Why the hell couldn't she have told me that when she first saw me? I though exasperatedly. Arriving at the doorway to their room, I knocked and waited until someone answered it, then I remembered that I was wearing the mask that Jaune made and I decided to take it off and just keep it at my side for the moment.

Thankfully, that someone who answered the door was Velvet, wearing what I assumed was her combat gear. I grinned widely at her and held out my arms for a hug, which she immediately stepped into with a smile.

"I'm so glad that you're back." I said over her shoulder.

"It's good to see you too, Joe." I heard her reply.

I released her from the embrace. "So what took you guys so long?" I asked.

She continued smiling. "It's no big deal, we just ran into more grimm than we'd anticipated."

"That's probably why you weren't able to get back to me then." I thought aloud.

She nodded back. "By the way, I heard that all first-year students are going on missions soon. Does your team have yours planned out yet?"

"Yeah, Jaune actually took care of the planning and laying everything out. All the rest of us have to do is pack up." I felt my smile fade as I realized what I was about to say. "So that means that I'll be off Beacon grounds for a few days and we won't get a chance to catch up."

Her smile faded as well. "That's a shame. I would've liked to have a chance to talk to you as soon as possible."

My smile returned as I thought of an idea. "Well, since we're actually not leaving until tomorrow morning, how about I introduce you to my teammates tonight and we can talk then?" I offered.

Her smile returned, but her body language suggested that she was somewhat nervous.

"That sounds great. Just let me shower and change."

I nodded back. "I'll wait out here."

"Actually, I think that Fox wants to talk to you." She said, walking into her dorm. I followed behind her, confused as to why he'd want to speak with me.

As I entered the room, I saw Coco already lying down on her bed, looking like she was about to fall asleep, Yatsuhashi cooking for himself in the kitchen and Fox reading his Braille book at his desk, all of them wearing the clothes when Velvet first introduced me to them.

Velvet went over to her dresser, picked out a pair of blue jeans, a black t-shirt and a light brown hoodie with her symbol emblazoned over the left breast and headed into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

"Hey Fox." I started awkwardly. "Velvet said that…"

"I know what you guys said to each other. Better hearing, remember, being blind and all?" He asked rhetorically as he turned around in his chair to face me and pointed to his white eyes.

"Right." I heard water flowing from the shower in the bathroom.

"So about our match." He started.

I groaned inwardly. Shit, I completely forgot about that.

"I guess we'll have to wait until you're done with your mission, when you're rested and ready. Not to mention we've got to have one of the Professors oversee it."

I crossed my arms and leaned up against an empty wall. "Did you have a particular Professor in mind?"

He shook his head. "Goodwitch was the first to come to mind, but she doesn't like me too much."

I chuckled lightly. "Yeah, after that incident with Cardin I think I'm on her bad side too."

"And I think that if we asked Port, he'd just go on one of his typical story telling-rants." Fox said tiredly.

"Dr. Oobleck's on a mission with team RWBY right now, so he's out." I supplied.

"And Professor Peach is never around." He added.

We both thought in silence for a while when another voice chimed in.

"What about Ozpin?" Coco said from her position on her bed.

"What about him?" Fox inquired with his team leader.

"Get him to oversee the fight."

I looked at the two second-years, confused. "And you don't think that he'll have a problem with a second-year student fighting a first-year?" I asked the two of them.

Coco shook her head. "Naw, when you're a first year student, you see Ozpin as this big boss man who doesn't let anything slide. But when you're a second year, you go on to see him as more of a friend. He'll do a favor for you, and he'll expect a favor from you somewhere down the line." She explained.

Fox nodded. "Okay then, we'll get Ozpin to oversee our fight once you're rested from your mission." He addressed me.

I nodded back at him as I heard the water from the shower stop.

"Oh and one more thing Joe." Fox said as he looked directly in my eyes and stood up from his chair, making me notice that he was a few inches taller.

"Velvet seems to be taking to you easier than she takes to others." He said in a hushed tone. "When we were first years, she was pretty nervous around us and it took her about three weeks for her to fully warm up to us. But apparently, she seems to have had no problem talking with you." He looked over to see Velvet emerging from the bathroom wearing her casual clothes. Fox turned back to me. "So any friend of Velvet's is a friend of ours." He said with a smile.

I had a feeling he was going to talk about something else before Velvet came out of the shower, but I had no idea what.

"All right then, thanks…I guess." I said awkwardly. I turned my attention to Velvet. "Ready to go?"

She nodded back at me with that ever-adorable smile.

"See ya, Velv." Coco called to her teammate.

Velvet bid her leader goodbye and I pulled out my scroll asking Jaune if it was all right with him if I introduced Velvet to the team.

He came back seconds later with a text saying that if I wanted to, I could bring her to the dorm for a movie night starting at six with our team along with Sun and Neptune.

I showed the conversation to Velvet as we walked down the empty hallway. "You up for a movie?"

She shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

I smiled and shot Jaune a text saying that we'd both be going and I looked at the time. 10:23 AM.

"So we've got about eight hours to kill, what do you want to do until then?" I asked her as I put my scroll in my pocket.

"I don't know, want do you want to do?" She replied.

"That's just it, I don't know what I want to do." I said.

We went back and forth like this for a while until we found ourselves in front of the doors to the cafeteria at lunchtime. We ended up killing a few hours just eating and talking with each other, learning more about one another.

I eventually told her about Andrea, Denara and Elias, the nightmares that surfaced since initiation day and why I had Jaune make the mask for me. I expected her to give me another speech along the lines of 'there's nothing you could've done' or 'it wasn't your fault' but instead, she just gave me a hug, which I found was the one thing that I really needed.

After that awkwardly depressing moment, we continued to talk back and forth, with her telling me what her first year at Beacon was like and all the hatred she had to put up with during her time until she was on a team with Coco, Fox and Yatsuhashi. It turns out, all three of them were just as protective of her back then as they were now, sending out a clear message throughout Beacon: 'Never mess with Velvet Scarlatina.'

"I guess Cardin didn't get the memo, did he?" I asked her.

She shook her head and her rabbit ears drooped slightly. "Some people are just like that, I guess."

I gave her a quick hug and looked up at one of the many clocks on the wall of the large cafeteria.

"Hey, it's just about five-fifteen. Do you want to start heading down to meet my teammates?"

She nodded. "Let's go." We got up from our seats and I led her down to team JNPR's dorm, where I walked in to see Sun, Jaune, Pyrrha and Neptune setting up for the movie, with Jaune and Pyrrha's beds pushed together and four beanbag chairs strewn around the floor as well as a projector aimed towards an empty wall.

I cleared my throat to get their attention. "Hey guys, this is Velvet." They all gave smiles and nods. "Velvet, this is my cousin Sun, his teammate Neptune, my team leader Jaune and his partner, Pyrrha." I pointed to each of them accordingly as I called out their names. "Where are Ren and Nora?" I asked Jaune.

"Nora being Nora decided that we didn't have enough popcorn for the seven of us and she went into Vale to get a bigger bag while Ren went along with her to keep her contained."

I shook my head and smiled at our bubbly teammate's attitude. Classic Nora.

"Nora being Nora?" Velvet whispered to me, clearly confused.

I smiled back. "She can be a little bit…"

"Eccentric?" Jaune supplied.

"Hyper?" Pyrrha offered.

"Either, both, it doesn't matter. Point is, she's Nora. You kind of have to meet her to understand her." I replied back to Velvet. "Ren is the fuse that just never ends, keeping her from literally and figuratively exploding."

Velvet looked slightly alarmed at the statement, and Jaune took notice. "Don't worry though, she's nice, she just has a habit of sometimes taking things a little too far."

Thanks for the save, Jaune. I silently thanked my team leader.

While Jaune and Pyrrha continued to converse with Velvet, I noticed that what Fox said was indeed true. She was standing closer to me than usual, most likely still nervous about meeting new people. Not that I was complaining, mind you.

Seconds later, Nora sprinted through the doorway with what was probably the largest bag of popcorn known to man, probably about half the height of the door and just as wide in hand with an exhausted Ren trailing behind.

I sighed as I looked at the size of the enormous bag. "What happened to keeping her contained, Ren?" I asked.

After catching his breath, he pointed to the large bag of popcorn. "That was actually a compromise. She was going to get a bigger one, but I barely managed to persuade her to buy this one instead."

Nora normally wasn't the negotiating type and there was only one thing Ren had that she wanted.

"You promised to make pancakes tomorrow, didn't you?" Jaune said, speaking my thoughts. Ren just nodded, exasperated while Nora grinned widely.

I looked towards Sun. "Anyways, what movie are we watching?"

My cousin walked towards my desk and picked up two movies. In his left hand looked to be a comedy and the one in his right was the new Spruce Willis movie. "Me and Neptune couldn't compromise, so we decided to bring our own favourites."

I knew that the comedy was Sun's since I had seen we had both seen it several times in our younger years. "Huh. Never figured you for the action movie type, Neptune." I said.

He shrugged. "The series is pretty good, and I think the actor does a good job."

"So which one do we watch first?" Pyrrha asked.

"Put it to a vote?" Jaune offered.

Sun nodded at him. "Okay, all for the Spruce Willis movie?" My hand, as well as Jaune's, Nora's, Neptune's and Velvet's all shot up in unison, quickly ending the vote.

I looked at Velvet as Sun put the movie in the projector and Nora handed out bowls of popcorn and a can of 'people like grapes' soda for each of us.

"Didn't figure you for an action movie fan either." I said to Velvet as she took her seat in one of the beanbag chairs.

She smiled back. "Appearances can be deceiving." She said. "That, and I'm also a big Spruce Willis fan."

I chuckled as everyone else took their seats while I rolled out my sleeping bag to serve as a comfortable surface to lie on, rather than the floor.

"You know, we could trade places if you want." Velvet said as I sat on my sleeping bag.

I shook my head. "It's alright Velvet, you're our guest and I sleep like this every night, so it really doesn't make a difference to me."

She was about to object further when the movie started. It was a typical Spruce Willis movie, loaded with explosions, gunfire and all around baddass-ery. The movie lasted two hours and Sun put his favourite film in the projector. Even though we'd both seen it several times, we both laughed every time we watched it. The movie was about a navy commander who was finally permitted to have command over his own submarine, only to end up with a crew that was far from normal, featuring a sonar operator with extreme hearing, despite that not being his semblance, an electrician who soaked up electricity like Nora because it was fun and an engineman with a smartass attitude.

By the time we finished both movies, it was close to ten o' clock and everyone was fairly tired. We thanked Sun and Neptune and they bid us all a good night, leaving for their own dorm and taking their beanbag chairs with them.

"So, what'd you think about Sun's movie?" I asked Velvet as I put my popcorn bowl in the sink to be washed later.

She smiled back. "It definitely had its moments. I especially liked the part where the electrician was testing the wires." She said with a laugh.

I laughed with her. "Yeah, Nitro's one insane character." I opened my arms for a hug, which she gladly stepped into and returned.

"Goodnight Velvet." I said as I released her from the hug.

She gave me another cute smile. "Goodnight Joe." She started to head out the door and reached into her right jeans pocket and stopped in her tracks. I saw her reach into her left pocket, both of her hoodie pockets and she patted herself down, clearly looking for something.

"What's up?" I asked curiously.

She turned around with a look of embarrassment on her face. "I may have misplaced my scroll and I can't unlock my dorm without it. Do you think you could call it for me in case I forgot it in here somewhere?"

I nodded back and pulled my own scroll out of my right pocket and phoned Velvet's number. We both waited to hear a ringing in the dorm, but only silence answered. I dialled Velvet's number again and again, but heard nothing.

She facepalmed. "I must've left it in my room then."

"Do you want to phone your teammates then?"

"No." She said sadly. "They're all heavy sleepers and if they didn't hear my scroll ring the times that you called, then there's no chance that they'll hear theirs go off."

I thought for a moment. "How about you just spend the night here then?"

She looked at me with those beautiful brown eyes. "A-are you s-sure that your team wouldn't mind?" She stuttered out.

I smiled back. "Just watch." I turned back into the dorm. "Hey Jaune!" I called.

"Yeah?" He answered from the kitchen.

"Velvet's locked out of her dorm, is it all right with you if she stays here tonight?"

Jaune left entered my vision from the kitchen with a smile. "Yeah, no problem. We'll make room for you." He then re-entered the kitchen.

We made preparations so that Velvet would take Ren's bed, Ren would take my sleeping bag and I'd just sleep in my desk chair, despite Ren's insistence that I take my sleeping bag. Jaune and Pyrrha decided to keep their beds together for that night and were cuddling each other with smiled plastered on each others faces before I went to sleep, using one of my bigger hoodies as a blanket as I as sat in my desk chair.

Someone murmuring something woke me in the middle of the night. Groggily, I opened my eyes and looked to see who it was. Pyrrha and Jaune's figures were slowly breathing in the night, Nora was snoring quieter than usual, and Ren was completely silent. No different than when he's awake. I thought with a smile. But when I looked over at Velvet resting in Ren's bed, she tossed and turned, mumbling something as she did so.

I immediately got out of my chair as quietly as I could and crouched next to her.

If she's having a nightmare that's anything like the ones that I've been having, I have to wake her up. I thought.

"Velvet." I whispered. She continued to turn in her sleep. Now that I was closer to her and my eyes had adjusted to the darkness, I could see she had a frown on her face. "Velvet." I said a little louder as I gently shook her shoulder. Still no response as she turned away from me. "Velvet!" I whisper-shouted and shook her shoulder harder. This time, she sat bolt upright in the bed and was breathing hard.

"Hey, it's alright, it was just a dream." I said calmingly and quietly as I could.

She put on hand over her heart and another over her forehead to wipe away a little bit of sweat that had accumulated. After a few minutes of taking her time to regulate her breathing she looked at me crouching on the left side of the bed and hugged me.

I didn't question it and merely hugged her back. "It was just a bad dream." I repeated.

"How-how did you know?" She whispered from over my shoulder. I pulled away from the hug and looked her in the eyes.

"I've had more than my fair share of nightmares, believe me. Jaune told me what it I looked like when I was having one and now I know."

She breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm sorry for waking you, Joe. I'll go back to sleep."

I just shook my head. "You say that, but I know that you won't be able to." I spoke from experience.

"I-I guess you're right. So what did you do to go back to sleep?" She asked me.

"Never could. If I'm being honest, my sleep habits only got better after I talked with you." Velvet smiled slightly and I noticed a light blush on her cheeks. "So do you want to talk about it?" I asked.

She nodded and moved over to make space for me in Ren's bed. Tentatively, I lied next to her on top of the sheets, which were much more comfortable than my sleeping bag.

"So what was the dream about?" I asked.

She went into detail about the nighttime horror as I learned that when her team was on mission, they had a close call with a horde of grimm. The nightmare was a variation of what might've happened if her teammates had been killed.

During her recollection, she had started crying. I felt bad for her so I just decided to hold her. I put an arm around her waist and she leaned her head into my chest, letting the tears flow, staining my t-shirt. Exhaustion must've caught up with her from her mission, as she was soon asleep in my arms. I tried to make her more comfortable by removing my gauntlets and putting them on Ren's nightstand. Eventually, I decided to just leave her where she was and found myself quickly asleep shortly after.

(AN: the comedy movie I was referring to earlier is an actual movie called "Down Periscope" starring Kelsey Grammer. I might not have described it very well, but if you've never seen it before, it's actually pretty funny.)