Alone…

It was a simple word that everyone could clearly understand, and was also something that everyone had felt at one point in their lives. For a little girl with bunny ears it's a word that truly encompassed how she'd felt for the past few months. A little bunny girl named Velvet.

She stood at around forty six inches tall, not including her bunny ears which would shoot her up to an even fifty inches, slightly pale skin with long straight brunette hair that reached the top portion of her back, and deep chocolate brown eyes. She wore a pair of plain khaki shorts that reached down to her knees, with an oak colored shirt that had a picture of a dark orange carrot on the front. Her feet were adorned with a pair of white sneakers that clearly looked like they were worn everyday with all the scuff marks along the front and sides of it.

At only six years old Velvet knew what it felt like to be alone even when spending time with others around her. Home life hadn't been pleasant for what felt like an entire year now since her parents had argued constantly. Whether it was about the news, work, each other…about Velvet herself. Her parent's couldn't seem to agree about anything anymore which caused Velvet to start shutting herself away in her room. She was too young to have many close friends, and the only family that she knew of were her parents. Hence how she began to understand what it felt to be alone.

Just a month ago however her parents had stopped arguing. For a brief moment it seemed as though her life was about to go back to normal, until her mother came into her room one day with a big suitcase and asked Velvet to start packing her things. Apparently her parents decided that it would be better for their family if the two of they lived separately, so that meant Velvet would only be able to stay with one of them. Her mother seemed to win the debate over that topic since she was able to get a cushy job in a Vale settlement called Ansel as a Huntress/Guard.

She had cried for hours begging her mother to stop packing their things. Tugging her small arms with all her might on the back of her shirt to no avail, and trails of tears running freely down her face. No matter what she did or said nothing would change her parents minds, and with many a sniffle Velvet bid farewell to her father the very next morning while boarding a bullhead heading towards Vale.

For the past month she had been numbly going through her day helping her mother refurnish and settle into their new house. Her mother obviously noticed how she had felt but would only say to 'Give it some time. This place will grow on you.'. Those words didn't really bring comfort to poor Velvet however, and she glumly nodded her head whenever her mother once again repeated that line.

Velvet would often go to a playground that was somewhat close to her house everyday after lunch to just try and get away from it all. It was a small sand pit with only a swing set, monkey bars, and a single red slide, but Velvet didn't mind. She seemed like the only kid who ever came to this park since she was still always alone. Which is why it was such a surprise to her that on a day unlike any other while sitting at the bottom of the slide she heard a voice call out to her.

"Hey! Do you wanna play with me on the swings?!" Shouted a very boyish, yet excited voice off towards her right.

Quickly swiveling her head in the direction of the voice she finally took note of another child at the playground with her. It was a slightly smaller pale boy who sported a mop of blond hair atop his head, and had bright blue eyes that seemed to be two mini oceans. He wore a black hoodie that didn't have any design on it, with a pair of worn out blue jeans that were already starting to tear around the knees and ankle. His shoes were almost exact replicas of Velvet's shoes, seeing as how they were white sneakers with plenty of scuff marks on them.

The boy walked closer towards Velvet with a wide and genuinely happy grin across his face. His shoes sinking into the sand each step made almost no noise which could help to explain how he was able to so easily sneak up on the girl. As he got within a few feet of her he held out his left hand towards her and pointed with his right hand towards the pair of swings.

"So do you wanna play?" The boy asked again, his smiling slowly falling while looking Velvet right in the eyes.

Velvet stared dumbly back at the boy for a few seconds until she gazed down at the hand that he was offering her, and it took her a few extra seconds to realize that she should respond to his now twice asked question.

"I-I don't know.." Velvet began saying before her voice grew quiet and she kept sitting there not taking the hand offered to her. She didn't know if she had it in herself to be playing right now while feeling so alone, and yet a sort of realization seemed to cross the boy's eyes as his smile suddenly reignited with a new hot passion.

"That's right!" The boy exclaimed loudly while bringing his right hand to scratch the back of his head sheepishly. "My name's Jaune Miles Arc! Now you know my name. What's yours?" The now named Jaune continued, all the while holding out his offered hand.

It seemed as though Jaune didn't understand what Velvet was trying to say and instead thought she didn't want to play with him because he was a stranger. Yet for some reason…Velvet couldn't help but crack a small small at Jaune's misunderstanding.

'I suppose I could play with him for a bit…' Velvet thought to herself as she felt the small smile start to bloom across her face, and with that she reached out her left hand to grasp Jaune's.

"My name's Velvet…Velvet Scarlatina." She said while gently tugging herself up using Jaune's hand as an anchor.

Jaune in turn smiled at her and softly strengthened his grip on her hand while leading them both towards the swing set, explaining how it'd been forever since he was last able to come play on the swings and that he could go really high but his mom would yell at him.

Velvet just continued to smile and listen as the boy led her and started talking her ear off. She somehow didn't seem to mind his rambling…it made her feel warm and happy.

Not Alone

The two kids played together on the swings for at least an hour. Each one trying to go higher than the other, eventually jumping off the swing once they reached as high they could get. Once the adrenaline of doing that wore out and it was getting boring to do they took turns pushing each other. Neither of them were very aggressive in their pushing, keeping the activity fun for the both of them.

They only got to play for another half hour before a womanly voice called out Jaune's name from the direction Velvet first spotted the boy. There stood a beautiful woman with the exact same eyes as Jaune and an even brighter blond bob haircut. She wore a simple red shirt with form fitting blue jeans and a clean pair of white sneakers.

Velvet would confidently bet that this was Jaune's mother based on their smiles alone. That same happy grin that showed off all her pearly whites and set the young girl at ease. Jaune quickly turned to face his mother with a wide smile growing on his face, and just as quickly he rushed to take Velvet's hand into his again and moved them both towards the mature woman.

"Hey mom! Look, I made a new friend!" Jaune said with great cheer in his voice that made Velvet blush with embarrassment. "She's really cool and nice, plus she has awesome bunny ears!"

Velvet somewhat froze at that last comment. The entire time the two kids were playing together the matter of them being different races never seemed to come up. Jaune hadn't stared at the animal appendages atop her head yet he still called them…awesome.

"It's just like you said mom! 'Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet!'" Jaune said proudly, stopping right in front of his mother and letting go of Velvet's hand. "Mom, this is Velvet. Velvet, this is my mom!" Jaune said, introducing the two females.

Jaune's mother smiled sweetly at her boy for being so nice, and she turned her attention to Velvet. She did a quick up and down look of her, as if appraising her value. What she saw seemed to satisfy the woman as she slightly bent down while smiling at Velvet.

"It's so nice to meet you dearie. My name's Cerise. Thank you for playing with my baby boy!" She said while tussling Jaune's already messy hair. Jaune in turn just grumbled while saying he wasn't a baby and tried to put his messy hair back to how it just was…which to Velvet looked the exact same. Cerise straightened her back and quickly took note of something behind the children.

"Hello. Are you Velvet's mother? I can definitely see the similarities." She said while Jaune and Velvet turned around to see who she was talking to.

And indeed it did seem as though Velvet's mother had just arrived to pick up her daughter from the park. She looked like she could almost be Velvet's older sister in Jaune's opinion. They basically had the same everything except the clothes that they wore. She had a thick buttoned up green coat with a tan leather pauldron on her right shoulder, a sturdy looking pair of brown pants, and a similar color pair combat boots that snuck up to the middle of her calves.

"Hello. Yes I am indeed Velvet's mother, Meg" The woman said in a very polite tone while passing her gaze of the three of them.

To be quite honest she expected to find Velvet sitting alone at the bottom of that depressing red slide yet again, but she was slightly shocked when she came upon the sight of her little girl talking with a pair of strangers. She walked close enough to hear the young boy's introduction of Velvet to his mother as well as her response, and was happy to learn that they were both kind souls.

"Would you introduce me to your new friend and his mother Velvet?" She asked with a small grin while placing her hand on her daughter's head. Velvet nodded shyly while turning to look between her new friend and her mom.

"Mom this is Jaune, and his mother C-Cerise." The girl said with a small stutter since she had almost just forgotten the name she was just told. Meg nodded her head politely at the two Arcs, and then extended a hand down to Jaune.

"Thank you young man for taking the time to play with my daughter." Meg said while Jaune grinned and happily took her hand and gave it a quick couple shakes.

Cerise smiled at her little boy being so polite, proud that the lessons she and her husband had been teaching their children had been paying off. Though she wondered why she hadn't met these people before. Velvet was definitely old enough to go to school, and she knew all the other mothers in this area… 'They must have just recently moved here.' she concluded.

"Y'know Meg. Our kids seem to get along nicely, what would you think about setting up a playdate for the two of them?" Cerise asked, trying to be polite to the new mother in town.

Meg's eyes widened for a brief moment before looking down at her daughter, and she nearly choked. Her face…it looked just like it used to back when she and her father got along and they were a seemingly happy family. 'She doesn't look so sad and lonely anymore…' She thought to herself before quickly taking out her scroll.

"Yes! I think that would be a wonderful idea. Please trade contact info with me so we can set that up!" Meg said very quickly, with a determination that Velvet hadn't heard from her mother in a long while. Cerise just smiled as she took out her own scroll and tapped it on Megs which resounded in a soft ding noise signifying the contacts had successfully been traded.

"I hope that we get to talk about it very soon, but for now I need to bring Jaune back home for dinner. It was lovely meeting the two of you. Take care." Cerise said with a twinkle in her eye as she took a hold of Jaune's hand and began to lead him away from Velvet and Meg.

This didn't stop Jaune from turning half of his back to cutely wave goodbye all the way until he was out of sight, and once the Arcs were truly gone and out of sight Meg took Velvet's hand and began to lead her home. The two walked hand in hand the entire time, and soon Velvet could see the place she was now calling home.

"So…is Ansel growing on you yet?" Meg asked, with a teasing smile while looking down at the top of her daughter's head..

'I really think it is.' Velvet thought to herself, not wanting to verbally answer her mother as her thoughts turned back to the polite blond boy who's name was Jaune Arc. Her first new friend who helped her not feel so lonely.