Chapter II

Putting The Pieces Back Together

The hero awoke to the sound of his brother Jake singing in the kitchen, as the aroma of bacon pancakes filled his nose. He quickly got up and changed into his clothes and climbed down into the kitchen to join his brother in the singing their classic song 'Bacon Pancakes.' A couple minutes later, as they were finishing up their breakfast, Jake spoke to Finn.

"Hey dude, where you all last night? You know about our 'Sleeping Buddy System,' you never know if… they will come back." Jake shuddered at the memory of those blank-eyed girls. "Dude, it's been a year since that. I don't think they're coming back"

"That's what they want you to think!" Jake peered into Finn's eyes, not appreciating his lack of concern as to the possible return of those… things. "And you didn't answer my question. Where were you?" Finn rolled his eyes at the dog, not believing the reaction Jake was having at his late arrival the previous night.

"I was out with Marcy last night. I swear, I'm pretty sure I saw at least like over half of the entire land of Ooo last night. By the time I fell asleep, I was so tired I could've slept for a whole day. That is, if we weren't having bacon pancakes for breakfast." Jake stared at Finn for a moment, making him uncomfortable.

"Jake, why are you staring at me? Do I have something in my teeth?" Finn immediately brought his finger up to his mouth, trying to search for some kind of embarrassing piece of food. "You've been spending a lot of time at Marceline's house recently. Can it be that you've finally moved on to someone besides Flame Princess?" Jake nudged his elbow against Finn, speaking to him in a teasing manner. Finn started choking on his last bit of food.

"No- *cough* dude, I'm not into Marcy." Finn drank his water and continued before Jake could make things any worse. "Listen if you want to know the truth, I'm messed up. Okay? Hearing about FP's marriage, its making me all messed up all over again. So, I go over to Marcy's place to, you know? Get away from the pain and stuff." Jake felt a sting of regret having heard this news.

"Woah, sorry bro. I didn't know it was making you feel this way." Jake comforted his brother, trying to think of a way to cheer him up. "Don't be sorry, I'm just… I'm just trying to figure things out." They sat for a couple minutes in silence until Jake thought of something to do.

"Hey, how about today we go to the Warrior's Rumble? We've been saving up to go see it, and you might even be able to compete if we're early enough." Finn thought on what Jake said for a moment. "Alright, let's go. I've been meaning to try out a new move anyway." Feeling a bit better, Finn packed some things and went out with Jake.

Two Hours Later

"I can't believe how many people are going to be competing." Jake was looking at the list of competitors outside while Finn was registering. It was 12 in the afternoon, and the bustling crowd of people was starting to get more relentless. Trying to get into the colosseum-like building before the matches started, everyone was practically trampling one another with the hopes of getting a good seat.

"Ow, hey watch it bub!" Jake was shouting angrily at the people who kept on bumping into him. His patience was wearing thin, waiting for Finn. Over the mass of the crowd, Jake's ears finally picked up Finn's yells. Not wanting to deal with the crowd, Jake stretched to the size of a small house and walked over everyone towards the sound of Finn's voice. "Hey Jake, Over here!" He turned to his left and found his brother Finn standing next to a 1004 year vampire holding an umbrella over herself, Marceline the Vampire Queen.

"Marcy? What are you doing here?" Jake was confused as to why she would risk coming out in the afternoon. "Turns out she's been wanting to see the Warrior's Rumble for a while now." Finn was excited in being able to show off in front of Marceline, hoping to finally get a little more respect from her. "Yeah, the guy who organized this whole thing is an old friend of mine, so when I saw him mail me a free ticket I didn't want to waste it." Jake was shocked to hear about this.

"Wow, lucky you." He was also a little annoyed, his ticket was expensive as all hell. He probably would've said something else if Finn hadn't intervened. "The first match starts in 15 minutes, we should probably head in there now." Marceline and Jake agreed, thus all three of them headed towards the main building.

The Warrior's Rumble went on for hours, featuring some of Ooo's greatest fighters. Magicians, Trolls, Dragons, and Ninjas, there were so many people fighting it was like watching a war before your very eyes. Then when Finn made it to the final five, things were really getting interesting. Dodging and slashing with his sword, deflecting magic attacks from the lightning wizard, he appeared to be an unstoppable force. He never let up one bit on his opponents, sometimes switching from wielding his Finn Sword to dual wielding Finn Sword and his recently repaired demon blood sword.

However, what was most impressive was when it was just him and the massive ogre left. Finally being able to use out his new move (which he just copied from some old holotape he found under their treasure pile), he through his demon blood sword in the air catching the hilt horizontally in his mouth, held it in place with his jaw and brought out his grass sword. Using all three to slice his opponent three different ways in a single movement. Having been declared the winner, covered in sweat he raised his blades in triumph and smiled at the crowd cheering at him.

Meanwhile in the crowd, Marceline was watching awe-struck at what was happening in front of her eyes, and what was happening in her mind. She was amazed at what he was capable of after all this time, to the point where for a moment. Her heart fluttered… 'Damnit Marcy, don't go into that again. It isn't real.' Marceline was confused at what she was feeling, she didn't want anything to happen between her and Finn, romantic or otherwise.

After the cheering had subsided and Finn had left the arena, everyone started leaving. "Man I can't believe it, well actually I can because it's Finn for crying out loud. But did you see that move! He was all like SLICE and CHOP and-" Jake kept going on and on about how Finn did in the match, but for the most part Marceline was blocking him out. She was trying to figure out what was going on with her. "That lightning wizard just kept shooting and shooting but Finn was all like NOPE, then-" At this point Marceline had finally snapped, cursing at herself for letting herself develop these feelings. "Shut Up!" She was screaming at herself, but Jake fortunately thought she was speaking to him.

"I'm sorry Marcy, I didn't mean to annoy you." Jake shivered a little, obviously still a little scared of her. Marceline realized what happened, recovering from her inner battle. "Oh, no I wasn't talking to you." Jake was confused, but still didn't go any farther about the brawl until they met up with Finn outside.

"Congrats bro! I knew you had it in you!" Jake ran toward his friend with open arms and threw himself against him, and afterwards started recalling the events of the brawl again. While Finn was listening to Jake go on about his fight, he noticed Marceline staring at him. "Marcy, what are you staring at?"

Having to recover again, she shook herself out of it. "Nothing, just looking into your deepest fears." Finn, trying to turn things around, joked a little. "Notice how there's nothing there." Finn actually felt proud enough to laugh at his own joke for a moment.

Marceline playfully hit Finn's shoulder trying to see how the back of her mind would react if she tried it. She actually found that she… like it. "Ow, let up. I literally just fought 120 men, cut me a little slack on the punches." Finn complained. Marceline wanted to get away from this part of her head and tried to get a little more involved in the conversation.

"90 men and 30 women actually, a little unbalanced if I say so." The three of them came to a split in the road, realizing they had to part ways now. "Well, see you later Marcy." Finn and Jake said their goodbyes and started toward their house, but Marceline didn't want to go to her house. If she did, then her mind would wander. Eventually it would wander to this place of potential romantic involvement.

"Hey wait guys, mind if I come over? I don't really have anything to do." Finn and Jake agreed and headed off toward the house for some lunch and BMO. While she floated close behind, she overheard Jake talking to Finn about her. "Looks like things are getting serious between you two, going over to each other's houses." He was still teasing Finn, trying to get a better reaction out of him than the one this morning. Of course, because of how Marceline's been lately, she panicked and for a moment thought that possibly Jake knew something.

"Jake, stop. You know there's nothing going on between me and Marcy." Finn tried to get the dog to stop, but he kept teasing. "What can I do to get you to stop it?" Finn whispered angrily to Jake as he opened the door to their treehouse. Marceline went up to the living room while the two boy's wen to the kitchen to make some snacks.

"*cough* lovebirds *cough*" Jake was still teasing him when he finally snapped. "Damnit Jake! What do I got to do to make you stop that!" Marceline overheard that part and started towards the kitchen but stopped when she heard Jake comply.

"Alright, I'll stop. But you know, you have to have realized that she is pretty for a terrifying undead chick." Jake finally let up, but was still trying to get something out of Finn. He was hoping that Finn could say something that he could use to get him off of FP. "Fine, she is kind of pretty. Maybe even sexy…" Finn paused for a good while. Jake was relieved he finally got him away from any thoughts of Flame Princess, but a little worried. What would happen if it turns out he accidentally just set up his brother up with a terrifying human-demon-vampire hybrid?

"Okay, she's sexier than your #1 Dad mug. I admit it, but I don't see it going anywhere. I mean sure, she's cool and likes to hang out with me. Then there's the whole her being technically half human which is nice. But she's over 1000 years old, that's an even bigger age gap then between me and princess bubblegum, and she's over 800 years old! Not to mention, she's immortal. I have a fixed lifespan, I age, and she doesn't. Imagine if we actually ended up together, what if we end up being together so long she has to watch me die. It wouldn't be right."

Jake was relieved to hear he in fact didn't set up Finn and Marcy, but she heard everything. She couldn't help feel both glad AND disappointed that Finn couldn't see them being together. She drifted back over to the couch and started playing on BMO. She sat there trying to beat the same level for a minute until Finn and Jake came out with a plate of chips and red salsa. They chose a different game on BMO and played until it was late out.

"Hey Marcy, we still have one of PB's liquid pyrotechnic firework things left over. Want to go up to the roof and fire it off?" Finn was getting bored the game and Jake's thumbs were starting to get sore. Marceline thought on it for a couple of seconds before answering. "Sure, that'd be nice" Finn headed up with Marcy while Jake went to go get the rocket. The full moon was out tonight, lighting up the treetop well enough so that they could find the blanket that the boys keep up there.

"Hey Finn, you really think I'm sexy?" Marceline regretted saying that the moment it left her mouth, she could feel a grayish blue blush rise in her face. The question totally caught Finn off guard, causing him to lose his footing for a moment. After he caught himself he answered, "I didn't know you heard that. Listen I'm sorry if I said something that you may have not wanted to hear." Finn was rubbing the back of his neck, his face plastered with embarrassment.

"No, you didn't say anything I didn't hear anything I didn't want to know, I just… I didn't know YOU thought I was you know, all that stuff you said." Marceline was getting bluer and bluer from the embarrassment. "You know, maybe it could work out. Just like a short, sweet little thing." Finn was shocked by the statement he just said, and it was obvious that Marceline was too.

"Maybe, yeah… That could actually work, keeping it from going for too long." Marcy was actually agreeing, willing to go out on a limb and try this. "So, you want to like… go on a date sometime?" Finn was wondering about how he should go about things with her, I mean he's been on dates with FP before but he doesn't really know what to do in this situation. From this point onward is it like, what would they even do for dates? Should they just keep doing what they've been doing, bust with maybe a hug and a kiss here or there? He really didn't know, so he went out on a limb and tried kissing her.

It was a perfect situation, on the rooftop of the treehouse, the full moon was out, in a moment there going to fireworks whether this worked out or not. A kiss at this moment just seemed to go nicely with their now pronounced interest in each other. So when Finn's lips pressed up against hers, it felt nice, good even. Just standing there on the roof top, kissing a boy who she liked and wouldn't be like her ex, ash. If only Jake wasn't watching when this happened, realizing that his worst fear and just come alive.