The Leader Gave Me Hope: The First Book of the Freeformers Series

• Hiding •

Faline's heart dropped to her toes.

"N-no one hit me," She said, moving her hair toward her face, trying to not-so-subtly conceal her bruise, all while sending a prayer up that he would drop it, that Leonardo wouldn't try and get a confession out of her.

She panicked, wondering what would happen if Connor were found out - a lawsuit? Foster system? She would have no family left, even if the remaining family she lived with was terrible. True, the mutant turtle couldn't exactly walk up to the authorities and accuse her brother of abuse, though the paranoia inside Faline screamed to beware, shrieked for her to have caution in the dangerous waters they'd waded into.

"Then what's that on your cheek?" Leo persisted, still not comfortable enough with his new acquaintance to sweep the hair away from her face to get a better look.

"Oh, that?" Faline let out a breathy, nervous laugh, fingers deftly rearranging her blonde strands around her eyes, "I...uh... I ran into a pole."

She internally cringed at her horrible lying skills.

"A pole?" Leonardo raised a non-existent brow.

Faline glanced away, plopping onto her bed and slipping off her white tennis shoes. "Just forget about it, okay?"

Every fiber in Leo's being told him not to brush off the fact that Faline was trying to hide a sizable bruise under caked-on makeup. But he reluctantly obliged, eyes shifting away. He sat himself at the edge of her window seat.

"Alright."

Silence crept into the room, while Leo observed the decor for a second time, and Faline removed her nematic and untied her apron, laying both in a neat pile beside her. The suspicion was beginning to eat away at Leonardo. He didn't buy her pole story, not for one second. But she'd made it clear she didn't wanna talk about that. So the task was left to him to break the ice.

"So," Leo started unsurely.

"So."

"Your name's Faline."

"I thought we'd already established that."

"We did! And it's a great name."

"Thanks. Yours too."

"Oh, thank you, but what I was gonna say is... um... you want a nickname?"

Faline blinked at the unexpected question, pondering it for a moment. "You want to give me a nickname?"

He backtracked instantly. "It's fine if you don't want one, it's nice the way it is, I just thought of it off the top of my head, and--"

"No, it's alright," She smiled assuringly, "No one's ever given me one. Aren't they based on personality traits?"

"Not always," Leo explained, leaning forward so that his elbows were propped up on his knee pads, his chin cupped in his palm, "They're usually just shortened versions of your actual name."

"Like yours."

"Exactly." He was surprised that she was so naïve with something as simple as nicknames, "So, let's see... umm... what about Fae?"

"Hmm... well, it is shorter than my real name. Maybe easier for people to know me by. And it does seem... younger, not prissy like Faline..."

Leo stifled the amused laugh that almost burst forth at her pickiness. "Your name isn't prissy."

"Just the same, I like Fae," She decided, kicking her feet and making soft thuds against the bed frame with her heels.

"Fae it is, then," He announced with a small grin.