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Jake woke up to the sound of crunching and Finn talking to himself downstairs.
It startled him, but after taking a minute to process it, he didn't think it sounded too bad. It sounded like Finn punching things and talking to himself, which Jake was totally fine with. Especially after a giant princess-saving sort of a day like today; they'd saved princesses before, but never so many at once, and it was perfectly reasonable that Finn was still running off that adrenaline. In the kitchen. Very loudly. And sounding rather angry in between crunches and smashes.
Still. The angry edge to his words faded after a while, and Jake closed his eyes when he heard Finn coming back upstairs. He was breathing heavily, but he laughed and crawled into bed like an excited kid, not an angry one.
So Jake let it go. Even if there were bruises on Finn's knuckles and the palms of his hands when Jake peeked at him in the morning. Finn didn't bring it up, so Jake didn't either. And eventually, he even forgot about it. That one weird night when Finn stayed up yelling quietly at himself and hitting things, why would he remember that?
It wasn't until a few weeks later that they ran into another problem with the Ice King. He'd been prowling around, and Finn and Jake were there to, of course, beat him up.
They hadn't gotten five minutes into the fight when Ice King blasted Jake, leaving him trapped in an ice cube from toes to ears, just like he had last time.
Finn got a look in his eyes that Jake didn't know how to feel about. Cold and capable. He leaped onto Jake's head and smashed his arm down hard into the ice. After two or three punches, the ice shattered and Jake fell free, tumbling onto the ground.
He grinned, told Finn he was amazing, and threw him into the air to give Ice King his beatdown.
Finn smiled all the way through the fight, and hugged Jake extra tightly when Ice King was defeated and ran off. Jake had never seen someone crush ice before, not like that, and he was very excited; he told Finn so with glowing pride in his eyes. Finn shrugged off the compliments, grinning and red, and was in a wonderful mood all the way home.
The next day, in retaliation, Ice King dragged them into another battle. He said yesterday's wasn't fair and they had to make up for it now.
As soon as Finn and Jake shrugged and agreed, Ice King laughed and blasted them both with ice. Jake managed to duck, but when he glanced at Finn, he saw Finn's hands were trapped in a block of ice.
Reflecting on it later, Jake didn't remember knocking Ice King's crown off and giving him two black eyes until Finn managed to drag him off. He just remembered Finn looking devastated and terrified, his hands helplessly frozen to each other. The rest was all on instinct.
That night, he woke up again to furious crunching and Finn talking to himself. It didn't go on quite so long this time, though, and Jake couldn't find any bruises when he subtly looked for them during breakfast. Finn did limp slightly when he walked, though, and Jake couldn't help but worry. If only a little bit. He trusted Finn, he knew he wouldn't do anything really dangerous, he knew Finn would tell Jake his secrets when he was ready to. So he didn't worry.
The next time they had the pleasure of fighting Ice King, he did the same trick again halfway into the fight. Finn's hands were frozen, and Jake didn't dodge all the way and got his feet frozen, too. But this time, Finn's face didn't freeze up. He didn't look lost. Instead, he grinned. With one firm kick of his foot, he freed his hands, and with another, freed Jake.
Ice King growled in frustration, but Finn was ready to fight. He sent Ice King home with an aching nose, and held Jake's hand tightly all the way home. He didn't offer any reasoning as to why, so Jake didn't pry. He did compliment him on his kicking them free, though, and Finn only grinned proudly.
Ice King didn't wise up quite as fast to Finn's kicking and hitting abilities. It took him a few tries to remember Finn could get free of ice so long as any one appendage was free. But finally, finally, he managed to remember: he shot ice at both Finn and Jake and left them with only their heads exposed.
Jake stretched his head out and gave Ice King a good barking and a good whacking, and chipped Finn out later with a shovel. Apologizing all the while that he didn't have the same strong kicks as him, sorry it was taking so long to get him out, it's okay.
Finn didn't look as upset as Jake expected. He didn't look like he did the last time he'd been unable to get himself or Jake free from ice. Instead, he looked thoughtful. An angry sort of thoughtful, but still. His eyes were dark, and he still held Jake's hand tightly until it was numb, but he didn't look upset.
He looked ready.
Jake didn't fall asleep that night. He pretended until Finn got up and went downstairs. He heard the freezer open, he heard ice crunching, and he heard Finn talking to himself, quiet and firm. He heard sickening thunks and snarls in between them, and he winced with each. But he fell asleep, despite his best efforts, before he could worry too much about it.
Finn woke up with a black eye and dried blood dripping out of his mouth and nose, and when Jake tried to touch his hair he hit him away from it.
Jake started to wonder if maybe he should have been keeping a closer eye on Finn's nighttime capers.
But he let it go, like he had everything else. He made Finn take it easy and he let him win a couple of games until his eye healed, but he didn't ask too much, especially since Finn always changed the subject when he did. He healed up soon enough, and anyways, there were other things to worry about. Their lives went on as usual.
One day, they fell back into another fight with Ice King. He froze Finn's hands and feet, and threw Jake into an ice prison, laughing.
And Finn smiled with freezing eyes, glaring defiantly at the Ice King. He laughed with delight and pride, and strained his neck backwards.
And then he broke his restraints with his head.