The following takes place before and after "Seventeen."
The main hall of the castle was bustling with activity. Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum sat in the corner watching it all, allowing herself a short rest with a cup of Peppermint Butler's famous tea. Well, "allowing" was not quite right—Jake had grabbed the tea and chair and basically ordered her to relax.
"You're stressin' everyone out," he'd said with his typical lovable bluntness. "The party looks great. Let me and Marcy handle the posters. You'll be in no shape to party if you're tuckered already."
There was a lot to be stressed out about. Ice King had refused to be dissuaded from jumping out of the cake, for one. For another, she'd been unable to invite a lot of Finn's friends due to shutting the Candy Kingdom's borders over the threat from Uncle Gumbald. For a third, there was the threat from Uncle Gumbald. Bonnibel was no closer to solving that than she was when she'd first heard he was back.
To be honest, she'd been letting Finn handle a lot more of it than she should have.
Marceline finished hanging the last banner and floated over to Bonnie's corner. The vampire queen was wearing a green dress, with her mountain of hair piled on top of her head to reveal her slender neck. Bonnie took just long enough looking her up and down for Marcy to notice.
"Party looks pretty cool," Marceline said, settling to the floor to divert attention from her blush.
"I hope so."
"You hope? You haven't, like, scienced it so there's no possible chance of lameness?"
Bonnie sighed. "I just want Finn to know we appreciate him, you know? It's been a crazy year. Sometimes we forget to tell him stuff we think he already knows."
Marceline opened her mouth to reply, but at that moment, the door to the great hall creaked open. Both turned, expecting Tree Trunks with the pie—but instead of the elephant, a slender, green-eyed girl in a hood stood in the doorway.
"Hey," she said to nobody in particular. She was holding a package with a ribbon, which one of the banana guards took, shook, and handed back to her. "Am I early?"
Marceline and Bonnie exchanged a long glance.
Jake shrunk to normal size to meet her. "Nah, you're good! Just put that anywhere and come hang, Finn's on his way."
The girl took her present over to a table, looking a little out of place. "Who is that?" Bonnie whispered, setting down her tea.
"You don't know?" Marcy answered. "That's Huntress Wizard. Guardian of the sacred groves. Three-time Wizard Battle champion. She's intense."
"OK, but why's she here?"
The vampire shrugged.
Both girls looked at Jake.
With another glance between them that communicated the entire plan, the two strode forward and grabbed Jake under the armpits. Before he could protest, they'd pulled him into a side hall.
"Augh! What?" Jake babbled when Bonnie shut the door. "PB, are you evil again? Is Marcy evil again?" He looked around frantically. "Am I evil for the first time?"
"Jake, you know you're supposed to report all Finn's new girlfriends at the castle within 72 hours of the first date," the Princess admonished. "It's a matter of national security."
"And hot goss," Marceline added.
"That too. But the last one did burn down one of my client kingdoms."
Jake perked up. "Oh, is that all this is about? Yeah, Finn and Huntress Wizard are totally dating. But it's a pretty casual thing. They just hang out, fight monsters, get smoothies, maybe do a dungeon every now and then…"
"Ahhh!" Marceline jumped into the air to recline on nothing. "This is adorbs! Bonnie, isn't this adorbs?"
"I believe that's the official taxonomy." Bubblegum frowned. "But how'd it happen?"
"They did a flute duet. Then she said it wouldn't work, but then she helped him kill the Grumbo and I guess they made out after that." Jake shrugged. "He's just being really careful to get this one right. You guys shouldn't feel bad, he didn't even tell me for two weeks."
"But as his friends, we have veto power," Marcy pointed out.
"OK." Bonnie cracked a smile. "I'm commencing an official girlfriend evaluation. Pep But will handle the paperwork. Now…I guess I'd better go host."
Hours later, the party had dwindled, along with everybody's adrenaline. The whole thing had donked up beyond Bubblegum's darkest expectations, with Finn fighting off an attack from his superpowered doppelganger, followed by Gumbald barging into the castle and only barely being spooked off by Marceline. Right afterward, Marcy was angry, Finn was nauseated, Jake was upset, the banana guards were frantic, and Huntress Wizard was pulling octuple duty keeping everyone calm. Bonnie had left early to take charge of a thorough rebuking and reinforcing of the castle's defences.
When she'd gotten back, the crowd had thinned out, and the party games lay abandoned. But the scene she walked in on, considering the chaos of the party, was downright pleasant. Finn, Jake, Marceline, Huntress, Lady, BMO, Ice King, and Starchy were sitting or sprawling in a circle, playing truth or dare. Huntress had taken off her hood and was lying against Finn's knee, spinning an energy arrow in one hand.
As Bonnie shut the door, Huntress flung the arrow directly through the O on one of the "Hero" posters. Everyone whooped and clapped.
"You guys, give me a different dare next time," HW said. "This isn't even hard."
"I dare you to go out with me!" Ice King (Simon, Bonnie reminded herself) piped up.
"Starchy dares you to order him a pizza," Starchy said.
"I dare you to be greater!" BMO pumped their fists.
"All right, enough," Jake shut them all down. "It's Lady's turn."
"Are you sure?" Simon looked crestfallen. "I have a lot more truths to share. It's been a rough month."
"Yo, make room!" Marcy scooted over to let Bonnie in, but Huntress beat her to it. She stood, saying, "You can take my spot, Princess."
"You sure you have to go, H-dubs?" Finn asked.
"Yeah, I've got to meet with the foxes early tomorrow. Need to get to bed." She squeezed his hand and whispered something in his ear, then told the others,"Thanks for inviting me. This was fun."
As soon as the great hall's door shut, Bonnie called the circle to huddle close. "OK, everyone, decision time. Do we like her?"
A chorus broke out, echoing in the tall space. "She is a majestic woman!" "She'd be cooler if she was a princess." "Starchy votes no. I want my pizza."
"She's great, Finn," Marceline said. Bubblegum's heart warmed to hear the sincerity behind the words. "She can keep up with you. Plus, I know you like your ladies not afraid to throw down."
She winked at Bonnie, who felt herself turning red-and was pretty sure Finn noticed, because the human boy giggled.
"I like her too, Finn," she said quickly. "I'm really happy for you. Go forth and do this."
"Nobody's asking me what I think?" Ice King grumbled. "Nobody will ever be good enough for my best bud. Plus when all us wizards hang out, she tries to pay for everything with mushrooms."
"Sorry, Simon." Marcy floated over and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "You're outvoted. The girlfriend veto will not be exercised tonight."
"Wait. Veto?" Finn sat up. "What were you guys gonna do, kill her?"
Bonnie smiled widest this time. The feeling of relief that buoyed her had a lot of different parts-that her kingdom was temporarily safe, that Finn's birthday hadn't sucked as majorly as it could have, that for a few moments he'd forgotten about Fern. That they were all here. All together.
"I might have made it illegal to break your heart, Finn," she said. "It's one of the perks of knowing a princess."
"That's weird, Peebs." Finn lay back on his arms. "But I'm seventeen now. I take weird things in stride."
"Hey, we're still playing!" Jake cut in. "And in case you losers forgot, we're in the lead. Lady, truth or dare?"
"He knows this isn't a game you can win, right?" Marcy murmured in Bubblegum's ear.
"Phbbbt." She shrugged. "It's a party. No rules here."
By necessity, the remaining guests slept in the castle. Everyone snored away as the full moon rose: Jake and Lady draped over each other, Marcy snoozing in one of the ceiling vaults, BMO plugged into the main hall's only outlet. Only two people didn't rest that night. Finn tossed and turned, his sleepy eyes always seeming to look out the window toward the forest. And Bubblegum, scratching notes on blueprints for the kingdom's defences, fighting insomnia with cup after cup of strong tea, checked every now and then on her friends and her hero to make sure none of them wound up any more broken during the night.