"Ow, that hurts!"

"Ha, I told you it was real!"

"What a freak!"

"P-please, stop..."

Pyrrha looked over at Cardin and his team, the former still holding Velvet's ear. She grumbled: "Atrocious... I can't stand people like him."

Ren glanced among his circle of friends. Blake murmured: "He's not the only one."

Yang sighed and mused: "It must be hard to be a Faunus."

Blake was her partner. She'd been living with Blake since their second day at Beacon and been standing right next to her when Blake's bow had apparently moved on its own. Did Yang -somehow- not know?

Blake hadn't been forthcoming about it at all. It shouldn't have surprised him that she was keeping secrets from her teammates given what little he'd been able to piece together about her, but...

Take action, son.

No one expected Ren to act. He'd probably thoroughly surprise his friends if he expended any energy at all.

Ren turned his attention to Nora. She was her usual cheerful and upbeat self and while she was probably bothered by what Velvet was going through, she wasn't letting it show. She left the worrying to the others.

It wasn't so long ago she'd been bullied and he stood by and did nothing. Just as he was doing now. Doing in front of Nora, in front of Blake...

No, that didn't matter. It didn't matter if his friends were there to witness or not. It mattered that he could do something and he wasn't. Even if he was the only one there and Cardin and his three teammates were picking on a shy girl he should've done something to intervene. He thought he'd learned this lesson already.

But when Ren turned his attention from his friends, Cardin had finally relaxed his grip and let Velvet go on her way. Ren had stood by and done nothing... again.

He did his best to return to his tea and not dwell on what might've been, much as he'd prefer thinking on that to what actually occurred.

Ren had regular tea meetings with Fox Alistair, a teammate of Velvet's. They usually enjoyed each other's company specifically because they were both so quiet and it made a contrast to the noise of their teammates, but every now and then they'd converse.

Ren wanted to ask about Velvet, but wasn't sure it would be proper to do so. Velvet had been promoted from the freshman class to the second year but still attended a few first year lessons to fill in some gaps in her education, and so while Ren saw her fairly regularly, she was still beyond his responsibility and he didn't want to overstep.

No, that was an excuse. He didn't want to acknowledge his failure to act. He just wanted to ask Fox if Velvet was all right to assuage his own guilty conscience- not because he was actually going to do anything to change the suffering she was going through.

It made him wonder what sort of friend he was to Fox to ignore the suffering of Fox's teammate. It made him wonder what sort of person he was to ignore someone's suffering period.

Fox could hear the turmoil in him; the subtle changes in his drawing breath and pulse. Fox may well have asked Ren what was wrong with him, and the slow raising of his head indicated Fox had no trouble asking what the problem was and stepping in to help if necessary. He had no difficulty taking action.

Ren asked himself why he couldn't do the same. Why he couldn't just help someone in need.

He didn't have an answer. He just went back to his tea.

"How come Jaune gets home so late?" Nora wondered, still bouncing on her bed.

"He's become rather scarce since he started fraternizing with Cardin," Ren explained.

He wasn't sure how to explain that. He knew that it confused all their friends -just like it confused his teammates- that Jaune had become friendly with Cardin. Well, that wasn't true at all: Cardin was mistreating him just as he seemed to mistreat everyone. Jaune was putting up with the abuse... Ren wasn't sure why, though he had theories. Maybe Jaune was trying to get Cardin to lighten up by befriending him, and letting some of Jaune's own inimitable niceness rub off on the Winchester. Certainly Ren preferred that thought to Jaune earnestly approving of Cardin's behavior.

They had a trip to Forever Fall the following day. Jaune should've been resting up for it, and Nora was understandably concerned about him. Ren shared some of the same doubts, but when he thought about Cardin, he kept coming back to the way he mistreated Velvet, and how Ren stood by and did nothing.

Now Jaune was suffering too. Things hadn't gotten any better. Was he supposed to just wait for someone to step in and do the right thing?

He knew what the course was. He knew what was needed to stop Cardin's bullying.

All he had to do was take action. Simple.

Simple.

And still not done.

Jaune had come to some sort of understanding wit Cardin, and he'd been leaving Jaune (and all of Team JNPR) alone. Entirely away from Ren's notice, Jaune had fixed whatever issues he'd been having with Cardin and made a positive difference.

That was one problem solved. But Velvet had yet to fix her own issues. Cardin continued to harass her, and likely vented entirely new frustrations at her now that he had fewer targets to suffer through his vitriol.

Velvet wasn't asking for help, or presumably Fox and the other members of CFVY would've told Cardin to back off. Maybe it wasn't his place to intervene.

Ren thought on the clear pain in Velvet's words when she asked Cardin to stop; when she -despite plainly being skilled enough to be promoted ahead of Cardin- held back and tried to diffuse the situation. Maybe she wanted to avoid confrontation and thus hadn't asked anyone to confront on her behalf. Maybe putting up with Cardin's bullying was preferable to hurting someone, at least in Velvet's mind.

Another day in the dining hall, and RWBY and JNPR sharing another meal, and Velvet suffering another hazing from Cardin and his teammates... Blake still watching intently, pretending not to be the same as Velvet, pretending she was as human as the other seven with her...

And Lie Ren, knowing the right thing to do and not doing it. Again.

He stood up from the table. Nora looked up, surprised by his sudden motion. "Ren...?"

Ren marched straight towards Cardin and the others. Cardin seemed to be tugging on Velvet's lunch tray, muttering about carrots and lettuce and what he'd expect 'an animal' to eat.

He'd know. He was the one who'd so willingly debased himself, even if he was too foolish to realize it.

Ren was always soft-spoken, so he didn't try to raise his voice. He took action.

He stepped between Velvet and Cardin, gently tugging on the tray and putting it back in Velvet's grip. He softly informed the confused boy: "That's quite enough."

"What are you-"

"If you didn't have enough to eat, I'd be happy to share," Ren assured him. "I'm sure any of your classmates would help you if you'd but ask."

It was about as close to a falsehood as Ren would allow himself. No one believed Cardin would ask for anything. Ren very much doubted Cardin was hungry, given how bulky he was and how very skinny a few of his teammates were. No doubt they'd suffered just as much.

Cardin tried to look past Ren to Velvet. Ren stood as tall as he could and did his best to maintain eye contact; only Velvet's ears would be visible, poking over the top of Ren's head. Cardin was certainly impulsive, but Ren didn't think he'd be so bold as to reach right over Ren's head just to bully the girl.

Cardin had three allies beside him. Ren stood alone... at least for the moment. His friends were so surprised he'd done... anything at all they were all still just sitting at their table, watching events unfold.

But even if he could strike first, Cardin was smart enough to know he wouldn't strike last. Not with Nora Valkyrie and Pyrrha Nikos so close by, to say nothing of Team RWBY.

Ren waited for Cardin's response. He had no intention of rubbing it in; not when he already knew Cardin's pride was falling before his logic.

"Come on, guys, this Faunus isn't worth my time," Cardin instructed. He didn't acknowledge Ren's offer nor accept the implication of camaraderie. He just left with his teammates straggling behind him.

Ren turned to Velvet, shyly averting her gaze from him. "T-thank you."

Ren smiled. "Would you care to join us? I'm sure we could make good company."

Velvet finally met his eye. She certainly hadn't expected anyone to reach out to her today. Ren gently waved his hand over to his friends to again invite Velvet to their table, still looking stunned at Ren having intervened.

Ren saw Blake looking out at them, and at him offering a Faunus a place at their table. She stood up too, waving with both hands. Ruby was next, encouraging another friend to join them.

Velvet slowly nodded and walked tentatively over. Ren saw pride in Nora's eyes as he stepped after Velvet, and small smiles form on the faces of both Blake and Pyrrha, proud of him for having taken the step they hadn't.

Ruby cleared space for Velvet. Ren encouraged her to go ahead and sit beside the younger girl: all the better starting point for Velvet to make new friends.

When he sat down beside his teammates again, Nora put an affectionate hand on his shoulder, and Ren returned to his tea.

That was action enough for today.