There was never any love lost between Cardin and faunus. So when a certain bunny faunus's family offered him a place to stay on their dairy farm after the fall of Beacon, he was visibly repulsed. But considering the alternative was staying in vale where grimm could attack at any time, he grudgingly accepted. He wasn't given free room and board. Oh no, he had to work for his meals and bed. So he spent the better part of his days taking orders from the freaks. Normally, he'd just brush them off and do his own thing, but considering the family's eldest daughter took down two Paladin mechs by herself, he knew that they could enforce the conditions of his staying there. At the end of the day though, he had to himself, so he spent his evenings training. For first few months he was on his own, but then Velvet started coming out there too. He made it abundantly clear that she wasn't welcome, so she kept her distance, always watching his routines. One day she quietly started giving him pointers. Obviously, he either ignored her or made some snide remark, thinking she'd get the message that he was the mace wielder, not her, the freakish copycat. Apparently, the fighting at Beacon had given her some courage, because she kept showing up, and in turn messing him up by constantly pointing out small mistakes in posture, movement, speed, timing, etc… naturally this made him angry, he didn't care that she took on two giant mechs, he was going to teach her a lesson. That lesson turned into her on his back and him eating dirt faster than he could blink. She didn't even say anything, she just got off him and left.
The next evening, she was there watching him, almost as if to rub in the prior night. But instead of simply watching she asked if he could teach her how to use a mace. Naturally he said no. Why would he stoop and help a freak? So instead, she asked if he would like to spar, and even threw in a bet. If he won, she wouldn't come out to where he was training anymore, she wouldn't even talk to him unless she absolutely had to, and if she won, he would have to train her on mace etiquette every night. If winning this meant less time being around a faunus, then how could he say no? He lost. Cardin took a little solace that it didn't happen as fast as last time, he may have been prideful, but he wasn't stupid enough to not learn from his mistakes. And so every night after that, he showed her how to wield a mace. He made sure it was hard, maybe she'd give up and leave him alone, but no, she came every night and did what he said. Cardin actually found himself impressed by Velvet's commitment and ability to learn quickly, it wasn't easy training with something as top heavy as a mace A week later they were sparring, Cardin with his mace, and Velvet with her digital copy. By the end of the month, Cardin found he could actually tolerate her presence.
In the wintery month that followed Velvet asked him if he would like to go hunt some grimm with her. They may have been continuously training, but the field was where you really learned. And so, Cardin found himself in a snow covered forest with Velvet, tracking a pack beowulfs. And they found them, or at least what was left of them, but among their corpses stood a very pissed off goliath, which conveniently saw them as they started to back away. The ensuing fight was easily the hardest of Cardin's life. They fought for over an hour, putting everything they had into bringing down great beast, and when it finally fell with a great crash, the sun had already set, and Cardin and Velvet could only sit against each other for support until they realized that it was night and just how cold it was. By the time they managed to get up and get a fire going, they were both shivering, and even with the fire going they were still cold. They hadn't planned on spending the night in the forest, so that meant no sleeping bags, which meant huddling together, talking in an effort to ignore the cold that was still gnawing at them. The more they talked the more Cardin found himself respecting and liking the faunus. That respect would soon turn into friendship, that friendship made them a powerful duo. And when Beacon was liberated and Salem defeated, that duo had, to everyone's shock, turned into a couple. But that couple did not last forever.
Cardin wiped the sweat off his wife's forehead before kissing it. It had been a long and eventful day for the both of them. She was still breathing heavily. He could scarcely believe he was married to Velvet, a woman he had bullied, and dare he say hated, because of her species. And throw a baby into the mix. He never would have thought this possible when he was still a teenager. The newborn yawned and Cardin's heart just melted. There was no doubt that Coco and Velvet's parents were going to spoil this child rotten.
"It looks likes he'll have your hair." Huffed Velvet. She really wanted her child to have brown hair. Cardin just smiled.
"Yeah, but he's got your ears."