Author's Note: Ahahha- SO late in updating. SO sorry. I had some of those, y'know, ye olde writer's block. Didn't know how to continue the story from the point I stopped, hahah- Anyways, here you go. Hope this is okay. Will update faster soon, hopefully.

No replies for the last chapter's reviews btw, since those were ages ago, hahah- But thanks a lot for the support and kind words. QwQ

Beta'd by Kara Shadows.

Disclaimer: I do not own Adventure Time.

Chapter 11: The Father.

"I met your Mother again today," Finn light-heartedly murmured to the growing fetus before him.

"You did? You did? How was she? Is she well? Have you told her about me yet?"

"I'm so sorry baby, I wasn't able to," the Human sadly replied as he stroked the smooth glass.

"Why not? Why not? I miss Mommy! I miss her so much!"

Finn sighed in sadness upon hearing this. "I'm so sorry, love. But she's so easily hurt. Even when she had to let go of you she was hurt, so I'm afraid that if I tell her that you're alive and living so soon, she'll feel even more hurt."

"Why? Why?"

"Because I found out about you before she even get to tell me about you…"

"I don't understand, Daddy."

"I suppose it's difficult to understand…"

"All alright, Finn?" Prince Blueberry Bash's lilting voice suddenly pierced through the Human's trail of thought.

"Oh, hello Bash," Finn greeted. "It's okay. Just having a hard time explaining to Junior about what's happening."

Bash placed down the apparatuses that he was carrying and walked up towards him. "So you're going to name it Junior?"

"Eh, no. Just a momentary name before it can finally be 'born' and properly named," the blond answered with a smile. "I plan to let Marcy name it. Or for her dad to name it, if she ever plans to tell him about the kid."

Bash beamed warmly upon hearing the answer. Finn sounded like he would be a great father and spouse in his opinion.

"So, you here to take my blood?" the Human then inquired, raising his arm to the Prince. Bash nodded and led him to his usual seat, where his blood would usually be drawn out to be given to the child within the tube.

"Is it feeding time already, Daddy?" a small voice suddenly emerged from the mind-reader.

"Yes, babe," Finn replied. "I'm gonna hafta stay quiet for a minute, so I'll be back with ya in a minute, okay?"

"Okay."

"You seem to have found a great use for my device," Bash murmured, pleasantness lining his voice. "I feel glad that it is useful."

"Eheheh, yeah," the younger man replied bashfully. "Thanks a lot for creating it, Bash. The kid wouldn't have lived if it weren't for you."

"Ah, I only created it. It was Bonnible who brought the device close enough to the fetus to find that it was actually still living."

Bash grunted as he bent down to pick something that he dropped while setting up the blood transfusion device before continuing, "It's mostly the child's luck though, I think. Marceline was so persistent in removing it even though it was already in its fourth month. But it turns out its will to live was even stronger than her will to throw it away."

"I suppose they're bound together," Princess Bubblegum chimed in, as she walked into the lab. "Can you manage, Bash?"

"Yes, all is fine," he replied without tearing his eyes away from his work.

"Sorry for troubling you with this, Bash," the Princess then apologized, approaching the two men. "I get too busy with this kingdom to do it myself. And this boy here sometimes refuses to come if I'm the one who's going to do the transfusion."

"Shut up!" Finn then (accidentally) shouted at her, only to receive a sharp flick on the forehead.

"What did I tell you about being rude to you elder, Finn. Geez."

The Human simply pouted back, a look that is rather unsuitable for his growing face.

Prince Blueberry Bash laughed light-heartedly upon seeing the bickering. He doesn't know much about what Finn and Princess Bubblegum had shared between each other in the past (since they don't seem to be sharing much now, in the present), but remnants of warm friendship is apparent between the both of them.

Bash tapped on the tubes connecting the Human to the blood bag several times, making sure that there's no blockage whatsoever, before leaving him to himself. He took a deep breath of oxygen to replenish his deoxidized cells, before twirling around to check upon the child. His heart jolted for a moment when his eyes laid themselves upon Princess Bubblegum, who was staring at the child with an unreadable expression on her face. He thought she had left, but apparently not. So he walked towards her, though mostly with the intention of checking on the child.

"How's the growth?" he asked her, as he flicked through his private notes regarding the fetus.

"Rather rapid," she replied, quite absent-mindedly. "Getting even faster with the blood supplied by Finn."

"What about its demands for blood?"

"No change. But if it starts making demands, we must begin lessening its intake."

"Agreed. What about its gender, finally making any appearance?"

"There seem to be signs of a male genital coming from it, but I can't be too sure."

"Hm, the lateness of its genital formation is the most interesting matter in regards to this being," Bash commented, raising his eyes from the notes, back to the fetus.

"Interesting indeed," Princess Bubblegum replied, her eyes finally concentrating back to the matter at hand. "I wonder if it's anything significant."

"Or maybe the lack of nutrition caused the lateness in its development gender-wise?"

"Perhaps so…"

"Geez, both of you really are scientists, aren't you. Talking about my baby like that…," Finn suddenly barged into the discussion, sounding rather annoyed.

"Ah, I apologise, Finn," uttered the Princess, momentarily removing here eyes away from the fetus to cast an apologetic look at the Human, before giving her concentration back to it. "We get carried away at times," she continued.

"I know," Finn sighed, exasperated. "Just, stop seeing it like an object or something."

"We try," Bash said. This time, it was him being the one who casts an apologetic look.

Finn talked to them no longer as he sees that they're getting immersed in their inspection. The both of them looked like a really boring pair, talking about science all day. So, he changed his attention to his child, his child that is unfortunately growing in an unnatural environment.

Its fingers and toes had begun to develop more details than before, even its facial features has begun to look more human-like. It has also started being more active, moving here and there, just like any active baby; and light tufts of dark hair have begun sprouting upon its once-bald head. Its skin is white like paste, unlike his skin or Marcy's at all. Perhaps it is due the fact that the child is a mix. Either way, even in this stage, to Finn, the child is the prettiest child he had ever seen. Maybe because he can feel a sense of belonging with this child, a feeling that even though there are not much humans around (the other being his dad, who is not an entirely reliable person and is hardly around), he can still feel as if he belonged to somewhere, some place; as long as this child is here.

Staring at this child made the Human reminisce back on the time when he first found out about its existence.

He and Marceline has been in a relationship for a week, when the Vampire Queen slowly lapsed back to her sulky, unapproachable self. It disturbed him greatly, because he thought that they were finally going to be okay again; but no, things were still bad, especially on her part. He tried all he could to make her feel better, only to be kicked out by her again.

Feeling down, he just scampered off to the Candy Kingdom to get his blood drawn again (since he refused to come for the last few sessions just because he wanted to spend more time with Marceline), feeling slightly worried for the unfed fetus. Upon arrival, he found the room to be empty again, therefore he let himself wander around freely, wanting to remove his thoughts from his fights with the Vampire.

His wandering led him to a device that he had never seen, or at least noticed, before. It was a strange device, for it looked rather like one of those old machineries that he and Jake would find while scavenging, though could never work out how it would function. Fortunately for this device, it had been modified enough for it to be easily used even by idiots like him, so he simply flicked on the switch and let it run.

At first there was only silence, accompanied by some crackling here and there. But then, there was a scream. A blood-curling scream of agony.

"I'M HUUUUNNNNGGRRRYYYYYY!" Were the words that came right after the scream.

Finn; who was petrified by the previous sound, recovered himself and tried, clumsily, to find the off switch; but before he could do that, the sound continued.

"Moooommm! Where are youuuuuu! I'm so hungrryyyyy!"

Finn remained silent. This could simply be a recorded voice of a hungry child (though, he did wonder why Princess Bubblegum has such a thing), so there's no need for him to give any feedback. But then…

"Mommy Marcy….. Why did you leave me…"

"Huh? Marceline has a child?" the Human suddenly interjected, shocked.

"Eh? Ehh? Who's that? Aunt Bonnie? Uncle Bash? But this voice is different. Are you my dad? Daddy Finn?"

"Huh?" the Human is now shocked for the second time. "I have a kid?"

"You are Daddy Finn, then! Hey, dad! Hey! It's me, your baby! Your baby with Mommy Marcy! Dad? Dad, are you there?"

Finn was dumbfounded. He knew that he and Marceline did have that 'fling', but for a child to be produced through it….? And when did Marceline get pregnant anyways? Why is the child with Princess Bubblegum? Why is it in a cryogenic tube, even? What?

"Dad, are you okay…? Geez, sorry if you're surprised. Mommy never told you about me after all."

The Human shook his head, pinched the bridge of his nose, and then exhaled. "Alright," he breathed. "So, apparently, you are not one of Peeble's crazy experiment-thing…?"

"I guess I am half experiment but I originated from a totally organic source."

"Whoah, okay," Finn exhaled again. He was feeling mind blown right now, especially with the sudden escalation. Disoriented, he searched around the room for a chair, found one, and then bought it closer to the cryogenic tube to have a more, proper, conversation with the being that had claimed to be his child.

"So, baby," he started after the momentary pause in their conversation. "Tell Daddy about what happened, from the start until the very end, will ya?"

"Finn? What are ya doing here?"

"Hey, Ice King."

The old man scratched his beard and stared at the Human. The boy seemed to be coming over to his place quite often these days, and it was making him feel suspicious. But it's been more than three times, and he's still alive. So….yeah.

The Ice King kept on staring as Finn walked towards a wall, leaned on it and slid down towards the floor with a sigh. He was feeling miserable, and by going to the Ice Kingdom, he can freeze whatever feelings that he have within him and make himself feel nothingness. The cold really helps, at times. The painful feeling of having ice seep into your skin would overpower whatever pain that exists in your heart. And that was exactly the feeling that he was trying to achieve right now, though it wasn't necessary for him to go to Ice King's lair.

This was actually one of the days when he wanted feel numb and have someone to talk to at the same time, however. And the nearest talkable person that he can reach in the Ice Kingdom is none other than the Ice King.

"Come join me, brotha'," the Human muttered as he pat the empty space next to him. The Ice King blinked before he decided to comply and sat against the wall, with his once-mortal enemy, right next to him.

"Havin' one of your probs again…?" he asked, as he gestured Gunter to come closer him, so that they can cuddle.

"Yeah."

"Okay." Gunter waddled towards its owner and lay onto his laps, its belly being left open to be scratched.

"Thanks for letting me crash at your place each time I have these episodes, mang."

"Sure thing, I guess," Ice King replied, as he puts a hand onto Gunter's stomach and slowly strokes it. "Are you having troubles with ladies again?"

"Huh? How'd you… Well, yeah."

"Is it that Flame Princess again?"

The Human quickly turned his head towards the man beside him in shock, his eyes widening considerably, "Whoa! Glob, no! We were history ages ago."

"Good then. I didn't like her, she was crazy," the old man muttered as he wrinkled his eyebrows upon the remembering the time when his kingdom was almost obliterated by said female.

"Well, that was mostly my fault…," Finn admitted, scratching his head through his bear-hat in embarrassment.

"I know. And you were an idiot for doing that," replied his conversation partner as he rolled his eyes. "I would've done a better job at keeping a lady compared to you," he then, snickered.

"Oh, please!" the Human interjected, laughing as he lightly slapped the Ice King on his shoulder.

The Ice King laughed as well, though he wasn't entirely sure what was funny. "So, who is this lady?" he then asked.

"…..Not sure if I should talking about her openly just yet," the younger male replied. "We're taking it slow."

"Hm… taking it slow, huh," the older one mused. "That actually sounded like a good plan in getting the ladies."

"Heck yeah it is! Better than suddenly capturing them and putting them in cages!"

"Pbbtt, whatevs."

"Anyways, about the lady… We had been having….fights, I suppose."

"Why were you fighting? That's a bad thing for a relationship, dude."

"Well… It's just….I guess I can say that….she'd been hiding something from me and does not want to talk about it, even though I keep telling her that I will totally listen to all her problems."

Finn sighed as he let that thought out of him, feeling slightly better for being able to release it. The good part about talking to the Ice King is the fact that he won't remember any of it afterwards, at least not the details.

"Alright, so let me get this straight. This lady has a problem. But she doesn't want to let it out. You on the other hand, claim that you're ready to hear all of her problems. Hmmm," the Ice King brought a hand up to his chin in thought. "Maybe she thinks that you won't be able to handle that problem, considering how big of a dumb-dumb you are, ahahahhaha," he laughed.

Finn casted an angry look at the blue-skinned man, "Well, just so you know, I already knew what her problem is. I just wanted to wait for her to talk about it in her own time."

"Wait, hold up," Ice King stopped him, while holding up both of his hands at the same time. "You already knew her problems? Then just tell her that you knew and then let everything be done with!"

"B- but that's just gonna give her more pain, don't you think?" the Human argued back.

"What kind of pain?"

"W- well….!"

Both of them stopped talking at this point; Finn due to speechlessness, while Ice King just thought that there was no need for them to talk any longer.

"You should go, Finn," he later, said. "Go and solve that problem of yours."

Finn remained seated for a few second later before finally raising himself.

"Thanks for the talk, dude," he mumbled, before running out of the Ice Fortress, back towards the woman who held his heart.

So, that's it for the 11th chapter~ What did you think of it? Tell me in the reviews~~~! And if you're a new reader, please, do give it a follow and favourite, and the next update shall totally be delivered straight to your inbox~~! :D

Also, NEWS FLASH!

I have a new Finnceline short story coming along and the title is Ages and Blood Ties, so please check it out!

I also have provided links of the character references for Prince Blueberry Bash and the Fire Serpent, so do check those out as well!

Thanks again for reading, everyone!