Finn was nearing eight years old, and, like many children that age, he was thoroughly convinced he had found his passion in life. For Finn, that passion involved wildly swinging a plastic sword around the house, unleashing himself on the first family member he came across. Today, that happened to be Jermaine.

"Yah! Hiiiyah!" Finn screamed, and a moment later the toy sword came crashing down onto the coffee table, scattering Jermaine's homework across the living room. Before his brother could react, Finn jumped atop the now-cleared table and held the blunt tip to Jermaine's neck.

"Halt, vile beast!" he exclaimed, "Your reign of terror ends here, for I, the legendary Prince Finn, have come to - hey!"

The monologue was interrupted as Jermaine pushed the "sword" aside and started to pick up his papers. "Finn, I told you, I can't play right now, alright? I'm really busy."

The boy pouted. "You're no fun."

"Yeah, well, some of us actually have to study. We can't all be elementary school dropouts."

Finn hopped off the table so his brother could put back his papers. "I'm not a dropout," he corrected, "Mom and Dad are homeschooling me."

"Yeah, and their idea of 'homeschool' is taking you to their office and dropping you in front of a storybook while they go fight demons or whatever."

"...Sometimes they let me watch them fight demons."

Jermaine sighed. "Look, can't you go bother Jake like normal? I really am busy here."

"I haven't seen Jake since yesterday, man!" Finn exclaimed, dramatically slumping on the couch beside him. "He's, like, never home anymore."

It was true, Jake was out more often than not, sometimes even spending the night. Jermaine was also seeing less and less of his littermate at school, and he'd been hearing rumors that sounded more plausible the longer this went on.

Jermaine paused his writing and sighed. "Hopefully Jake will be home tonight. I'll talk to him, try to see what's going on, okay?"

Finn grinned. "Yeah! And he's definitely gonna be home tonight, 'cause he promised he would read me a book before bed!"

Technically, Jake did come home that night, though it was well past a time that could reasonably be called "before bed".

Jermaine confronted him - or attempted to, anyway, but Jake sidestepped the conversation entirely.

Oh, well. It sure as heck wasn't Jermaine's job to keep a leash on his brother. He was a bit worried, but hey, if Jake was determined to be some kind of punk criminal and ruin his life, so be it.

The next morning, Jake apologized to Finn for coming home so late and forgetting his promise, and the next night he made up for it by reading the book as many times as Finn wanted. Finn was sure this meant that Jermaine talked to him, and had convinced him to come home and hang out with them more, and now everything was gonna be okay!

That thought didn't last long. Over the next few months, it seemed like Jake was around even less than before, and when he was home, he and Jermaine avoided each other as much as possible. If their parents had noticed anything amiss, they didn't show it, although Finn occasionally noticed them whispering to each other in worried tones when they thought he wasn't listening.

Finn, in the meantime, kept working on becoming a hero. He practiced with his toy sword constantly, and while he had no idea if his skills were actually improving, he was at least getting better at not falling on his face while swinging, which was a start.

He was also getting stronger - while he had always been a very physical, agile kid, he was now doubling down on workouts: he climbed trees, lifted heavy rocks and branches, jogged around the house in circles - basic warrior training.

And, of course, he studied. Finn would read and reread all the books about great warriors he could get his hands on, learning of their exploits and conquests, and imagining himself in their shoes. The Fight King, a fierce and ancient gladiator who controls countless ghostly minions; Abraham Lincoln, the king of Mars, rumored to possess the power to end wars with just a speech; and of course, the legendary Billy, the greatest fighter in all of Ooo, and the person Finn most wanted to grow up to be.

Overall, Finn's efforts were proving fruitful, and his repertoire of heroic acts was growing. He rescued a baby bird that had fallen from its nest, chased off several playground bullies, and even caught a no-good lowlife that had stolen some old lady's purse. (His mom helped with that last one.)

But even despite the distractions of warrior training and good deeds, Finn still missed his brother. And on Jake and Jermaine's 17th birthday, he found out he was going to miss him a whole lot more.

"I'm moving out."

The sounds of idle chatter and forks scraping against plates stopped instantly, and everyone turned to look at the source of that declaration: Jake, birthday hat affixed atop his shapeshifted pompadour, staring at his family as if daring them to say something. Finally, someone broke the silence.

"Jake, sweetheart, whatever do you mean?" Margaret asked, looking rather upset.

"Son, that is not a fun trick to play," Joshua added, "look, you're making your dear mother cry!"

"I'm not crying, Joshua."

"It's not a joke, Dad." Jake said, poking his fork at the cake crumbs on his plate. "Listen, I love you guys, but bird's gotta leave the nest, right?"

Jermaine looked unimpressed. "Are you gonna get a job, then? Where are you gonna live?"

"I'm gonna get an apartment with the boys - y'know, Gareth, Tiff, the lettuce bros." Jake shrugged. "As for a job, well… I'm sure we'll figure out money some way or another."

"...Right."

"Well," Margaret said, "We'll need to talk about this more, but if it's really what you want to do, then we won't stop you."

Joshua looked like he wanted to disagree with her, but before he could, Finn, who had been quiet up until now, spoke up.

"Jake, you're… really leaving?"

"Aw, buddy," Jake stretched an arm out to grab Finn's shoulder. "I'll still come visit and stuff, man. And maybe when you're older, you can come live with us!"

Finn perked up. "Really?"

Inwardly, Jermaine vowed to never let that happen.

The night went on. Finn went to bed early, clearly done trying to hold back tears, and with him gone, Joshua and Margaret began talking with Jake about his decision. The conversation turned into an interrogation turned into an argument, and nobody went to bed that night happy.

After a few days of packing, Jake said his goodbyes. Everyone was clearly still upset, still angry, still confused, but they did their best to hide it. His parents gave him a big hug, with his mother reminding him to brush his teeth and stay out of trouble (ha!), and when he came to Finn expecting another hug, the human instead tackled him to the ground.

"I win!" he shouted, before Jake doubled in size and easily flipped him over.

"In your dreams, man," he said. Then, "Finn, become an awesome hero while I'm gone, okay?"

Finn sniffed, then forced a smile. "Okay. I love you, bro."

"Love you too, dude."