Between 7x01 and 7x02

24 minutes. Finn was 24 minutes late. And counting.

When Piper had called him to ask where he was, he had assured her that he was on his way and would be at the movie theater by 7:30.

He'd better hope, for his sake, that he didn't hit any traffic.

Having initially anticipated Finn being a few minutes late, Piper had already bought his ticket, their popcorn, and their drinks so they could find their seats as soon as he arrived. At the time, she had felt like doing something out of the kindness of her heart, but around the sixteen-minute mark, she had decided that $36 was actually very expensive and that Finn would definitely be paying her back instead. Good thing he had just gotten paid last weekend for dog-sitting his older sister's puppy while she was out of town with her boyfriend.

Piper's foot tapped slowly against the floor as her phone vibrated with a new text from her sister Julia, who she had been ranting to over the last ten minutes.

J: Did you text him to see where he is??

J: Oof he's really digging his grave tonight

J: RIP Finn

J: Make sure he buys the snacks then

J: Eat it all and tell him to buy more

J: Not with that attitude you can't

Piper rolled her eyes at the latest text. She wasn't going to eat an entire bucket of popcorn by herself. She refused. The only reason she had even bought the largest popcorn was because Finn's stomach was an endless pit, and he was liable to complain if she didn't get a big enough size.

Of course, Finn couldn't exactly eat it all if he never showed up.

As she responded to Julia's text, two girls walked by, glancing her way and muttering amongst themselves. One of them was speaking loudly enough that Piper could just barely hear her. "... must have been stood up. Look, she even got snacks and everything, and they never even showed. How sad."

Piper grit her teeth, nostrils flaring as she let out a long breath through her nose. She had half a mind to call back to them: "I didn't get stood up! This isn't even a date!" She refrained from doing so, however, because the last thing she wanted was everyone in the theater lobby turning to look at her.

And yes, for the record, as she had assured both of her parents, Julia, and James, this was not a date. Finn had really wanted to see the new spy movie, and Piper was interested in it too, so they'd agreed to go together. It was a friendly outing, not a date, even if her family was convinced otherwise. Her mother had been very adamant about making sure Finn kept his hands to himself when she dropped her off, and Piper had been so horrified that she'd simply slammed the car door behind her and stalked away to the ticket booth.

Really, she supposed, it was her family who had set off her bad mood tonight, but Finn really wasn't helping his case.

At exactly 7:29, Finn finally strolled into the movie theater, an easy grin on his face. Piper stood as he approached at a leisurely pace, completely unconcerned about the fact that they had for sure missed all the previews and probably the first ten minutes of the movie.

"Hey Pipes!"

"Nice of you to finally show up," she snapped. She shoved the giant bucket of popcorn into his arms and grabbed their drinks and tickets before making a beeline for the ticket usher, but of course, there was a line.

"Woah, what's got you all worked up?" Finn asked, following behind her as he tossed a few pieces of popcorn into his mouth.

His casual tone only agitated her more, and she huffed, turning to face him in line and crossing her arms. "The movie started at 7, Finn. Half an hour ago. What happened?"

His brows furrowed at that, and he frowned down at her. "Are you sure? I swear you said 7:30."

"No, I didn't. I said 7."

The large group ahead of them moved out of line, and Piper turned away from him, thrusting their tickets at the usher. He tore them, barely glimpsing the tickets as he directed them to the correct theater in a bored voice. Piper practically sprinted down the hall, leaving Finn to follow after her.

The feeling of being late for anything was for Piper what the sound of nails scratching on a chalkboard was for other people. It made her uncomfortable and fidgety, and they were thirty minutes late. What had they missed in those thirty minutes? She would never know.

Finn was clearly unconcerned, however, as his long legs easily matched her frantic strides. "Chill, Pipes, we're not gonna miss anything," he told her in the same infuriatingly relaxed tone.

"You don't know that."

"I'm pretty sure I do."

"No, you don't. And you owe me twenty bucks."

Finn sighed and nodded in resignation as they reached their theater. He grabbed the door handle and held it open for her, and she led the way inside, eyes searching for their seats in the dark. They managed to find them in the middle of the theater just as the opening credits rolled onscreen.

"See? We didn't miss anything," Finn whispered cheekily in her ear.

"Oh sure, just the previews," she snapped back in a hushed tone while reaching for a handful of popcorn. How was she supposed to know what new movies she wanted to see now? Sure, she could always look up the new trailers on YouTube, but it just wasn't the same.

Finn raised his eyebrows at her, still giving her that cheeky grin that she currently wanted to wipe right off his face. "Okay, Pipes," he whispered as if he didn't believe her for some reason.

Her eyebrows furrowed at his tone of voice as she wondered what that was supposed to mean. Was he messing with her somehow? She watched him with narrowed eyes for a moment, but he was completely engrossed in the movie now to notice. With a bewildered shake of the head, she turned her attention to the screen as well.

The movie itself wasn't great. Piper thought it had one too many plotholes for her liking, and the humor was too over the top, but Finn seemed to love it. He laughed at every corny joke and gasped at the plot twist revealed at the end as if it was the most mind-blowing thing he had ever seen even though Piper had called it from the beginning. If she was being honest with herself, Finn's reactions were far more entertaining than the movie itself. The irritation she had felt before the movie gradually ebbed away every time he laughed. (He was one of the two people in the theater who was actually doing so. The other was an elderly man sitting a couple of rows behind them.)

As the film neared its end, Piper's thoughts had unwittingly wandered to what A-Troupe was going to do without Michelle and Noah. The two of them were the heart of The Next Step as far as Piper was concerned, and she didn't know how the team would manage without them. She had taken to distractedly munching on the remains of their popcorn, her eyes glazed over as she stared blankly at the screen, until her hand suddenly brushed against another hand, instantly pulling her out of her thoughts.

Finn must have reached for another handful of popcorn at the same time as her. Her gaze flitted to his as their hands brushed, warm tingles shooting up her arm. She realized she was staring at him and blinked rapidly, momentarily averting her gaze. Finn simply smiled, passing the bucket of popcorn over to her and shifting in his seat to get more comfortable.

Piper had held Finn's hand before (at Regionals, after she'd messed up her aerial), and she had always told herself it didn't mean anything despite the fact that she thought about that moment more often than she cared to admit. Regardless, if that hadn't meant anything, then brushing his hand while reaching for popcorn definitely didn't.

Even still, it took until the final scene of the movie for her heart to stop racing.

When the credits finally began to roll, Piper checked the time on her phone to find that it was nearing ten o'clock. She clutched her phone and her wallet in her hand as she turned to Finn, who was still sitting back in his seat, looking as comfortable as if they were in his basement at home instead of the movie theater. "Are you ready to go?" she asked.

"Not yet. It's not over," Finn answered as the other moviegoers began exiting the theater.

Confusion surged through her as she glanced uncertainly at the screen. Was there a scene in the end credits or something that no one but Finn evidently knew about?

"What are you talking about? The movie's over, Finn. The credits are rolling. Let's go. You have to get me home by 10:30."

"Let's just wait for the trailers first."

Piper froze, her eyebrows shooting up as she stared at him in utter bewilderment. He was joking. Right? He had to be joking.

Only it wasn't funny.

"We missed the previews, remember? Because you were late," she reminded him slowly.

He studied her through narrow eyes before a grin slowly spread across his face. "Did Kingston put you up to this?"

"What?" Piper asked, shaking her head at him. It was finally dawning on her that he really wasn't playing around. Finn genuinely believed the trailers came after the movie. How was it possible that he had lived the last 16 years thinking the previews came after the movie and no one – not his parents, or his siblings, or apparently even Kingston – had corrected him?

She didn't want to be the one to break the news to him, but someone had to, didn't they?

After he had finished his adamant explanation of how the credits rolled, the lights came back up, and then went down again for the trailers, Piper told him slowly, "Finn, those are the previews for the next movie."

Finn's smile faded into a frown. "That's weird. The bros were saying the same thing a few weeks ago." He paused, pursing his lips before glancing at her seriously. "Since when have the trailers been before the movie? Is that a new thing?"

She slowly shook her head, deciding that this conversation took the crown for weirdest conversation ever as she told him, "Not really."

"Oh."

As the lights turned back on, Finn looked away, licking his lips and clenching his jaw. For a moment, it seemed like anger might have flashed in his eyes, but then he looked to Piper again, and it disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared. "Okay, well, in that case, I guess there's no point in staying."

Piper was relieved to hear him say so because they wouldn't have been able to wait for the trailers of the next movie without her missing her curfew, which her parents wouldn't be pleased about - not when she was out with Finn, who they clearly believed to be more than just a friend.

They exited the theater, thanking the usher who held the door open for them on his way in to clean up the trash. As they walked out to the parking lot, Piper glanced at Finn. He had turned strangely quiet, and she couldn't help wondering why. It wasn't like the previews playing before the movie instead of after was a mind-boggling, earth shattering revelation. Frankly, it was just common sense (but that was a conversation for another day).

"Why did you think the trailers came after the movie?" Piper finally asked him, curiosity getting the best of her. "Did you never think it was weird that there was such a long time between the trailers and the movie?"

Finn shrugged, his hands buried in his pockets and gaze staring straight ahead. "It's what my brothers told me when we were kids." He let out a deep breath, looking down and muttering, "I guess they were pretty convincing."

Piper nodded slowly as she took his words in. They walked outside into the brisk night air, and she commented carefully, "You never really talk about your brothers much." She knew he had two older brothers because she'd seen pictures of them at his house and heard his mother mention them once, but even after months of being friends with Finn, she knew next to nothing about them.

"Yeah, we're not very close," Finn replied shortly.

Piper raised her eyebrows, sticking her hands in the pockets of Finn's hoodie, which she had been wearing almost exclusively since he had gifted it to her before Christmas. Finn had always been an open book, but apparently, she'd found the one thing he didn't like talking about.

"They're both older than you, right?" she asked as they reached his car.

He sighed, seeming to realize she wasn't going to drop this, and nodded as he unlocked the car. Once inside, he reluctantly answered, "Yeah. Nate's going to school in Calgary, and Johnny's in Vancouver. He moved in with our dad in high school and stayed there."

"So they're pretty far away then."

"Like I said- we're not very close."

"But why not?" she couldn't help asking. "Did you just not get along?"

Piper had often felt left out with her own siblings growing up because Lauren, Julia, and James were all several years older than her. As she'd gotten older, however, and could relate to them more, she had grown much closer to them, especially James and Julia. Her siblings were three of the most important people in her life now. She couldn't imagine never getting along with any of them and, as a result, couldn't comprehend what could be so bad about Finn's brothers that he didn't even like talking about them, let alone to them.

Finn had started to put the car in gear to reverse out of his parking spot, but he paused when she continued questioning him, staring out the windshield as if seriously debating something in his mind. Finally, as though he was choosing his words carefully, he told her, "We just have different interests. They were always closer with each other."

"Oh. Well, my siblings were always closer with each other too, but—"

"Look, Piper, it's just complicated, okay?" Finn interrupted. He shook his head, finally pulling out of the parking spot and gripping the steering wheel tightly. "You don't get it."

"Okay, fine. I'm sorry," Piper said, chewing on her bottom lip and refraining from pressing him further. She had clearly hit a nerve. In hindsight, it probably wasn't a good idea to question him about something he clearly didn't want to talk about in the first place, but she couldn't help it. She was just curious.

She had always thought Finn was open with her about anything, and the thing was- she wanted to know everything there was to know about him, complicated family dynamics and all. Did Finn not trust her or something?

They sat in silence as Finn waited for traffic to slow to pull out of the theater's parking lot. Piper repeatedly pulled her ring off and on her finger, feeling bad for pressuring Finn. He never would have pushed her to talk about something she didn't want to.

Was she a bad friend?

What if he thought she was a terrible person now and didn't want to be friends with her anymore? All because she'd pressured him to talk about his brothers. His stupid, stupid brothers.

She had started biting down hard on her lip and quickly stopped herself before she could draw blood. Her palms had grown sweaty, and she wiped them on her jeggings before clenching her hands into fists, glancing nervously at Finn, who was frowning out the windshield as he merged onto the freeway.

Should she say something to him? Apologize? Beg him not to unfriend her because of one tense conversation that was admittedly her fault?

Before she could make up her mind, he beat her to it.

"Look, it's just..." He paused, hesitant as he admitted, "They're not... the nicest people."

Surprised that he was continuing the conversation after he had shut it down so adamantly, Piper gave him an underwhelming, "Oh," too afraid to keep prying into the subject if that was all he wanted to reveal. Even still, the implication that his brothers weren't nice people indicated that they weren't nice to Finn, and the thought of anyone being mean to Finn was enough to make Piper's blood boil.

"They always made fun of me growing up because they were smarter and bigger, and I liked dance, so obviously I was going to be the automatic failure of the family," Finn continued, scoffing and rolling his eyes as the words left his lips.

Finn was genuinely one of the kindest people Piper knew, so she hated the thought of him growing up with two brothers who were less than kind to him. No wonder he didn't like talking about them.

But then, true to his self-assured, carefree nature, Finn added, "But really, joke's on them because I outgrew both of them, and Chuck Anderson gave me his card, so I'm not a total failure."

"Chuck Anderson gave you his card?" Piper asked, caught off guard once again by this new information.

"Yeah, at Regionals. Did I forget to tell you that?"

"It must have slipped your mind," Piper replied dryly.

"Must have," Finn muttered, his gaze flicking to her momentarily before looking back to the road.

It dawned on her that she was probably the reason anything to do with Chuck Anderson had slipped Finn's mind at Regionals. She pointedly pushed the memories of that anxiety-filled weekend to the back of her mind where they belonged.

Finn had always been there for her when she had needed him. Now, she supposed, this was her opportunity to support him in return.

"Well, getting Chuck Anderson's card is a really big deal. You must have impressed him," she told him proudly, "I bet your brothers could never do that."

"Nah, they would probably talk their way into it somehow."

Piper shrugged indifferently to that. "Maybe. But it takes just as much effort to be a good dancer as it does to be good at school or whatever they do. Even more, actually, because you've probably put more hours into dance than your brothers have put into anything in their entire lives, so they were clearly wrong about you. You're the farthest thing from a failure."

There was a soft smile tugging at his lips as she looked over at him, hopeful that her words would somehow mean more to him than anything his brothers had ever said to him in the past.

"Thanks, Pipes," he muttered, glancing at her softly for a moment then clearing his throat. "Um, anyways, that's enough talk about my brothers. Can we talk about something else now?"

She agreed, and he immediately asked her how she felt about Michelle leaving instead.

"It'll be hard not having her around," Piper admitted, "She's friends with James and Riley, so I've known her for years, and she's been a really good studio head. I don't know how we're going to win Nationals without her."

"Yeah, it'll be weird without her," Finn agreed, seeming more relaxed now that the conversation had moved away from his family. "It's a tough blow to lose her so soon after Noah and Jacquie left."

Piper closed her eyes and let out a deep breath, her heart longing for their friends who had left the studio. "Don't remind me."