Unfinished

?7?

"But," Elodie suddenly revealed the same grin she'd been wearing when Piper had met her almost a week ago, "As your sister, I definitely do want to know how it goes. Tell me later."

"Should we – maybe – get back to work?" Piper interjected.

Both siblings groaned, but begrudgingly agreed she was right.

On the way out, Finn lightly squeezed her shoulder.

"Seriously, no idea how we managed without you," He told her, a smile playing across his face.

The compliment left a warm feeling in her stomach, and Piper ducked her head, almost embarrassed.

Finn was gone before she could thank him, investigating how Elodie had somehow smashed an Easter island head and kept it completely silent.

━━━━━⋅⋅⋅ˏˋ • ˊˎ⋅⋅⋅━━━━━

Finn's feet thudded against the brick wall of his house as he tried, and failed, to kick himself back down and out of his handstand.

"Help!" He squeaked, as Mikey tried to get close enough to pull him down without being hit by one of Finn's flailing legs.

"I'm trying! Stop kicking at me!" His brother complained, finally getting a grip on Finn's ankle and tugging him back down.

Finn sprung up, turning to grin at Piper.

She was sitting in the grass at the back of his house, trying to make a daisy chain out of the few scraggly flowers that grew. After a particularly bad fall out of a cartwheel, she was refusing to take part in the boys tumbling adventures.

"Did you see Piper? I told you I could do a handstand!"

"You couldn't get down though," She pointed out, as James called for everyone's attention.

"Watch this!"

He bounced on his toes a couple of times and rubbed his hands together, psyching himself up.

Finn wandered over and plonked himself next to Piper, although her brother had captured most of his focus.

Whilst James did a final swing of his arms, Mikey sulked against the brick wall of his home. He'd wanted to go into the woods with James, but Deborah had overheard and forbidden it. And nobody argues with Deborah.

"Alright! Three... Two... One!" On the count of one, James threw himself forward, turning a front somersault in the air. He staggered forward afterwards before gaining his balance, which Piper knew was a mistake.

Finn didn't seem to care. His jaw was hanging so wide open Piper had to check he hadn't broken it.

"Was that it?" Mikey scoffed, kicking up a cloud of dirt.

"I'd like to see you try," James shot back, extending an arm to offer him the floor.

Mikey shook his head vigorously.

"Nah, I'm good."

"Are you sure? You don't want to try?"

"No, I don't. I don't do your dancing, I do proper boy sports," Mikey held his head up as he spoke, whilst Piper and James exchanged confused looks.

"Mum says there's no such thing as boy sports," Finn said calmly, as if this was something he'd reminded his brother of countless times.

"You don't get it," Snapped Mikey, before abruptly turning and striding off towards the edge of the woods, in the direction that their swing was hidden.

"Where are you going? " James jogged after his friend, easily catching up to him.

Mikey grumbled something unintelligible, and they both stopped for a moment. They stared at each other, and Piper and Finn watched the silent challenge being issued. Eventually, James shrugged and began trudging towards the trees with Mikey following.

"Stay put, Pipesqueak!" James called out, to Piper's annoyance. Of course she was going to stay put. She wasn't about to get grounded for disobeying her mother: she'd never been grounded, and wasn't interested in starting now.

"How do you make that?" Finn pointed at the daisy chain clasped in her hand, his attention shifting quickly from their brothers.

"You kind of – sort of–" Piper held the crown up in front of her face, trying to formulate the best way to explain it.

"I don't get it," The blonde boy complained, the stalk of a daisy he'd gathered snapping off under his fingers.

She quietly considered for a moment, before leaning over and popping the crown on top of his head. His eyes went wide, and he reached up as if to touch it but stopped himself at the last minute.

"It suits you," Piper told her pink-cheeked, awe-struck friend.

"You made me a king..." Finn whispered, as if unsure it was really happening.

"What?" She didn't know a lot about monarchs, but she was pretty sure they had crowns made of metal, not flowers.

"I'm a king!" He announced, jumping to his feet.

"No, that's not how it—"

Finn whooped, punched the air, and started sprinting off in the beginnings of a victory lap. Suddenly terrified at the thought of Finn ruling the country and the chaos it would ensure, Piper gave chase.

The two of them ran all of the way round the house, and began to head down the track for Piper's house too.

That made it to the porch before she closed the distance enough to grab for the crown.

Unfortunately, she sent them both crashing to the wooden floor.

Deborah threw the window open at the thump to find them both laughing and rolling around.

She sighed, and pulled the window to before returning to Jane and their steaming coffee mugs.

When Piper and Finn finished laughing, they were laying side by side on their backs.

"That was fun," Piper yawned, limbs feeling heavy with the excitement and exhaustion of the day.

"Yeah..." He trailed off, closing his eyes against the sun that was slowly beginning to dip in the sky.

They laid there for a while, trying to catch their breath.

"Does your family keep secrets from you?" Piper asked suddenly, turning her head to look at him.

Finn opened his eyes and focused them on her, before nodding slowly.

"Yeah, they do."

"They won't tell me why we had to leave Dad," She whispered, almost afraid someone would hear her.

"They won't tell me what Mikey's dad did," Finn told her, in the same hushed tones, "I know he did something bad. But I don't know what."

Piper turned the thought over in her mind for a moment, before Finn spoke again.

"You can't tell anyone I told you that, or they'll get angry with me."

"I won't," She promised, but it wasn't enough for him.

"Pinky promise?" He offered her his little finger, which she hooked with her own.

"Pinky promise."