She knew it would be bad. Velvet's favorite news site only had 'Faunus' in the headlines when it was bad news, either White Fang or Human hate crimes, but it was the closest thing she knew of to an unbiased news source. It was still a pain that she had to read it in private or have it out her; Wrapping her flexible ears around a hairband and making sure to avoid any sort of physical contact was working so far, but it was common knowledge that anybody reading the Vale Free Press was either a Faunus, a White Fang supporter, or both, so she had to be secretive. Her silent giant of a partner probably had his suspicions about her thanks to a couple of too-close calls, but he either didn't care or was trying to think of a way to use it against her.
Which led back to the article she was reading, cloistered away in team CFVY's darkened dorm room while the other three were in Doctor Oobleck's history lecture. A lot of Remnant's recent history hit too close to home, so she'd asked the headmaster if she could take the class in a future year once she felt ready; with an oddly knowing smile, he'd taken a sip of his coffee, and nodded. Atlesian soldiers, backed by enough Kurts (the military standard Atlesian Knight 130s; AK-130s or 'Kurts' for short) to bring down a small flock of Nevermores, had raided a faunus trafficking ring in the middle of an auction. The few photos that had been allowed past the news site's Standards and Practices board were full of cuff-chafed wrists and ankles, but the true horror of the story was in the all-too-vivid description of faunus girls who, instead of talking when uncuffed, obediently turned around and offered themselves to anything that seemed male, including the only-vaguely-humanoid Kurts.
It was too much; tossing her scroll and hairband aside onto her bed, Velvet lifted her feet up onto her chair, pressed her face and long ears between her knees, and started sobbing. If she had just been strong enough, she maybe could have prevented this. That was part of why she had come to Beacon, after all, to gain the strength necessary to protect her people, but despite knowing what she could do in the future it hurt to not be able to do anything in the present.
She was so caught up in her inner turmoil that she didn't hear her partner quietly open the door behind her and come in. She didn't even realize she was no longer alone until a light touch on her shoulder came and jerked her to her feet and back to the real world. It took all of her self-control to keep her ears from jolting straight up in fright, and she quickly shook her head to give them at least some cover under her hair as she turned to look up at the mountain standing behind her. "Y-yatsuhashi, you're back early."
He had a concerned look upon seeing her reddened eyes, which didn't leave as he explained, "Class ended early. Coco took Fox to the cafeteria, sent me to pick you up." He looked over at her bed, at the hairband and scroll, with the article still brightly displayed in the gloom. Velvet felt a tinge of dread creeping in under the adrenaline; it was clearly the Vale Free Press site, and there was no way he would miss that her hairband was lacking it's usual fuzzy brown spirals. When he picked up her scroll and skimmed the article, his face fell.
"This is terrible."
...He knows and doesn't want to be partnered with a faunus, what do I-
"How could anybody do this to a person?"
...What?
"...What?"
Yatsu set Velvet's scroll on her desk, and looked at her, his own eyes tearing up slightly. "People are people, doesn't matter how many ears they have and I'm actually glad you're crying for those girls. I don't think I could stand being partnered with a Faunus-hater."
A fresh wave of tears welled up in Velvet's eyes, and she stepped forward to hug her partner. He didn't quite understand why until a few seconds later as he returned the hug and, in what seemed like the most natural thing to do, stroked her hair... And found something solid and fuzzy.
"...Oh. That explains a lot."
Velvet panicked. He hadn't known, but she'd gone and screwed it up. Her ears, free of the self-control that fled from the light of realization, shot straight up and she shoved away from him. Or tried to, anyway; without even realizing it, he held too strongly for her to escape. She shoved harder, this time breaking free, and heard a noise from above.
"Ah-"
Oh no, I've hurt him!
"AH-"
Hiding your race AND harming a student, there's no way the faculty will let this slide, you're going to be tossed out onto the streets of Vale and-
"CHOO!"
As Yatsuhashi sneezed, Velvet realized what had happened. No, of course she hadn't hurt him; she wasn't even sure she could. When her ears shot up… She looked up, and confirmed it. Her ears had jumped directly to the bottom of his nose, tickling it, and the wide smile on his face showed that he wasn't hurt at all.
"Yatsuhashi? Why are you smiling? Aren't you angry?"
Yatsu looked confused for a moment, then shook his head slowly. "No, of course not. Why would I be? Besides, think of all the new outfits Coco's going to make you try on."
Their more stylish teammate had a fondness, to put it lightly, for suggesting outfits. Velvet shivered and blushed a little, thinking of what her bunny ears might inspire, and then shuddered at how the other students were likely to react. The years of teasing, bullying, and general all-around horribleness she had experienced growing up in Atlas would be nothing compared to what an entire school of hunter-caliber humans could do.
Then again, she didn't have the tallest man in school as her partner back then. Maybe it would be better to just come out with it, and cross that bridge now instead of later when it was more likely to be on fire. "I guess you're right, though I'm a little worried about the types of outfits she'll have in mind. Especially given her rather wide selection of lingerie catalogs."
Yatsu blushed lightly at this particularly frank statement, but covered it up with a laugh.
"Still though," Velvet continued, "I'm a bit worried about the other students. Faunus students aren't exactly popular among the humans, and the school has always been more than willing to let us fight out our differences and I'm not all that strong and-" She was silenced by a light ruffling of her hair.
"The school may be lenient on bullying, but I'm not. While I'm around, you won't have to worry."
Velvet's eyes teared up, now from a far different emotion than the sadness of before. She hugged him again, a whispered 'Thank you' making its way between her lips, as for the first time she felt really, truly safe.