at all.

Sure, they had the rock thing, but while cute a few years ago, he wanted to have a chance at a normal relationship with her.

"So how are you doing? I know that winter isn't your favorite time of the year." He said, sitting on the ground a few feet away from the house. In about a ten foot radius, there was no snow.

"As long as I can spend it with you, I'm happy." She said, snuggling close to him. He was lucky that he had managed to find the fireproof sweater, he had to go through Hell to get it. But to feel her head laying on his shoulder, and no pain was nice. "I'm glad you're here though, I know that you wanted to go to party."

"As long as I can spend my time with you, I'm happy." He whispered, wrapping her in a hug. He placed a kiss on her forehead without thinking, and tried to avoid cursing. "I might not be smart, but I'm happy!" They both laughed, until his cellphone started ringing.

"It's Bubblegum. Apparently all the princesses' crowns have had their jewels stolen." Finn said after listening to the royalty. "My guess would be the Ice King, but why would he just steal the crowns and not the princesses?"

"It's probably not good. You're leaving now, right?" She resigns herself to the probable scenario. Finn was a hero, but she wanted to spend more time than this with him.

"It's the Ice King... I'm sure Bubblegum can handle it for one day, at the least."

"Finn's not coming." Bubblegum told the room full of princesses. There was indignation in the voices of many of the women's voices.

"Come on he's a hero, he's supposed to help us!" One called out from within the crowd, which got quite a few cheers.

"Listen to yourselves! Yes, he's a hero, but if we can't stop the Ice King of all people once in a while, do we even deserve to be saved when Finn does save us?" She asks the crowd.

"Hey Bonnibel, what's up!?" Marceline asked, popping up behind the candy princess after flying through the window as a bat.

"GAH! Don't scare me like that Marceline." PB said after finally catching breath from screaming in surprise from the vampire queen. "But if you must know, Marceline, the Ice King stole all of our jewels from our crowns. I have no clue what for though. And Finn's taking a day off, so we're in a dilemma."

"Nah, I can go figure out what Simon's doing. Be back whenever Bonnibel!" Before Bubblegum could accept or decline the offer, Marceline had flown out of the window.

"Simon?" Another princess asked.

"I thought it was the Ice King who stole the jewels!" Yet another added on.

Hurry, Bubblegum thought, some of the other royalty got on her nerves fairly quickly.

Speaking of which, she wondered where LSP was.

"OH MY GLOB, give me back my star!" A floating purple cloud told the old man and penguin.

"Wak."

"Oh no you didn't, Geraldo!"

"Wak Wak."

"Yeah, his name's Gunther." The Ice King was massaging the bridge of his nose now. He had to try and figure out how to exactly use the book to make his wish. He had done everything he could think of! It didn't help that the annoying lumpy cloud thing was making concentrating difficult. "Sorry bud."

"Wak?" Gunther asked as he was lifted up by the Ice King and thrown a great distance away.

"That was like totally mean to do to my boyfriend! You probably ruined his tux, too! Don't worry Geraldo, Lumpy Space Princess is coming to bring you some lumpy sugar to help make the pain go away." LSP yelled, floating off towards the direction of the penguin.

"Maybe if I dump all of the jewels on the book, the book will be happy enough to grant me the wish?" He pondered, before dumping the contents of his bag on the book.

The reaction was one that he was hoping for, well at least it was a reaction. Now the book looked even stupider than it had before.

"You could have left Finn, I'd be okay with that." Flame Princess told her boyfriend, after he had put his phone back into his pocket.

"I know you would have, but I wouldn't have. And I don't want to have to save you from a crappy boyfriend." He said, letting his head fall back onto the grass.

"You're anything but crappy, Finn." She pouted, she hated when he tried to make himself look bad when he wasn't.

"Thanks for the words of encouragement, but I don't deserve a girlfriend as sweet and hot as you!"

"I could do without your puns though, honey."

"Ah come on! That was a pretty good one. You just don't get how awesome my jokes are." He mumbled, looking up at the sky. The clouds were rather thick. FP always liked when the sun was out, and so did he. She for the fact it was a huge ball of fire, he for the fact that everything seemed more cheerful when it was bright outside, less dull.

FP began shivering, and while it had taken Finn a while to realize that it was probably because she was used to an even higher body temperature than he was, winter was a chore outside of the fire realm. Now, it was almost purely reactionary snuggling FP close to himself during these cold months. He doubted it could really help her keep warm, but at least it helped take her mind off of the cold.

"If you want to, we can go inside." Finn said to her, but she shook her head.

"You only have a fireproof sweater Finn, and I'd doubt you'd want to stand up the whole time."

"Man. Being different elementally and all that junk sucks." He commented, but then shrugged. "But if I let that get in the way before, I wouldn't even be dating you."

"Gunther wasted my time. Now I have some weirder book in place of my weird book." The Ice King complained to nobody in particular.

"Hey Simon. Why did you take Bonnibel's jewels?" Marceline floated out of the trees towards the Ice King.

"Gunther mad- Wait, where's Finn?"

"He took a day off is what I heard. Does it really matter?" She asked him, and he shrugged. "Now don't make me have to tie you up Simon. Just give me back the jewels."

"Even if I wanted to, I couldn't, this stupid book took them and then lights glowed and now I can't figure out how to use its powers." He takes off his crown and looks at it. "Kind of poopy too, I lost my jewels."

"Come on Simon, give me the book." Marceline grabbed one side of the book with her hands, but the Ice King didn't relent, and pulled at it as well. They both lost their grip on the book, and it flew up through the air before falling to the ground and shattering. A portal appears, and the Ice King cheered.

"Thanks babe! Time to go wish that I'm a ladies man." He waved goodbye to Marceline, before jumping into the portal.

"You're not going to mess up anything else, Simon." She answered, jumping into the portal as well, seconds before it disappeared.

LSP carried Gunther back to the area, and Gunther was rubbing his head.

"Wak."

"Like totally Geraldo! I can't believe your dad up and left us! How are we ever going to get to the mall now?" The cloud complained, as Gunther resigned himself to the fate that he would have to wait until the Ice King came back to get away from this crazy girl.

Jake sighed as he sat down on his couch. He knew that they were growing up, and he should appreciate Finn's courtesy in trying to let them have a day alone, but he never missed the party!

"What's the matter, daddy?" One of his children asked as they broke away from the pack that was playing on the ground.

"Ah, it's nothing son. I guess I was hoping that uncle Finn was going to come here tonight."

"Unca Finn's not coming to the party?" The dogicorn asked. Now that Jake thought about it, he probably shouldn't have told his kids that.

"It's not because he doesn't want to, it's because he wants to spend some more time with Aunt Flame Princess." Jake tried to explain it simply to the toddler. "He'll be here tomorrow, though. I promise!" Jake added on, and that made the kid cheer up a bit.

"Hey man, sup?" A voice called out from the doorway, and as Jake turned around to see who it was, saw it was his other brother, Jermaine. The kids flocked to their other uncle and gave him a group hug after he had put his suitcase on the ground.

"Jermaine!" Jake stood up and gave his brother a bear hug that caused him to start to have trouble breathing.

"Calm down there, brother. Don't want to break a rib on the day of the party." Jermaine chuckled as Jake let go. "Where's Finn?"

"He's not coming to the party tonight, he's spending it with his girlfriend." Jake explained, and Jermaine frowned slightly. "What?"

"He didn't even tell me he had a girlfriend. You two were always closer... but still. Eh, no need to ruin the mood." Jermaine shrugged and picked up his suitcase once more. "But who's the littlest bro smoochin'?" He questioned Jake, who thanked Jermaine in his head for changing the subject.

"The Flame Princess."

"Wow, you two end up with the most ironic girlfriends." He chuckled. "So how's the wife?"

As he asked that, Lady flew into the room, with plates on her back for each of her kids.

"Jermaine!" She floated to her brother-in-law and gave him a hug after she had given each of her kids their meal.

"Hey Lady, seems like you've remembered my name. Even if I'm only able to come around once every few months. Sometimes I hate my job."

"You're really smart man. If you would have asked me what I thought about my brother inventing that motored thingy that makes traveling a lot easier five years ago, I would have called you crazy!" Jake laughed, before slapping Jermaine on the back.

"They're called cars, Jake. Truth be told, I just found some old documents, probably from before the war, and replaced a few things, tweaked some others. Anyway, not much left to invent on it, now the company just wants to change little things here and there. Pretty stressful when they try to destroy the thing that you worked so hard to perfect." Jermaine shrugged. "I wont argue that it's a pretty pay check. Speaking of which, I got all you kiddies presents!" He placed his suitcase on the table and opened it, pulling out some gift-wrapped boxes.

"Thanks unca Jewmaine!" The children said as he handed each of them presents.

"It's not often I get visitors. But oh well, should I go over why you should wish carefully, or are you good? By the way, I'm Prismo." A being that seemed to be almost painted in the yellow room that Marceline and Simon were in asked.

"I'm good." The Ice King said, and began pondering what to wish for exactly. "If I said I wished to be super hot, you'd probably make me burst into flames, right?"

"Yeah, probably."

"Simon..." Marceline looked at the person who had once been the closest thing to a parent that she had had. She was hoping he wouldn't do something stupid, but after wearing that crown, the extent of his stupidity didn't surprise her.

The Ice King looked at her for a moment, and for the first time in a long time he felt sad. He didn't know why.

All that he could remember a little girl, about to cry.

"I suppose wishing to be normal would change things up as well?" He finally asked the being named Prismo.

"You wouldn't even want to know, if you mean wishing for that crown to be gone. I've seen somebody wish for that in another reality and oh boy, the results were not pretty."

"Well then, I have one last idea." The Ice King leaned down and whispered to the floor where Prismo's ear was. He nodded, and looked to Marceline.

"You want to make a wish?" He asked, to which Marceline pondered for a moment. Eventually she decided not to, she didn't have anything she really wanted to wish for at the moment.

"If his wish messes up too bad, can I come back?" She questioned.

"Not unless you find a way back, those are the rules. Sorry ma'am." Prismo told her, to which she frowned.

"I hope you didn't do something stupid Simon." She mutters as they both disappear in a flash of light, back to Ooo.

"It worked! It worked Marceline!" The Ice King called out as she sat up after landing rather harshly on the ground. Only it wasn't the Ice King.

It was Simon... In a Santa suit? She hadn't seen somebody dressed up like that in over a thousand years.

"What did you wish for?" She floated up above the ground and looked around. Nothing else looked much different.

"Well, I wish that I could be free from the crown's grasp for one day a year... I guess Santa was the closest thing my mind, or Prismo's working, could think of."

"Wait, you're free?!" She just now let the idea sink in.

"Only for a day. This way, there probably wouldn't be a huge difference in the overall direction in the universe, I'd guess." He put his hands behind his back and smiled widely. "And guess what I have for you Marceline!"

"What?" She raised an eyebrow, not knowing what to expect from 'Santa.'

"Surprise!" He pulled his hands out from behind his back and there was Hambo! And not Hambo like she had when... Ash was around, but exactly like the one Simon had given her all those years ago.

"Where'd you get this?" She inquired as she took the toy from him. "The last I heard, this thing was in some witch's cauldron, and that was like twenty years ago!"

"I'm still a 'wizard', I'd suppose. Seems to be that Prismo gave me the ability to give people with good hearts something that they wanted most at that moment. That's all speculation, but it makes sense to me."

"It's... wonderful Simon, but what's even more wonderful is that you're back!" Marceline floated back down to the ground, and gave Simon a hug... And after a few moments of just awkwardly letting his hands hang by his side, he hugged her back.

After they let go of each other, Simon pulled out a magic list from his jacket.

"We really should be getting ready to deliver presents, Marceline."

"We?"

"Well Santa needs elves, doesn't he? I'd recruit Finn as well... But eh, no time for that." With a snap of his fingers, a sleigh popped up, with eight little penguins sitting where one would expect a form of horse or deer. It looked ridiculous, but it would do. "We better hurry, the sun's setting already."

"Fine. but you better not make wear a stupid elf outfit." Marceline tried to sound like she was doing Simon a favor as she got into the sleigh.

Simon looked at his middle finger and thumb, the two of which were almost snapping. He looked at Marceline next and chuckled softly, before sitting down and taking the reigns.

They both didn't notice LSP grab onto the sleigh as they took off.

"I don't know how you did it, weirdly dressed dude, but I want my boyfriend back!" She grumbled as they sleigh managed to get fairly high up in the air.

"WAK WAK!" Speaking of which, 'Geraldo' was at the front of the pack, ecstatic that he could finally fly. There was probably a song that he'd be singing in his head if he would have been able to listen to the Ice King's collection of really old records.

"It's getting dark. I guess you'll be wanting to go inside now, right?" Finn asked as they got back from their walk through the woods. It had taken a fairly long time to avoid the wood and all the other things that would easily start a forest fire. It was a nice walk, though.

"After while Finn. I managed to get some of those things that you called marshmallows. Those s'mores are yummy." She said, and she pointed to a bag sitting away from the house. "Sorry if they're in an inconvenient place, but I didn't want the chocolate to be all melted before we could make them."

"It's no problem, sweetie." He told her as he walked over to the place in the snow she had placed it.

"Ho, ho, ho!" He heard faintly as he bent down and picked up the bag, before being hit in the head by a fast-moving box, and falling face first into the snow. "So So So sorry!"

"Who the Math was that?" Finn asked as he stood up and rubbed his head with one hand and wiped snow off of himself with the other. "And what the Math is in this box?"

Finn opened the box and looked inside, and Flame Princess looked over his shoulder to see as well.

First he pulled out a letter, and began reading.

Dear Finn,

I know that you might be wondering how or why I was able to do this, but you shouldn't. Inside are two rings. As long as you and Ms. Torch right there wear them together and love each other, they will work with a slightly more complicated spell than that shield spell, especially when it comes to making it last indefinitely... that would take ages to explain... So I'll get straight to the point, you should be able to touch her, feel her, if it works properly on your end. On hers, it effectively lowers the rate that she can burn things. It doesn't completely stop her from burning stuff if she wanted too, but as long as she doesn't start shooting fireballs everywhere, things should be fine. It makes her only 'able' to use her powers when she wants to, not just by instinct... I suspect that that probably means that she can touch things as well, besides you, and not start burning things. The magic is complicated though, so I might be incorrect.

Sincerely,

Santa Claus

"Well, that's strange. Do you think we should trust this Santa guy?" Finn asked her. For all they knew, these rings could turn them to stone or something else that's pretty bad.

"We either try or we don't." She stated, before grabbing a ring and putting it on. After a few tense moments, they both blinked and then sighed. "Nothing's happened yet."

"Let me put on my ring." Finn placed the ring on his finger, and they both waited a few seconds again. And again, nothing happened.

"This Santa seems to be a trickster. Oh well, at least the rest of the day was good. I'll see you soon, honey." He placed his lips on hers, willing to accept the pain that always accompanied it.

What he didn't expect was no pain. All he felt now was happiness at finally being able to completely enjoy kissing his girlfriend, and thanks towards that Santa dude.

"I guess that Santa guy wasn't lying about these rings." Finn said as he grabbed FP's hand with his own. "And oh my glob! You know what this means? We can go to the party!" With that, Finn began to drag her behind him towards his old home.

"And then, there was this time where Jake and Finn were running around naked, because mom had turned away to talk to dad while she was changing them, and they both got out of the house, one would have thought they never would have found them, funniest part was when dad found them they were both stuck in a tree, surrounded by tiny little squirrels... It was hilarious, you should have been there." Jermaine finished telling his stories to Lady, who politely giggled as Jake blushed.

"Hey, you had some embarrassing moments too! Remember that time tha-"

"Heya Jake!" The oh so familiar voice of Finn called out from the door that opened in mid-sentence for Jake.

"But I thought you were spending time with... Flame Princess!" He gasped, seeing Finn's girlfriend walk into the house and not cause it to start burning.

"Unca Finn, Aunt Fwame Pwincess!" The dogicorn pups leaped out of their spots on the floor and all hugged Finn. They looked at the Flame Princess and hesitated. Daddy had mentioned once or twice about her burning parts of the house. What could she do to them, they wondered. One brave little boy dog went up and placed a hand on her... and after seeing that nothing bad happened, hugged her.

All the other pups leap at her and hug her too, but she looses her balance and falls onto the floor. Finn chuckles as he helps pull her back to her feet after the pups were done hugging her.

"When and how did you manage to not light everything on fire?" Jake asked, as Jermaine fist bumped Finn and gave FP a polite hug.

"Some guy gave us some rings. Apparently they're meant to make it easier for us to interact with each other." Finn replied, rubbing the back of his head. "It was all pretty strange to be honest."

"Ah, no need to worry about it, bros! We're all here, one big happy family!" Jermaine didn't want to bother thinking about it, and the rest of the family agreed. "I wonder where everybody else is though? I thought that you said everybody in Ooo was coming."

"Oh, well... all the princesses are busy trying to get their jewels back... so I guess it's just the family this year." Finn mentioned, remembering the phone call he had received earlier.

And they were all okay with that.

"So... we've hit all of the kingdoms but the Candy Kingdom... and we're just on time, Marceline. Here you go." He said, handing her a bag.

"So this is it... You're going to be yourself tomorrow..." Marceline had had fun giving out presents, but she couldn't help but remind herself that the good times wouldn't last.

"I'm myself right now, Marceline. Never forget who I was when I met you all those years ago, just like I've never forgot Betty. You'll see me again next year." He smiled sadly as he wiped away a tear that had begun to fall down Marceline's face. "You've always been a strong girl. There's no need to stop that now. Now goodbye dear."

"Goodbye, Simon." Marceline floated out of the sleigh, holding onto the bag in one hand, and hiding Hambo behind her other.

She entered through the same window she had that morning, and saw that all the princesses were still there.

"You took your sweet time!" One said to the vampire queen.

"You're lucky I brought back any of them, with that attitude." She mumbled, handing the bag to Bonnibel.

"What's behind your back?" Bonnibel asked after grabbing the bag.

"Nothing." She defensively stated, floating back out the window.

"Why is she acting so weird?" Bubblegum muttered, before opening the grab and locating her jewel, and putting it back in her crown, and then handing the bag to the next princess.

"So it seems that there's one person I've yet to give a present to." Simon said, looking at his list as he landed in his castle. "I know you're back there."

"Like oh my glob, how did you know I was back there, I was like totally being a ninja!" The cloud creature said as she floated out from behind the sleigh.

"Does it matter? You were good this year, so you get a present. Gunther, come here." Simon told the penguin, who waddled to Simon and raised his wing up to his head.

Simon magicked a mistletoe into his hand, and holds it above the penguin and cloud.

"You have to kiss it... I mean her, Gunther, those are the rules."

"Wak?"

"Yes really, I'm sorry Gunther." Simon motioned for Gunther to get it done already, and Gunther put a quick peck on LSP's lips, before beginning to hack and heave.

"Woo hoo! Thank you weirdly dress man! I'll see you later." She winked at Gunther, who began to heave harder, and left.

"And because of that Gunther, you deserve a present too." Simon said, changing the mistletoe into a bucket of fish.

"Wak Wak! Wak Wak." The bird said.

"You deserve it, and you're welcome." He rubbed Gunther's head and put up his outfit and put on his pajamas. "Goodnight Gunther, goodnight Ooo, goodnight Marceline." He yawned, and got onto his ice bed.

"Oh come on! You're telling me I wasted my wish giving you fish Gunther?! I bet that was your plan all along." The Ice King groaned as he changed out of his pajamas and put on his usual outfit.

"What's this ugly-looking thing doing here?" He asked, looking at the red and white abomination. "Is this your doing Gunther?"

"Wak."

"Fine. Yesterday was a complete waste of time. I hope your silly schemes don't waste any more of my time that I could be using to capture princesses, Gunther."

He walked towards the window to fly off, maybe he could capture Bubblegum fairly quickly today.

He saw on his dinning table a small box, poorly wrapped.

"Cool! Someone got me a present." He rushed over to the box, and opened it.

"Oh cool, some gold bling!" He lifted the watch out of the box, and it had a chain attached to it. "I'm going to look so cool wearing it! Wait... what's this note."

"Never forget your time with them.

Simon."

He opens the watch, and on the watch were two people. On the watch was a picture of both a pink skinned, reddish-brown haired woman wearing a green turtleneck. Holding onto the woman's left hand was a little girl wearing a dress with blue skin and black hair.

He smiled. And he did not know why.

Hope and Love are two things, that like the cockroach, are rather difficult to extinguish completely. Be it a man who sacrifices his freedom to bring others joy, a dog who wants to spend some quality time with his brother before they are too grown up, or a young boy who finds the time to spend with his girlfriend, the best of humanity will live on, even when faced by the worst.

Happy Holidays.