Chapter 4: My Friend Finn

Most of my childhood was happy and carefree. My first boyfriend was when I was 15. It was nice to get that kind of attention from a guy. He courted me and held my hand. We only kissed once. I don't really think I was ready to get so serious, and he wanted to take things too fast, so we broke it off. I had a lot of potential suitors, but it took a lot for me to like a guy.

I did develop a big crush on Marceline for a while when I was 16. I ran into her in the woods scaring away Why Wolves from the house people in the form of a giant demon. She seemed embarrassed that I'd actually caught her doing a good deed. She was also pretty surprised that I remembered her. Even though it had been 10 years since I saw her, she only looked 2 years older than when I met her. She wasn't quite as gangly and her face had elongated, giving her an elegant look despite the rough edges.

We hung out a lot for a few months, or at least as much as I was able to with my royal obligations. As Queen of the Vampires or whatever, she sure didn't seem to have any responsibilities. I guess Vampires are kind of self governing.

I went over to her house and she'd feed me red foods and tell me all about her adventures over the past 1000 years. She seemed to really like having someone to talk to. She never admitted it, but I figured it must be lonely to age as slowly as she did and go on all her adventures alone. I learned all about her issues with her dad, how much she missed her mom, how she killed the vampire king (he totally deserved it), and all the jerks she'd dated. I think hanging out with me brought out a softer side of her. I'd never saw her talk like that to anyone else. I thought about her constantly, but I wouldn't admit I had feelings for her at the time. After all, the public looks at who a princess is with. Most of the citizens would probably think a Vampire would not make a good future ruler to the Candy Kingdom. Even more than that, I was expected way more than anyone else to marry someone of the opposite sex, so I could, um, make successors.

After a while Marceline took notice of the fact that I always changed the subject when she mentioned meeting my family. We held hands and snuggled all the time, but when we kissed I always felt so conflicted inside. I wanted it, but it felt so wrong and scary that I always went kind of rigid before I allowed myself to get too into it. I don't know how many fights we got into because of my reservations.

I thought that maybe if I could just make her a little more "presentable," then just maybe our relationship could work. She hated when I corrected her behavior, and started pointing out all my flaws as well. When I rebuked her for a morbid or perverted joke she called me a snob who cared more for my social status than I did for being "real." When I told her she needed to shower more she sarcastically apologized for not spending an "hour each morning primping in the mirror." When I told her she should take more interest in my scientific studies, she just said the only reason I was into that junk was because I was scared of real excitement.

Pretty soon all we could see was the negative in each other. We had a really messy "break up," if that's what you'd want to call it. I tried to give all her stuff back, but she wouldn't take it. She just told me to get out and rule my kingdom since that's "all I cared about." I got rid of all the little trinkets she gave me except for her band t-shirt. I just couldn't part with that. It was soft and well worn and meant a lot to her before she gave it to me. It always held a little of her scent. On nights when I couldn't sleep, I just put it on and it felt like I was in her arms again.

If I'd had the perspective that I do now, I might have tried harder to make things work with her, but that's all in the past. When I turned 17, I never really had time to dwell on her, because Mama made me ruler of the whole kingdom.

"Now, technically you are still a princess, since you are unmarried and I'm still around as queen, but I am passing all authority on to you." She said to me one day.

"Why, Mama, where are you going?"

"Your Uncle Gumball needs help ruling his Kingdom. It's not nearly as remote and peaceful as ours is. Until further notice, I need to go help him. Sweetie, it might be years before we see each other again, but you have matured so well and I know you are ready for this. I'm so sorry."

"It's ok, Mama." I felt numb, "I don't think I'm ready for this, though."

She smiled wisely at me and her pretty pink cheeks brightened, "Thinking you're not is the biggest sign that you actually are."

A week later she left for Gumball's kingdom. We write letters all the time, but I haven't seen her since then. One perk to being ruler was that I got my very own Rainicorn! She became my best friend. It was a little overwhelming ruling an entire kingdom, but luckily a hero came along to ease the burden. Billy had retired a long time ago, but this hero was pretty different from Billy.

It was Finn.

For years Finn and his best friend, Jake, were always there to help our kingdom in need. Zombies, fish people, and even little errands like delivering tarts were taken up by the heroes with complete loyalty. Finn was such a fun kid to hang out with! Of course, at times it was a little awkward that he was so bad at hiding the fact that he had a crush on me. I thought since he was so young that he wouldn't keep his attention on me for long. He would realize eventually that I was too old for him and find someone his own age.

The only problem was that there wasn't anyone his own age that we knew of in Ooo, or at least, no one who resembled anything close to a human. So, he just pined over me and I let him. Sometimes I think I humored him too much. I liked the attention and I didn't want to be mean to him by just rejecting him. He was such a sweet boy, and that's all I saw him as, even as he got more emotionally mature, and grew a little taller, with a little deeper of a voice.

Everything changed after the accident with the Lich, though. It's a long story, and I'm sure you know it as everyone in Ooo seems to know it, but in short it ended up with me being possessed by the Lich, almost dying, and then being reconstructed. There wasn't enough gum to work with though, so when the surgery was finished I was only 13 years old!

That was exactly Finn's age at the time. And that was when I realized I liked him, and that I probably had for a long time. It was so much fun just to be care free with him and be a kid again! We went exploring in the woods, he helped me with little experiments, and he showed me how fun pranking that butt, Lemongrab could be!

Whenever he worked on anything together he sat close enough to me that I could feel the warmth from his body. We were always finding some excuse to hug or hold hands, but would never admit actually being a couple because, being 13, we both found that "gross." He acted so happy around me and sometimes I caught him just staring at me with a dopey look on his face when he thought I wasn't looking. Something about seeing the world from his perspective and him actually being the same size as me made me see him as more than just a silly boy.

One day we'd spent the whole day riding on Rainicorn and he held me in his arms at the end of the day on the roof of the castle.

"Princess?" he said, giving me a squeeze.

"Yeah, Finn?"

"You know how you gave me that special 'like' sweater that protected me from the Lich?"

"Yeah. I hope you never noticed the stitches are a little uneven! I'm not perfect at knitting."

"No, Princess, it's perfect. It's just…it meant a lot to me. I still wear it a lot whenever it's cold. It must have taken you hours to make." He looked away from me and was blushing like a tomato. His mouth formed a little crooked grin and I could see three little blond hairs poking out of his hat. He placed his hand on top of mine.

"Well, it was the least I could do for you always saving me." I turned to look at him and placed my hand on his cheek. It grew hot under my touch. He did so much for me and yet he was so grateful for the one thing I did for him. "You know, Finn, I never thought about this before, but the whole time I've known you I didn't even know you had blond hair."

"Huh?" he looked up and stuffed the hair back in his hat with a quiet "Oh."

"Finn, will you take your hat off for me?"

"Umm, sure, Princess? Why do you want to see me without my hat? I think my hat is awesome."

"No, it is. But…you don't have to be afraid to be human around me. "

He grinned a little and then yanked his hat off his head. A thick, soft shiny shag of blond hair fell around his face. It was so bright it looked like a halo in the sunset. My fingers traced along his neck and then ran through his hair and he shivered a little bit. Immediately my mind flashed to the dream with that little baby, where I ran my fingers through his hair as I fell asleep.

Of course I'd had my suspicions that Finn could have been the baby when he told me that he was the only human before he met Susan, but now I was sure of it. From my readings of humans before the Mushroom War, blond hair is a recessive trait, so how likely is it that a baby boy that would be Finn's age now with his exact same traits would be a different boy? Come to think of it, from what I remember of his mom, she looked somewhat like Susan! She was a lot less haggard looking, but not many women are as big as she is.

"Umm, are you ok, Princess?" I realized that I'd been staring into space while thinking of all this and my hand hung limply in the air.

"What? Oh. Yeah. I was just…thinking."

"Well, I was thinking too, Princess, and-"

"You are beautiful, Finn the Human."

He looked really surprised and started laughing nervously.

"I'm sorry," I said, "I interrupted you. What were you saying?"

"Well, I was wondering, since you used to be older and all, if you knew how you can tell…" he sighed and his words were barely audible, "when you're in love with someone."

"I'm not really qualified to answer that. My romantic relationships haven't exactly been functional and I've never told somebody I love them- in that way. 18 really isn't that old, Finn."

"Oh." He said. He looked kind of dejected, like he expected me to just confess my love right there so he could do it back.

"Finn, we're the same age now. I'm not going anywhere, and we're both kids. One thing I do know about falling in love with someone is that it makes everything harder. Let's just spend some more time growing up, ok?" That was the nice way for me to say 'Please don't tell me you love me.'

He brightened up, "Yeah, you're right, Princess. I mean, I see movies where people kiss and say they love each other and I think it's totally nasty! Then, when I'm with you I feel totally different about all that stuff! I like just having fun with you."

"Yeah, it's been a long time since I've just been able to let go. It's made me wonder if I even want to be in charge of a whole kingdom. I've never known anything else because my whole life is just planned out from birth."

"Whoa. That's heavy stuff, Princess."

We were quiet for a while and I stood up. "I think I'm going to read. Will I see you tomorrow, Finn?"

"You bet, Bubblegum!"

"Hey, would you mind telling me about your childhood tomorrow?"

"Um, ok. What about it?" he seemed a little uncomfortable.

"Just…everything. I want to know what it was like being raised by Jake's family."

"Sure, if you're into that. I'll pack us lunch and we roast marshmellows on the fire lake. I mean, not the living marshmellows here- the normal ones."

I left wondering how much he would tell me. He got really awkward talking about his past. Maybe it had something to do with him getting all "soul searchy and weird" when he thought about being the last human. I just wanted to see how much he knew about his past before being with Jake. If he knew anything about being brought to the castle. I was curious if anything he said would jar my memories that were missing from when I was 6.

Before I'd even descended the stairs he had his hat back on.