They decided on March 14th for Finn's birthday - the month Princess Bubblegum estimated he was born, and the day Joshua and Margaret found him.

Time passed quickly, despite how slow Finn seemed to grow compared to his brothers. Before they knew it, he was two, and talking up a storm. Singing, too: he would mumble along with Margaret's lullaby as he fell asleep, and he'd even made up his own "buff baby" song that had both his brothers and babysitter rolling with laughter whenever he performed it.

At four, Finn was already a tough kid. He and Jake would roughhouse for hours, and when Jake got tired he'd stay outside, doing somersaults and attacking rocks with a tree branch, until the sun went down and he came for in dinner bruised and covered in grass stains.

Jake and Jermaine were growing, too. Jermaine was still quiet, but his shyness was slowly improving since they'd started school, to be replaced with endless curiosity. He followed his parents wherever he could, asking questions about just about everything, and Joshua saw this as an opportunity to teach at least one of his sons everything he could about the art of demon-hunting.

(Margaret was opposed, of course. She worried far too much; six was the perfect age to learn how to conduct an exorcism.)

Jake, meanwhile, was as outgoing as ever. His teachers always mentioned how quickly he made friends, and how his jokes, if a bit inappropriate at times, could really boost his classmates' morale.

...They just wished he would put the same amount of passion into his schoolwork.

One thing both boys had in common, however, was creativity: Jermaine had graduated from crayons to paint, and as often as he made a complete mess of the house, his parents had to admit he had some serious talent - talent only rivaled by Jake's raw enthusiasm for music. He was begging for a new instrument practically every month, and while most of them ended up being returned not long after, there were several he took a genuine interest in; His family had to deal with the ear-splitting pain that came with a small child attempting to teach himself viola before finally finding him a teacher.

As for Finn… well, he had a ways to go before starting school, but Joshua and Margaret had to admit they were a bit worried. Between Jermaine's quiet studiousness and Jake's laid-back devil-may-care attitude, it was becoming all too clear which of his brothers the young human looked up to more.

On Finn's fifth birthday, Jake surprised everyone with his gift. Finn's tiny, eager hands quickly tore off the wrapping paper to reveal what looked like some sort of video game console. Not that Joshua or Margaret knew much about such things, but it was blue, and rectangular, and had a screen, and buttons, so there wasn't much else it could be.

While Finn was busy squealing with delight, Margaret eyed Jake suspiciously. "And just where did you get the money for that?" she asked.

Jake rolled his eyes, and responded, "I bought it with my allowance, Mom, sheesh," and his mother sighed with relief. Perhaps she shouldn't have jumped to conclusions, but she'd caught Jake going through her purse on more than one occasion.

"It was like, crazy cheap," he continued, "I don't think that clerk even knew what he was selling! He had it up on the shelf like a decoration, but it's definitely some kinda video game. I wonder what 'BMO' stands for?"

"Well, why don't we find out?" Joshua suggested, "turn it on, Finn!"

"Math!" Finn shouted, dramatically pressing the big red button on the bottom left of the system. His parents and brothers gathered around him, looking expectantly on the tiny screen, until…

Nothing. "That's weird," Finn said, "big red buttons always do something."

"Let's try a different one," said Margaret, doing just that. The others joined in, and soon every visible button had been pushed, as well as every combination of buttons they could think of. Still nothing.

"I've got it!" Joshua said, standing up and running to the kitchen. He returned with a handful of batteries in various sizes and shapes. "Poor thing must just be outta juice - we've got no idea how long it was sitting in that store."

There was a panel in the machine's back, but with no screws or obvious slot to pull it open, Jake had to flatten his hand and wrench it open like a crowbar to a window. Sure enough, there were two double-A's in there, and Joshua quickly replaced them with new ones, certain his fatherly intuition had saved the day.

It had not. The BMO or whatever it was still refused to turn on, and Joshua slumped in his chair, defeated.

"That explains why it was so cheap," Jermaine said after a moment. "It's totally broken."

"Aw, man," Jake sighed, slumping down beside his dad. "I really donked up." He really did want to get Finn a good present, and video games would've been something fun they could all do together.

Finn, thankfully, didn't seem upset. "It's okay, Jake," he said, patting his brother on the shoulder. "It's still a cool toy. I can put it on a shelf like the store guy did."

Jake sniffed, and smiled down at Finn. "Are you just sayin' that to make me feel better?"

"Yeah," Finn responded, smiling back, "but it did, didn't it?"

Jake laughed, and everyone else laughed, too, and the party went on. Before bed, Finn made good on his suggestion, placing the broken game gently on his bookshelf, where it would surely remain for eternity as a reminder of his big brother's thoughtful, if misguided, gift giving.

"Betcha can't catch me!" Finn called out behind him as he ran through a field of bright pink trees. Jake promised he was taking him somewhere fun, but when he sensed they were almost at their destination, Finn had slid off his brother's back and made a run for it, hoping to have some extra fun before the planned fun. Pre-fun, if you will.

Unfortunately, the pre-fun was short-lived, as Jake's giant form quickly caught up to his stubby-legged companion, and he shrank back to just a bit bigger than his normal size as he tackled Finn to the ground. "That was not a smart bet to make, dude."

"Uncle! Uncle! No fair!" Finn squealed, laughing as he sat up, pushing Jake to the ground in the process. "You were all big! That's cheating!"

"How is it cheating when you never established any rules?" Jake asked, pushing himself up and offering a hand to his little bro.

After accepting the hand and standing up, Finn crossed his arms. "Standard tag rules should apply. No stretchy powers."

Jake crossed his arms right back. "Standard rules don't apply when you sneak off and give yourself a head start."

"...That's fair." Finn uncrossed his arms and instead began dusting his clothes off, averting his eyes. He looked embarrassed.

"Aw, cheer up, buddy," Jake said, stretching his arm out to wrap it around Finn's shoulders. Despite being different species, it kinda annoyed Jake that his baby brother was already over a foot taller than him in his default, non-shapeshifted form. "I'm just teasing. Besides, look! We're here!"

"What the what?" Finn said, turning to look up at the city behind him. And up… and up… that castle was huge!

"Welcome, Finn the human," Jake said, putting on a dramatically deep voice, "to the Candy Kingdom."

"Whooaa" Finn said, unable to hide his awe as they passed through the gates. "We walked all the way here?"

"Well, I did most of the walking," Jake huffed, "but yeah. I'm in the mood for candy, and I thought it might be fun to see Princess Bubblegum again."

"You know a princess?" Finn's eyes were practically bugging out of his head.

"Uh, yeah, dude. So do you. You met her when you were a baby, remember?"

Finn shook his head. "No. I was a baby."

"Oh, right." Jake shrugged. "Anyway, Mom and Dad brought you here so the princess could do some tests on you. She's the one who figured out you were a human! She's really nice, and smart, and-"

"Jake? Is that you?"

"...and she's coming this way right now."

"Jake, how wonderful to see you again!" The princess said once she was close enough, crouching down to give the dog a good rub on the noggin.

"Heheh, you too, princess."

She turned to Jake's left, smiling even wider, if that were even possible. "And you must be Finn! Do you remember me?"

"No. I was a baby." Finn said again.

PB nodded. "That's to be expected," she said as she conjured a notepad from seemingly nowhere and jotted something down. "You've sure grown a lot since then, though," she continued, standing up and looking around. "Speaking of which… where are your parents?"

"They're at work," Jake answered, "Jermaine went with 'em. Mom said I was old enough to watch Finn on my own, though."

"Really?" PB asked, squinting. "Aren't you two, like, five?"

"I'm six!" Finn corrected, at the same time as Jake said, "I'm thirteen."

Bubblegum blinked. "Wait...what?"

Jake was about to explain dog years to the princess, but before he could, they were interrupted by a tall banana person, identical to the ones who had greeted Finn and Jake at the entrance, who ran up to the princess in a panic. "Princess! Princess! There are intruders in the kingdom! An unknown young boy and yellow dog have been spotted within the city walls!"

PB sighed, and pointed to the young boy and yellow dog beside her. "It's okay, 27. They're my friends," she said, "Just remember, there are other banana guards whose job it is to guard the entrance. Your job is to guard people inside the kingdom, remember?"

"Oh yeah," the banana guard said. "That reminds me, Cinnamon Bun set himself on fire again."

"He WHAT-," the princess started, now the one panicking. "Why didn't you start with- ugh!" She turned back to Finn and Jake, speaking quickly. "As you can see, I'm very busy right now, but I appreciate the visit! HavefunintheCandyKingdomBye!" She ran off, the banana guard trailing behind her.

"Man, that was kinda rude, huh?" Jake mumbled.

"Jake!"

"What?"