Disclaimer: Adventure Time belongs to Pendleton Ward/Cartoon Network. Thanks to Rinney and Anna for proof reading.
Even though there was less than an hour till midnight, the summer sky still didn't seem completely dark. The sun had only set a couple of hours earlier and the stars were shining brightly above the Candy Kingdom; the moon hanging low in the sky and glowing like burnished gold instead of its usual polished silver. Flame Princess was once again perched on the parapets of the tallest tower, idly swinging her legs over the side with the kind of nonchalance that only someone with the power of flight could possess.
Behind her the trapdoor that opened out onto the tower lay open, and grunts of effort were echoing through it as Finn hauled himself up the ladder. Flame Princess didn't move from where she was sitting as the human boy emerged from the shaft leading down into the castle, his upper body slumping across the flagstones as he panted with effort.
"Are you okay?" Although the fire girl sounded concerned she made no attempt to assist Finn as he dragged himself the rest of the way through the trapdoor, then fell face-first against the floor once more. The reason for her inaction soon became obvious - Finn had a large bundle of fireworks strapped to his back instead of his pack, which had been left at the base of the parapet Flame Princess was sitting on. Getting too close to the boy would have been a really bad idea for both of them at present. "You didn't need to bring them all at once. Why didn't you let the Banana Guards help like Pepbutt said?"
Finn tried to laugh it off, but only managed a wheezing chuckle. "Nah... s'fine..." he managed to gasp out, uncomfortably aware of how damp his shirt had become beneath the heavy weight of the fireworks on his back. He was just glad that the ropes holding them in place hadn't slipped. Though, on reflection, maybe making a couple of journeys with them instead of taking them in one go would have been a better idea. Shrugging off the jury-rigged rope straps, Finn pushed the huge bundle to one side and rolled onto his back gratefully. "Told you I didn't need help." Truthfully he'd just wanted to impress the fire girl, and his aching back and shoulders were a small price to pay. "Gimme a minute and I'll get them set up," he added breathlessly.
"We've got time," Flame Princess replied, glancing towards the position of the moon. "The fireworks don't get lit until midnight. As long as they're ready in the next half hour it'll be fine. Are you sure you don't want me to get Pepbutt to help?" she asked, looking concerned as Finn still hadn't moved from where he lay. "I can see him from here; I could just fly down and grab him. He hates it when I do that, but it's pretty funny."
"It's okay, all I have to do is put them in the frames, right? Easy." Finn propped himself up on his elbows as he got his breath back, trying to look casual instead of hot and sweaty. "You know where they go, right? You just can't touch them in case they go off."
The fire girl nodded, pointing at a series of heavy wooden boxes that had been arranged on the flat roof of the tower. "The big flat ones are called cakes, they go inside those boxes. The cylinders are called candles, and they go in those racks." Flame Princess indicated a row of wooden racks which had been weighed down with sandbags. "The rockets go in racks too; you can tell the difference because the candles don't fit in the ones for the rockets."
Sitting up, Finn pulled the bundle of fireworks over to himself and began to sort through them. It was easy enough to tell the fireworks apart; the rockets were mounted on sticks, the candles were long cylinders and the cakes were thick discs that weighed the most. "Do they need to be in a specific order?" he asked, setting each type out in separate piles.
"No, it doesn't matter," the fire girl said confidently. "As long as I can see the label I know which ones to light first. When they go off it should be like a rainbow, only with fire."
"That sounds totally rad," Finn breathed softly. "I've never seen fireworks before, this is gonna be awesome!" Getting to his feet, the human boy lifted an armful of rockets and carried them over to one of the racks, carefully sliding them into place. "Aren't they awful close together?" His voice was edged with doubt as he shot a concerned look towards the young elemental. "Or are they supposed to all be lit at once?"
"I can still light them one at a time, watch!" Turning to face out over the courtyard, Flame Princess drew one arm back and concentrated, then snapped it forwards. Bright, white hot sparks leapt from the tips of her fingers, fanning out into the air then fizzling out as they slowly drifted downwards. "Sparks like that are easy," she added over her shoulder, not without a touch of boastfulness. "Mom got me to practice with candles until I got the hang of lighting them from a distance."
"Your mom must know a lot about fire people," Finn commented as he gingerly lifted one of the firework cakes and carried it over to a waiting box. "I didn't know fire people could light things without burning the butts off them."
The fire girl shrugged, turning back to watch the human boy. "Maybe they can't. Mom said it's mostly physics and thermodynamics and a good dose of chemistry. Maybe they don't learn that in the Fire Kingdom. Everything I read about that place says there's fire and lava everywhere so they don't need to worry about setting things on fire. But I do because I live here. I don't want to hurt anyone."
Putting the last of the fireworks into place, Finn looked up at Flame Princess curiously. "Do you ever think about going back to the Fire Kingdom so you don't have to worry about that?" Although it was an innocent enough question, the human had ulterior motives in asking it. He knew that the Fire Kingdom wasn't somewhere he could just walk into like the Candy Kingdom, unless he wanted to find out what fried bacon felt like.
"Of course not, this is my home!" Flame Princess' answer was firm and immediate. "I never want to go to the Fire Kingdom; I don't care if I wouldn't have to worry about burning things. Everything I care about is here."
"I understand," Finn replied, hopping up onto the parapet next to the one Flame Princess was sitting on. "I don't even know where humans come from, or if there's any others. But if there were, I'd still want to stay in the Grasslands with Jake 'cuz he's my bro."
Flame Princess didn't reply, but smiled shyly instead. Maybe it wasn't so weird to be the only fire person in the Candy Kingdom if Finn was the only human in Ooo. The two children sat in companionable silence for a few minutes longer, Finn looking out at the horizon while Flame Princess gazed up at the stars. Then the sound of viola music made them both look downwards to the people below.
"That sounds like two people playing," Flame Princess commented, looking around for the source. "Are Lady and Jake playing together?"
Finn snorted back a laugh as he caught sight of his brother, shaking his head. "Nope, it looks like Jake's just showing off..."
o.o.o.o.o
It had seemed like such a good idea to begin with. Borrow Lady Rainicorn's viola, then sprout a pair of extra arms to play two at once. But much to Jake's increasing discomfort, he was finding it hard to work out which arm was playing which viola. And the faster he played, the less he was sure that he'd be able to stop without snapping some strings. At least he couldn't snap any bones.
The dog was uncomfortably aware of Lady Rainicorn's gaze. But instead of looking awed and impressed as Jake had hoped, she was only showing the faintest trace of interest as she watched him coolly. And that only made him play faster, spinning both bows with a flourish that nearly ended with him getting one in the eye.
"Uhhh… Jake?" Shelby's voice made the dog start in surprise with a jarring screech of strings. The worm's head was barely visible, poking only a fraction of an inch out of the f-hole of Jake's viola and looking up at the vibrating strings with concern. "Might wanna take it easy there buddy, you're gonna be snapping those strings if you keep playing like this…"
"I can't stop now," Jake hissed between his teeth, glancing nervously towards the rainicorn. Lady was sitting on the grass a measured distance away, her body coiled neatly around herself, head propped on her forelegs. "Not while she's watching!"
Following Jake's gaze, Shelby sighed. "Oh, I get it. You've gotta stop some time you know. Wouldn't it be better to do that before you break something?" The dog didn't reply, but kept playing with grim determination. Sighing, Shelby sank back into the instrument, his voice muffled. "Guess I'll just take cover then…"
Truth be told, Lady Rainicorn was impressed by Jake's skills with the viola even before he started playing two of them simultaneously. She just knew better than to show it. It was adorable the way the dog kept glancing at her as if looking for approval, and then quickly returning his attention to the instruments. Lady had been sceptical when he'd asked to borrow her viola, expecting that it whatever Jake was planning would end quickly and discordantly. Instead, he was managing to play two different, complementary pieces of music on the two instruments; the sudden shriek that the dog had just made on one of them had only been a momentary aberration. And he was playing very, very fast… clearly the extra hands where just as deft as the original pair. Yes, she was most definitely impressed. Maybe she'd even tell him that when he was done.
[Well, I can certainly see why he was such an accomplished pickpocket,] Lady commented, but got no response from Princess Bubblegum. Turning her head towards where the princess had been sitting, Lady saw that she had vanished. The candy princess had been on edge after Peppermint Butler had told her Finn was going to take the fireworks up to the tower himself, so it wasn't surprising if she'd gone to check on them. What was surprising was that Lady hadn't even noticed her stand up… maybe she'd been more captivated by Jake's musical skills than she'd realised.
Looking back over to the dog with a smile, Lady couldn't help chuckling as he turned bright red and immediately broke two strings on one of the violas. It had been bound to happen eventually.
o.o.o.o.o
Standing on the ladder just below the open trapdoor, Princess Bubblegum slowly and cautiously raised her head to look over the lip of the tower's flat roof. Both Flame Princess and Finn had their backs to her, hanging over the parapets they were sitting on to watch what was going on below. Although Bubblegum knew that her daughter was in no danger despite her precarious position, Finn was another matter entirely. If she startled them, there was a very good chance that the human boy would plummet over the edge of the battlements.
The candy princess had snuck up to the roof to make sure nothing untoward had happened. Despite her earlier assurance to Peppermint Butler that Flame Princess was too young to be interested in boys, she couldn't help feeling vaguely uneasy the more she thought about it. Seeing the looks that Lady Rainicorn had been shooting towards Jake had only made that feeling worse. But all the two children were doing was talking; they weren't even sitting on the same parapet.
Silently sliding back down the ladder, Bubblegum clambered up it once more, this time making plenty of noise so that Flame Princess and Finn would hear her coming. When she reached the top, both of them had turned towards her, though Finn was still sitting worryingly close to the edge.
"Hi Mom," Flame Princess said cheerfully. "Everything's all set up, don't worry."
"So I see," Bubblegum replied as she climbed out onto the roof. She'd been half expecting to find that some of the fireworks had been broken and the contents scattered across the roof like highly flammable confetti - which was exactly what had happened the time she'd let Cinnamon Bun set them up. Luckily that had been before she'd adopted Flame Princess, but even without the fire girl around to accidentally ignite the mess Cinnamon Bun had still ended up on fire.
But this time everything was fine. It looked like Finn had set the fireworks up without any problems. Bubblegum hadn't been particularly happy with Peppermint Butler for leaving the human boy to deal with them himself - according to the mint man, Finn had insisted on it - but it seemed that the candy princess' fears had been unfounded. "Thanks for your help, Finn," Bubblegum added with a warm smile that made the boy blush and shift position bashfully. "Are you ready Feuer?"
"Yes!" Springing into the air and glowing brightly in excitement, Flame Princess rose higher until she had clear shots at all of the fireworks. Princess Bubblegum retreated to a safe distance, sitting on one of the parapets near Finn as the young elemental shot a few practice sparks into the air. The fireworks didn't pose much danger to Flame Princess as long as she kept out of the way of the rockets; the pyrotechnics would only make her burn brighter if they hit her.
There were several moments of breathless silence on the rooftop, the faint sounds of excited chattering drifting up from the people far below. Then the castle clock began to chime as it struck midnight, and Flame Princess immediately sent a fan of sparks towards the first rack of rockets, lighting them all simultaneously. The girl laughed delightedly as the fireworks launched high into the sky in streaks of white and gold flame, and immediately turned to the next one.
For the next fifteen minutes, the sky above the Candy Kingdom burned bright as day - a rainbow of colours washing over the castle and the people below as the fireworks exploded in starbursts and sprays overhead. Flame Princess had timed it perfectly, igniting each firework in sequence so that there were no gaps or pauses; just a seamless display of light and colour. She didn't realise that she was rising higher into the air until she was close enough to feel the trailing sparks and flames on her skin. To the fire girl it felt like gentle rainfall would have to anyone else, only instead of getting wet her skin lit up briefly with patches of colour as traces of the powders within the fireworks drifted over her.
Finn watched the entire spectacle with his mouth hanging open in amazement. He had never seen anything like this, and was hard pressed splitting his attention between the fiery chrysanthemums and willows being traced across the sky in bright colours, and the laughing elemental who was gazing up at the pyrotechnics with arms outspread as if she wanted to hug them.
As the last sparks faded, Flame Princess drifted back over to her mother and Finn, burning with a faint purple and green glow that was slowly fading. "Was that okay?" she asked the candy princess, dropping back to the roof as she cooled.
"That was perfect, Feuer, well done." Bubblegum replied, getting back to her feet. "I'd better go check on things downstairs, and you should be getting to bed. Both of you."
"Okay mom, I will." But Flame Princess showed no sign of following as Bubblegum disappeared into the trapdoor. Instead she hopped back up onto the ramparts next to Finn. "So… did you like the fireworks?" she asked, twisting a length of flaming hair around one finger.
"Those were totally radical!" The words exploded out of the human boy in an excited rush. "Especially the ones that exploded into smaller parts that also exploded! It was like magic or something."
The fire girl giggled at that, shaking her head. "It's not magic silly; the fire reacts with the gunpowder and chemicals in the fireworks. That's what makes them explode and burn all different colours, the ones that explode into smaller ones are just packed differently so that the first detonation bursts the shell and splits the compartments they're in, then…" Her voice trailed off awkwardly at the bewildered look on Finn's face. "Uhm… I guess you don't really need to know how they work, as long as you liked them."
"No, I totally do want to know how they work," Finn protested quickly, though he'd had trouble following exactly what Flame Princess was talking about. Explaining it seemed to make her happy though. "How do you make them go different colours like that instead of just… fire colour? I've seen blue fire, but I didn't know it came in green and red too."
"That's just a chemical reaction," the young elemental said brightly. "You can make flames burn different colours with different chemicals. Strontium makes them really red, barium is for green. Copper makes blue, and if you mix it with strontium you get an awesome purple colour. Caesium makes a really pretty sky blue, but my mom says that's too dangerous to use…"
It was almost as if the fire girl was speaking a different language, but Finn could at least appreciate that this was something that she was interested in. So he just nodded whenever it felt appropriate, and hoped there wouldn't be questions later.
A/N: Yikes, did not mean to go on hiatus for quite so long! Sorry for the long wait guys, hopefully the next chapter won't take nearly as long. Will Flame Princess be allowed to go with Finn and Jake on their quest to investigate the mine in Blacksmith Town? And if she isn't, will she sneak out to join them anyway? Who knows!