For my latest painting project, we had to choose a song & do an abstract and literal painting of it. I chose this song because it's amazing, and I must've listened to it 200+ times while doing this project. So, of course an idea for a fic would come of all this! This is in Flame Princess' POV, but that's easy to tell.

I am not affiliated with Adventure Time or Taylor Swift.

Picked me up late one night, out the window,

We were seventeen and crazy

Running wild, wild

Can't remember what song it was playing when we walked in

The night we snuck into a yacht club party

Pretending to be a duchess, and a prince

Truthfully, it's surprising how long Finn and I have managed to stay together. I mean, it's not really easy to hold a relationship with anyone when you're a fire elemental – not even other fire elementals (maybe especially; after all, double the fire means double the over-the-top emotions) – and when you can't even touch that person without causing them some kind of serious injury, it takes an emotional toll on you. It's even worse when you're the princess of this Fire Kingdom.

Maybe that's why every time Finn didn't turn away or stop seeing me or break up with me or anything of that nature - maybe that's why I loved him a little more each time it didn't happen.

And he could have stopped this at any time. He didn't even need to start it – I mean, I probably wouldn't have, if it was me getting burned so badly – so that first year we were together was filled with a lot of challenges. I could tell it bothered him, hurt him, that he couldn't even touch me, really, unless he was wearing those oven mitts or wrapped in tinfoil – and that wasn't even truly touching anyway.

So maybe we've had a bit less of a physical relationship than he'd hoped for. But it's okay, because we still always manage to have fun together, running around Ooo, enjoying each other's company while exploring dungeons, fighting monsters, burning everything to the ground -

Er, I mean, saving people?

That was another thing. I had to keep reminding myself that burning was bad. Well, it was normal to us in the Fire Kingdom, but for some reason, Finn was pretty adverse to it...

So I've tried to keep myself more under control, in that aspect. It was only fair, really – after all, he was defying nature for me, so why shouldn't I do the same for him?

And somehow, despite all of those challenges and more, we've managed to stay as boyfriend and girlfriend for like, three years. Though, honestly, even though I said he was my boyfriend first, I still blush when he refers to me as his girlfriend, even after all this time.

But even though we were pretty serious bizz about our relationship at this point – no longer was it just running around and hanging and acting careless, there are a lot more deep conversations and pondering the challenges we had to face, and just seriousness – even so, there were things we kept from another. Usually just small things, like, even though he'd tell me he was going on some quest in the Water Kingdom, I knew he was really just hanging around with that Princess Bubblegum half the time. I knew that she could never love him like I do (who could? No one, that's who), but the fact that he had once had feelings for her, even if he no longer did, well, it made me jealous! Who wouldn't be? After all, she was older and more mature than him, and that was appealing to a guy, for some reason, and she was able to rule her kingdom on her own (unlike me, who's dad was still in charge and totally treats me like a kid, even though I'm almost seventeen now!) and pink and pretty much perfect. I know I'm far from perfect, and so my flames grow a little bit more whenever I think of her.

But I remind myself that they're just friends, just like Jake and Lady Rainicorn and Marceline (though sometimes, I had my suspicions about her as well), and friends need time to be together and hang out and do whatever they do (so long as it's not kissing, of course, because then I'd have to burn them). So, I try my best to calm down in those situations.

After all, I keep things from him as well.

Not big things of course. Just things like, say, the Flame Kingdom Ball that was held every five years.

To be honest, I didn't ever mention it to him not because I didn't want him to be there, but because I didn't want to be there. It's been about three years, but my dad had kept me in that prison (for lack of a better term) for longer than that, and insisted I'm evil even longer than that – to this day, even!

Every day since the date was announced (though I didn't hang out in my own kingdom much, word still got around to the outskirts of the kingdom, where my residence is pretty much permanent) I worried that somehow, word would reach Finn as well. After all, he and Jake covered every square inch of Ooo at some point, and I knew that he would find out – I just hoped that it would be after the ball was over and done with.

"Hey, FP!" Finn greeted as I approached his home. His head stuck out of the second floor window; I guess he'd been watching, waiting for me. He didn't have his hat on for once, and I liked it better that way, because I liked his hair – the way it moved reminded me of fire. He never let it grow out much anymore, but it wasn't too short either, just enough that the wind could rustle through it and mess it up. That's how I knew he'd been sitting at his window for quite some time – his hair was an absolute mess! But...it was also kind of cute.

"Hey, FTH!" I called back, waving. He smiled.

He let me in and we sat on the couch together. There was foil already set out for me to sit on, and I smiled at his consideration, even though I was used to it. I also noticed the absence of Jake, which usually meant Finn wanted to talk to me privately and seriously about something, and my chest tightened. Please don't know, please don't know... I hoped.

"So, what's been going on by you?" he asked in a kind of awkward way. But that was expected – whenever these private, serious talks did happen, he always started them off awkwardly. We were both kind of awkward, but I guess that also attracted us to one another, in a way.

"Oh, nothing much," I smiled gently, "What about you?" We'd just seen each other two days ago, but it was still polite to ask. Also, I genuinely wanted to know if there was anything.

"Same here," he said, "It's been pretty quiet lately, in terms of bad dudes terrorizing Ooo." Finn became silent, like he was thinking, and I said nothing as well, knowing he was working his thoughts out. I immediately regretted not interrupting those thoughts. "So...How come you never told me about the Flame Kingdom Ball?"

"Finn -" I start, but he continues, cutting me off of my explanation.

"Like, do you just not want to see your dad? Or...maybe you're embarrassed of me? Or are you just afraid that I'll get burned, 'cuz Jake talked to Flambo and -"

"Finn." I assert myself, cutting him off this time. "I just don't want to be there. That's all."

"Oh." He sounded disappointed, and it felt like something was cutting into my heart. "I just thought it'd be fun, y'know..." he trails off.

And I feel guilty. So guilty that it makes me angry – but at myself more than anyone else. I keep my flames under control (I've had a lot of practice, and it was paying off, day by day), and sigh.

"Do you really want to go?"

Finn perks up, and I can see my own light reflected, dancing in his eyes. "Heck yeah! I mean, only if you want to, of course."

"Well," I think, "Would it be okay if maybe we didn't go into the actual ball? Maybe we could just stay outside and listen to the music from a distance and stuff?"

"Sure!" Finn was always willing to compromise, often without thinking.

I, also without really thinking, agreed.

"Great!" Finn exclaimed, and I could tell he was barely containing his excitement, as he jumped up, "It's tomorrow, right? Do you have a dress? Jake is helping me find something to wear, too, actually he's getting Flambo right now to put that charm or whatevs on me so I don't have to worry about getting burned." He grinned a toothy grin at me, and I couldn't help but smile back.

In the back of my mind, I wondered if I would regret this.

This night, I had thought I'd be staying in my makeshift home, burning candles, or maybe hanging out with Finn in some casual kind of way – but instead, I was playing with my hair, changing the length of my dress, the style of my dress - because I was completely composed of fire, it was easy to change pretty much anything I wanted about myself. Except, of course, the fact that I was made of fire, because it would just be too helpful to this relationship if I could change myself into a human or something.

I settled with an up-do, because Finn liked my hair shorter, and a strapless dress that came down to my knees. It wasn't anything fancy, because no one would be able to see me anyway, aside from Finn, if this went as planned. I really just tailored my looks to his tastes (even though he always says I look nice, even when I know I don't).

I'd just finished perfecting the dress when I heard, "Flame Princess?" Finn parted the door to my home, stepping inside. I saw that he was also not dressed in his normal clothes; it was far from fancy attire, but it was a button-down shirt and long pants, and that was far enough outside of his comfort zone, I knew. "You...you look really nice," he blushed, and that made me blush as well.

"So do you," I smiled.

"Thanks," he smiled as well, extending his hand, "Ready to go?"

"Uh..." I stopped, looking at his hand questioningly.

"Oh! Right! Look, don't worry, Flambo did his thing. I'll be pretty much immune to the effects of flames for a few hours, so let's get going!"

I looked at him, hesitating. Flambo had already done this, so I may as well take advantage...but I must remember to talk to that little subject of mine when I see him next. There was a reason why we didn't just normally use this charm, and that's because doing so too often has detrimental effects. I didn't know what they were, and I didn't want to find out. But this was a special occasion (apparently), so it was okay, as long as it didn't happen again for another few years.

And so I placed my hand in Finn's, and he smiled wider than he already was. I smiled back at him; his face was so goofy.

It was only a short distance to my kingdom, and we had the castle in our sights. The ballroom, while inside of the castle, is towards the outside rather than the center of the building, so just as I had suggested, we didn't need to go inside to hear the music and enjoy ourselves. We avoided the guards and snuck around the back.

I was a little disappointed at first, because I didn't recognize the song, and honestly, that made me a bit shy, but Finn never seemed to be shy, and even though I was sure he didn't know the song either, he twirled me around and around, leading our movements with expertise (I really didn't know that he could dance like this!).

The song ended as another began, and I was breathing a little heavily. I didn't know if he was good at dancing or if my inexperience just made it seem like he was.

"So, I have a question," Finn said, beginning to dance with me to the next song, "If you're a princess, and we've been going out for this long, what does that make me?"

I shrugged. It's not like we were married or anything, but we were dating, so shouldn't there be some title for him? But I didn't know much about royal titles, having being locked up rather than being taught these things like most princesses.

He laughed. "I don't care, was just curious, really," he admitted, as he spun me close to him, our chests touching, "How about I'll be your boyfriend, that good?"

I smiled, giggled, and nodded.

"Yeah," I closed my eyes, "That's perfect."

It was pretty easy to write in FP's POV since I'm very much a fire elemental myself haha. Probably two more chapters will come of this, so keep your eyes open!