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

• Reminiscing •

"So this is pizza gyoza?"

Fae scrutinized the dumpling skewered on the end of the fork in Leo's hand.

"It's good," he promised, holding it closer.

"I dunno, it looks funny..."

"Oh c'mon," Leo gave the fork a small twirl, the way someone would to convince a small child that a piece of broccoli was in fact an airplane.

She rolled her eyes, leaning across the window bench and snatching the dumpling up into her mouth, contemplating as her taste buds registered the new taste.

"So," She mumbled between chews, "Aliens in disguise changed you and your brothers into half-human turtles with some ooze, and you call the guy who got mutated into a giant rat your dad. And he's the one who taught you ninjustu, and the one who this... Shredder character wants to kill?"

Leo nodded, a short bob of affirmation, eyes bouncing between Fae and the shag carpet apprehensively.

"You'll forgive me if that story seems like something straight out of a science fiction novel to me." She smiled wryly.

"I seem like I'm straight out of a science fiction novel," he laughed softly.

"No you don't," She argued.

"Fae, I'm a humanoid turtle armed with katanas that can speak English. How does that not sound like science fiction to you?"

"You're not some kind of myth, Leo. You're a person –"

"Turtle."

"—that can actually feel and think and act like any human would."

"But I'm not human. That's my point."

"You're not some kind of animal either. You're," she reached for the fork in his hand, "Unique."

"That's the nice way of putting it. You like them?"

"They're alright," she replied as she skewed three more pizza gyoza onto the fork.

Leo chuckled, his ocean blues finding the world map pinned to the wall above her bed.

"When'd you start that travel plan of yours?" He asked casually, leaning his elbows back and resting against the windowsill.

"Since before I can remember," she answered, observing a dumpling closely before popping it into my mouth, "I used to think I'd get to travel the world with my..."

Fae trailed off, glancing at Leo once she realized she'd almost touched on a sensitive subject of her own. Leo averted his own gaze, sure she wouldn't want to talk about anything having to do with her family, or her past – he couldn't count the number of times she'd told him she wanted to leave 'all that crap' behind her.

A small shuffling sound, and he noticed Fae had gotten up, and was now searching through a drawer of her armoir.

She withdrew a small shoe box, tattered and worn at its cardboard edges, with doodles scrawled on its side from years of boredom. She sat back down on the bed, lifting the lid and looking up at Leo before extracting a tiny polaroid.

"This is my mom," she handed him the photo, "Tamara."

Leo glanced down at the picture quizzically, wondering why Fae had just given him a picture of... herself. There were faint differences – her mother's eyes had been a hazel color, and their hair was different by a few shades of blonde, not to mention the difference in age, but the woman smiling in a nonexistent breeze at the edge of the harbor could've been Faline's twin.