"So… what are we looking for again?" asked Jace, trailing a half-step behind Finn. The two boys were hiking through the woods, switching from trail to trail as Finn led the way.

"Flambo, he's a little fire dude. A flambit, I think."

"And why are we trying to find him?"

"It's a surprise," said Finn, grinning to himself as they entered a small clearing. A small circle of large stones was laid out in the middle of the grassy clearing, and the ground around them seemed singed and dead. "I think this is it!" he shouted, running toward the stones.

Jace sighed. "That's what you said in the last clearing. And in that ravine. And by that oak stump that kind of looked like an ear."

Finn turned and looked at Jace, who was idly kicking a small piece of dirt. "Dude. Bud. Homie. I know you're all put out about being put out, but trust me. I'm gonna make it better. I promise." He grabbed Jace's hand, placing it on his chest. "I love you, and I don't like it when you're sad. So stop flopping in your sad-puddle, 'cause it's gonna be alright." He pulled Jace a little closer and kissed him gently on the lips.

"Eeew, gross guys! Get a room!" said a high pitched voice with a thick Bronx accent.

Finn spun around, spying a small fire creature climbing out from beneath one of the rocks, which appeared to be hollow. "Flambo!"

"Heya, Finn! Didn't think I'd be seein' yous again after your whatnot with the Flame Princess."

"Well, yeah…" Finn rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Ohmyglob, he's adorable!" said Jace, bending down and offering his open hand to Flambo. The small fire creature hopped onto his open hand and scurried up his arm, perching on his shoulder.

"Who's this bozo, eh?"

"Flambo, meet Flame Prince."

Flambo looked Jace up and down, then burst out laughing. "OK, OK, I'm used to Jake's pranks, but this's a total fail. For one, he ain't even a fire person! Second, Flame Princess's brothers is all adopted, and they's part lava-golem." He rocked back and forth, laughing so hard he almost fell off of Jace's shoulder. "Yous gotta step up your game to pull a fast one over this lil' spark."

Jace cocked his eyebrows, smirking slightly. "Y'know, when I lived with the fire lions, we used to eat little fire mice like you."

Flambo hopped down from Jace's shoulder and sat on the ground, arms crossed. "So what'd yous wants?"

"Dude, we just need you to cast Flame Shield on us."

"Eh, fine." He held his arms out, chanting a spell. "ƸȴƧ ƟƮǶ ȣȜƢ." He poked Finn and Jace in the stomach, and Finn felt the strange, tingling sensation of the spell covering his body.

"Whoa, this is weird," muttered Jace, inspecting his now-blue arms.

"There. I cast flame shield on yous. Now get outta here, ya goons." Flambo scurried back to his hollow rock, and disappeared from sight.

"What was that all about?" asked Jace, still poking his arm in fascination. "What's flame shield?"

"It's a simple spell that makes you impervious to fire," explained Finn, leading the way back into the forest.

"Why do I need to be… oh." Jace pouted, walking slowly behind Finn.

"Jace. Stop this. Please?" Finn grabbed Jace's hand, squeezing gently. "You're making me sad, now, too."

"No, don't be sad!" said Jace, wrapping an arm around Finn's waist. "I'm just… getting used to this."

"Well, don't get too used to it." Finn winked at Jace mysteriously.

Arriving at the Fire Kingdom, Jace whistled, impressed. "How big is this kingdom?"

"Um… It's a little smaller than the Candy Kingdom, I think, in how many peeps chill here, but if you look at a map, it's about the same size as the Ice Kingdom."

"Huh. Man, Baba would have loved to see this place."

Finn took Jace's hand and led him down a steep path and across a wide stone bridge, toward a massive castle made of black stone and dripping with lava.

"Halt. Who goes there?" asked a guard, holding his spear to block the entrance to the castle.

Finn sighed. "You know me, Emberton. Finn? The human? I came by last year to drop off all of Flame Princess's stuff?"

"Oh, yeah. 'Sup? Who's the baldy?" he asked, gesturing at Jace.

"This is Fla… uh… Jace, my friend."

"And what is the reason for your visit?"

"I've come to seek an audience with the Flame Princess, regarding a matter of the utmost importance."

Jace smirked at Finn. "Look at you, being all diplomatic," he whispered to Finn, who poked him in the side in response.

"Very well, you may enter. But no asking out the Princess, Finn. She's over that."

Jace followed Finn into the castle. "Uh… have you come here to try to get back together before?"

Finn blushed, but didn't say anything.

Once inside the throne room, Jace kept looking around, taking in all the details. As they waited for Flame Princess, Jace would occasionally point out details in the decorations to Finn, explaining their significance or the differences between the Ooo version and the Aaa version.

"Oh, and that tapestry over there, that's the legend of Cinderville, an entire village that disappeared without a trace. Aai used to tell me that the ghosts of the villagers still wandered the great fire plains, looking for their lost homes."

"Huh."

"And that statue, by the window, that's Lady Lightly, the first enchantress to unite the eleven tribes of Fire Folk… or 'fire people', in this universe. In our version, the union only lasted two generations before the Wet War drove the tribes apart. Looks like that never happened in this universe."

"What's the Wet W-" Finn was cut off as a trumpet blast announced the entrance of Flame Princess. Jace took a half step back, hiding a little behind Finn's shoulder, as Flame Princess took her throne.

"Finn?" she asked, after settling herself. "Finn, what are you doing here?"

"Oh, uh…" Finn rubbed his arm awkwardly, blushing. "Hey FP. Um… Yeah. I need the Crystal of Ix."

Jace tapped Finn on the shoulder, whispering, "What's the Crystal of Ix?"

Flame Princess sighed, climbing down from her throne. "No, you don't need the Crystal of Ix."

"Yes, I do," replied Finn resolutely.

"No you don't. I don't know if this is some sort of weird plot to get back together with me, or if you're mad at me and trying to get revenge or something, but I'm not giving you the Crystal of Ix."

"Guys, what's the Crystal of Ix?" Jace asked, speaking up.

"Oh!" Flame Princess seemed to notice Jace for the first time. "Who's this?"

Finn blushed some more. "FP, this is Jace. He's… uh… he's my boyfriend."

"WHAT!?" Flames shot out of Flame Princess's head.

"Yeah, and he's the dude who needs the crystal."

"So, you're telling me… that this whole time, even while we were dating, you were…?"

Finn frowned, confused. "I was… what?"

"In to guys."

"Ye- wait, no! No, Jace is just… he's really special." Finn grabbed Jace's hand and held it resolutely. "And he's the dude who needs the crystal."

"What's the crystal!?" shouted Jace, feeling very left out.

Flame Princess sighed again. "The crystal imbues you with the powers of a pyromancer. Like a Fire elemental."

Jace whooped. "So I'll have my powers again!" Flame Princess looked to Finn, confused.

"He used to be a fire elemental, but he got sick and the only cure was to remove his fire powers," explained Finn. "Please, Princess? It would mean a lot to me."

Flame Princess rubbed her forehead. "Yeah, I suppose you can have the crystal. It's not like anyone here has any use for it. Very well. Cinnamon Bun!"

"Yes, Sage?" Cinnamon Bun entered the vaulted room through a side door. He was blue as well, although his flame shield seemed a little faded.

"Please show Finn and… Jace? to the Mines of Floof, where they'll retrieve the Crystal of Ix."

"Oh… OK." Cinnamon Bun led the two boys out of the chamber, and out to a small stable where a bunch of fire creatures were kept. "We'll take Samantha," he said simply, gesturing at a winged fire-horse.

After mounting the animal, and helping Jace get situated behind him, Finn tapped Cinnamon Bun on the shoulder. "Hey, CB? Who's Sage?"

Cinnamon Bun patted the animal's mane, and they took off, flying over the castle toward a series of volcanoes. "Sage is Flame Princess. That's her name."

"Oh…" Finn looked down at his blue hands, an empty feeling in his chest. Flame Princess had never told him her name; he had always assumed 'Flame Princess' was her actual name.

"Finn?" whispered Jace, wrapping his arms around Finn's midriff. "It's in the past. I'm here, and I'm Jace, and I'm all yours."

Finn smiled a little, rubbing Jace's arms gently. "Yeah, that's true. You sure are my Jace."

"This is it." Cinnamon Bun landed the winged horse on a small outcropping near what looked like an entrance to a mine. Glowing flows of lava snaked past on either side of the outcropping, lighting everything with an eerie orange glow.

"So… where's the crystal?" Finn asked, helping Jace down from the horse.

"In there," replied Cinnamon Bun, pointing at the mine entrance. "These are the Mines of Floof."

"Aren't you gonna come with us?" asked Jace, peering into the pitch black tunnel.

"No. Sage said to take you guys to the mine. Here's the mine. Bye-bye." He mounted the horse and took off, leaving Finn and Jace on the ledge.

"Well, that's not particularly helpful," muttered Finn, pulling a torch from his backpack. "Aww, bunk!" he exclaimed, seeing that the torch was also blue, and thus impossible to light. "How're we gonna see in there?" he asked.

"Way ahead of you," replied Jace, scooping up a large handful of the glowing lava. "When this stuff cools down, it stops glowing, so we've got five, maybe ten minutes of light."

Impressed at his friends ingenuity, Finn followed Jace into the dark mine.

After a minute or so of walking, they came to a fork in the tunnel. "Hmm…" Finn tapped his chin, squinting in the dim glow. "Left or right?"

"Right," replied Jace confidently.

"How do you know?" asked Finn.

"I don't. But my Baba used to always say, 'right's right'. And if it's really a toss-up between the two ways, does it really matter?" Finn nodded in agreement, and the two continued down the tunnel.

Suddenly, the tunnel opened into a large chamber. The walls were much smoother than the walls in the mine tunnel, suggesting that this chamber pre-dated the mine. Torches lined the walls, and in the center was a small stone pedestal, on top of which was a red glowing gem.

"That's it!" exclaimed Finn, running into the room. Jace followed cautiously, pausing to light some of the torches on the walls using his now barely-glowing lava. Finn picked up the gem as light filled the room, illuminating the walls and ceiling.

"Finn, look out!" shouted Jace, running into the room.

"Wha-?" Finn barely had time to turn around before Jace dove into him, knocking him across the room and into a wall. A massive tentacle swung down from the ceiling, smashing the pedestal where Finn had been standing just seconds ago. "What the stuff is that!?" said Finn, staring up at the ceiling. A large mass of grey-green goo, writhing with tentacles, covered the ceiling of the room, and was now thrashing about, blindly trying to attack any intruders.

"I dunno, but I don't think it wants us here," replied Jace, hurrying to get out of the way. He and Finn ran in opposite directions as a massive tentacle came smashing down against the wall where they were standing.

"Well, I don't want it here!" Finn circled around the room, trying to get to the entrance, but the creature kept blocking it with its mass of slimy goo. "Jace, I've got the crystal, try using it against that thing!"

He tossed the red crystal across the room to Jace, who dove to catch it. Unfortunately, Finn's throw was a little off, and the crystal slipped through Jace's fingers, instead smacking him in the chest.

"Oof!" Jace tumbled to the ground as Finn pulled his sword from his backpack.

"Jaaaccceeee!" Finn shouted, running across the room as he swung his sword wildly, making contact with a couple gooey tentacles. "Jace! Are you OK?" Finn rolled Jace over onto his back. The crystal had embedded itself in his chest, right in the center between his pectorals.

"Ugh… I feel weird…" Jace squirmed a little as the blue faded from his skin and his body began to glow slightly. "I… I feel… Great!" He hopped up and conjured a fireball, blasting it directly up at the creature. It made contact with a 'sploosh' sound, and the gooey creature promptly broke apart, raining down on Finn and Jace.

"Eeew," muttered Finn, brushing the goo from his shirt. "Jace, you've got your powers back!" He ran over to Jace and jumped into his arms, holding him tight.

Jace chuckled. "Yep, most of them." He closed his eyes and grunted, and a line of fire appeared on his head, spreading into a mohawk shape. "I even got my hair back!"

Finn giggled, running a hand through Jace's new fire hair as he kissed him. "See? I told ya I'd make it all better."

Jace grinned, savoring his kiss with Finn.

After returning to the Tree Fort (Jace carrying Finn and using his new firepowers to fly out of the Fire Kingdom), Jace and Finn took turns telling Jake about their adventure.

"And then, Jace kaboom-ed the thing with a massive ball of blazing terror!" shouted Finn, stabbing the air with his fork.

"Huh. And what's with the new hairdo?" asked Jake, finishing off his fried chicken.

"I dunno, new me, new powers, new do," replied Jace, running his fingers through his new mohawk.

"Right… right. Well, I'm all worn out from a fulfilling day of playing video games," said Jake, standing and using his stretchy powers to put his dirty plate in the sink. "I'm gonna hit the hay."

"OK… I'm gonna spend the night with Jace. In the guest bedroom," said Finn, blushing. Jake nodded, smirking, and disappeared up the ladder.

"Hey, Finn?"

"Hmm?"

"Can I have a… a few minutes of time, like, alone? Before we go to bed?"

Finn nodded, confused, and helped Jace clear off the table. "I'll be right back. Ten minutes, tops." Jace waited for Finn to go into the guest bedroom, then he tiptoed out the back door of the kitchen, into the back yard behind the tree house.

In the bedroom, Finn pulled a large paper bag out of his backpack, and slid a thick book out of it. It was the book on relationships he'd read at the library a while ago. That morning, he had sent a message to Turtle Princess, asking for the book to be sent to the Tree Fort.

After changing into his pajamas, Finn crawled into bed, and opened the book to Section 1; Chapter 2: Sexual Intercourse. Feeling a little dirty, Finn began reading.