Snapshots

12. Kingston

Piper and Lily are the ones who come up with the idea- a double date. Kingston's not exactly thrilled about the idea of double dating with Finn and Piper, and to be completely honest, he's kind of surprised Piper would suggest it at all. In the past, whenever Kingston and Lily would bring up the idea of double dating, all of their friends had a tendency to run in the opposite direction.

Of course, that was before their break-up.

It happened right before Nationals. Lily was the one to end it, for good, claiming she was tired of fighting all the time and they were "toxic" and she wanted "to be more like Piper and Finn."

It had completely blindsided him, and if he's completely honest with himself, he had spent a lot of the following painful months resenting Finn and Piper, certain that they must have said or done something to Lily to make her think that there was something wrong with their relationship.

But when he finally stopped being angry enough to take a step back and look at the situation he was in, he realized that maybe Lily was on to something, that maybe what Henry and Ozzy and the rest of the team had been saying for months was right. Maybe they were toxic.

He'd never thought anything of his and Lily's constant breaking up and getting back together. To Kingston, their arguments had always been in good fun, never actually that serious, but at some point, Lily must have started thinking otherwise.

Their break is good for them in a way. It gives them both time to figure out what they really want and why there were issues in their relationship in the first place. It's when he's sitting in the new smoothie bar one day and sees Piper and Finn mid-argument that it finally dawns on Kingston what Lily meant when she said she wanted to be more like their friends. Because Piper and Finn are arguing, and he doesn't even know what it's about. He just knows that Finn looks upset, and Piper looks irritated, and they're not exactly the power couple everyone expects them to be in that moment.

But then it happens.

Finn takes a deep breath, slowly lets it out, then speaks to his girlfriend in a softer tone, and Piper's hard expression softens. She mutters something back to him, seeming to apologize, and he shrugs. A few more words are exchanged, then Finn's placing a kiss on her forehead, and she's turning and leaving the smoothie bar, probably to join the other girls in Studio A so they can rehearse for an upcoming small group competition they were chosen for.

Finn watches her go then meets Kingston's eye from across the room. Mind reeling from the exchange he just witnessed, Kingston waves him over urgently. Finn sighs, picking up his smoothie and joining him at his table. "What's up?" he asks as he sits.

"What was that?" Kingston asks, completely mindblown by the exchange he just witnessed. "You two were totally fighting, and then you just weren't. What happened?"

"We weren't fighting," Finn says then takes a casual sip of his smoothie. Kingston rolls his eyes. He's an expert on fighting, and Piper and Finn were fighting.

"She was mad at you, and you were mad at her. That's a fight."

Finn sighs as if this conversation is physically taxing for him, then he says, "We were just having a disagreement. My dad's coming to town for work, and Piper wants to meet him, and I don't want her to. She thought it had something to do with her when it actually has everything to do with him."

Finn's dad is kind of a touchy topic. Kingston knows this because Finn rarely talks about him, and when he does, he never usually has good things to say. It's kind of a surprise that Finn evidently talks to Piper about him, but considering she's his girlfriend and all, maybe it shouldn't be.