Velvet was not the most sociable of people, something that her partner Yatsu had kindly put down to her quiet nature, as opposed to her lack of confidence or painful memories of being isolated or attacked as a Faunus which she knew were the actual reasons.

Until she had come to Beacon after achieving a scholarship through Signal Velvet hadn't had many friends, even amongst the other Faunus that attended the school, so her team had been an absolute blessing that had accepted her for who she was and hadn't tried to force her to change. Well, Coco had tried to make her wear more fashionable clothing and take her on shopping sprees but that was more just who the girl was, she had even tried to do it with the boys so it wasn't as if Velvet was alone on that front.

But it didn't take much to be reminded that just because she had a great team there were those at Beacon who despised her based on her heritage. It was the reason she was still in the first year history class actually, she'd been in Vale the day before the last exam and had been attacked, her passive nature meaning that by the time she started to fight back it was too late and she ended up missing the exam and staying in the infirmary for a week.

Thankfully Professor Ozpin had been more than understanding and allowed her to continue onto the second year courses with the rest of her team, all she had to do was re-sit the first year history exam at the end of the year and get a pass. Which should be easy enough given she was a straight A student in the rest of her classes, though a little catch up studying wouldn't be remiss...

"Excuse me..." Looking up from her history textbook that she had been casually paging through whilst composing her thoughts, Velvet was surprised to find herself faced with one of the first years that had helped her with that bully in the canteen, the tall blonde boy who seemed to be in charge of one of the two teams that had confronted the bully from what she had seen before being a coward and fled.

"O-oh, hi there..." Mentally she despaired, the guy stands up to a bully with his friends for her, gaining the ire of Goodwitch and several detentions between them for it, and she manages make it sound like she isn't happy to see him!

"Do you mind if I sit at this table with you? Most the others are full." Velvet managed to stop herself from looking round to validate his statement, doing so would imply that she didn't believe him or wanted to try and disprove his claim, instead shifting a couple of her textbooks to give him the space needed to set his own work down.

"Of course..." Not entirely sure with what she was meant to say next, Velvet was relieved when the guy didn't seem to mind her failure to continue their brief conversation, instead opening his history textbook to the section on the siege of Fort Castle.

Mentally kicking herself for missing the chance to thank him for his earlier efforts, Velvet tried to turn back to her own work, perhaps when she finished she could use the opportunity to speak with him once more. As she put the last notes to her initial argument regarding the strategies on both sides, Velvet looked up only to find the boy looking at a... dictionary?

The frown on his face made her wonder what he was looking up, only for him to then scribble something down and then start flicking through the dictionary again a moment later. It was probably not the polite thing to do, but Velvet was too intrigued to resist taking a peek, doing her best to hide it as a closer look at one of the textbooks she had shifted out of the way for him.

"Sorry, do you want me to shift my stuff round so you have some more space?" It was sweet, as well as almost entirely unknown territory for Velvet, she had never had someone be so... nice to her outside her team, certainly not a non-affiliated human.

"N-no, no need, I have more books than I really need for this essay..." Despite the boy's niceness Velvet could tell he was nervous about something, and a quick look at his essay meant she could guess why, her keen eyes catching several grammatical and spelling errors even with him checking the dictionary so often.

"More than me, though why Oobleck couldn't just set us reading work like Port did, my arm is already sore from writing and I haven't even finished the first page..." Velvet was torn, the boy obviously wasn't a strong writer, especially given the overly theatrical manner in which he shook his writing hand to relieve his cramps, but her offering to help could upset him given how nervous he seemed whilst doing his work.

"Oobleck is one who likes to check his student's understandings with essays and theoretical strategies, whilst Port is more of a 'I'm here to teach, if you don't want to learn that is not my problem.'" The boy laughed at her impression of Professor Port, though what possessed her to do something so embarrassing was beyond her as she stammered and blushed as she realised what she had done.

"That sounds so much like him... You're quite good at impressions." The boy paused, and then blushed slightly at something before holding his hand out.

"I just realised I never introduced myself after you kindly let me sit here, I'm Jaune..." Velvet gave what she hoped was her most confident smile and took his hand tentatively to shake it, if she hadn't heard him threaten to allow his team mate to break the bully's legs Velvet would have been a little more relaxed at the guy's easy going smile, the steel in his gaze making her wonder if she really wanted to ask the next question.

"V-velvet, I never got the chance to thank you and Ms Schnee for the help your team's gave me the other day, so... Thanks. Though, and please don't take this the wrong way, I couldn't help but notice you are struggling with some of the spelling in your essay..." The smile dropped and Velvet winced and prepared for the angry outburst to come, the guy was just being nice and now he thinks...

"You're right, damn I was kinda hoping no one would notice..." And the smile was back, Jaune reaching up and scratching the back of his head awkwardly. "I kinda missed Signal, or any real structured learning at all over the last couple of years... Is it that obvious?" There was a definite story there, Beacon usually only accepted the top graduates from Signal, which in turn was the cream of the crop in terms of hunter prep schools in Vale, so for someone to get in without any education...

"Yes? Sorry, I honestly thought you were going to shout at me when I asked, I know people don't like me pointing out mistakes..." It was one of her first attempts to make friends at Signal, but it rapidly meant that people just used her for homework and then treated her no differently outside of the library.

"Why would I? As far as I'm concerned I thought I had got it all right this time, so if anything you are saving me making a fool of myself when I hand it in, if you can see mistakes without trying I don't want to know what Oobleck would think. Would you mind just telling me the most obvious mistakes? I don't want to waste too much of your time..." Velvet's heart jumped as Jaune made the leap of offering her help for her, and in a way that made it clear he wasn't demanding or expecting it in anyway.

"Of course, and I'm done with the first section so a break from writing will do me some good as well. Now, how about we start with some basic grammatical rules and then you might be able to spot some errors yourself..." And thus Velvet fell into a much loved but rarely practiced hobby of hers, tutoring and teaching Jaune many of the little mnemonics and memory joggers she used herself, though of course she had to teach him how to spell mnemonics first...

It was... Nice, Jaune's eagerness to learn mixed with the fact that several of the ideas he had come up with about how to swing the battle more in favour to either side meant that she only realised the time when an amused cough roused the two of them from researching whether the wind direction and number of supplies on the final day of the siege was conducive to the humans using smoke or tear gas to negate the Faunus' naturally superior eyesight.

"Seems like someone's got a new study partner..." Coco was leaning against a nearby bookshelf in her usual confident manner, staring down at the two of them over the top of her glasses whilst fiddling with her...

"Coco... Please don't tell me you just took a picture..." Mortified was probably the closest to accurately describing Velvet's mood as she realised that she was currently sat alongside Jaune so that they could both gesture to the same map, and then she had leaned over to point something out that she had read in one of her books.

"Of course not, I was just messaging Yatsu and Fox so that they knew that I had found you. Though now that you mention it..." Even before Coco had started raising her scroll again Velvet had shifted back to a normal seating position next to Jaune, who merely looked a little confused.

"Sorry, I don't think we've met..." Though he was smiling, Velvet could see it was a little strained and realised that out of context what Coco had said could be taken quite badly, which is how Jaune seemed to have taken it given how he had shifted slightly closer to her in case Coco did try something.

"Jaune, it's okay, this is my team leader Coco Adel. She's nothing like that other boy..." If anything Coco's smile widened as she seemed to note Jaune's protectiveness as well, before it dropped and she turned her gaze to Velvet with all signs of humour gone from her face.

"Who is this other boy that has Jaune acting so protective of you Velvet? If someone is being a racist pig again..." Damn, Velvet didn't want her team fighting her battles for her, which is why she hadn't told them about the incident in the canteen.

But judging by the look on Coco's face she wasn't getting away with it this time...

[]{}#%^*+=

*Thud*

The sound of a Zweihandler, bigger than she was, burying itself in the table team Cardinal were currently sitting at was easily loud enough to draw the attention of all those currently in the dining hall. Even before the impact though, Blake's keen eyes had caught its movement the moment it had left the hulking boy's hands from almost 20 feet away.

"What, what the fuck!?" Dove's shout was cut off by the arrival of said giant, and the whirring sound that was revealed moments later to be coming from the fashionably dressed beret wearing girl walking up behind him, holding what appeared to be a...minigun?

"Well, when they said they were going to have words, I didn't think they were going to go this far..." The murmur from Jaune was easily picked up but Blake ignored it as Cardin jumped out of his seat.

"Who do you think..." Cardin barely had time to raise his hands in a block before the giant sword wielder uncorked a right handed blow that sent the boy skidding back along the floor.

"You have a problem with my partner, you have a problem with me..." Blake honestly thought that she wouldn't see the day someone could so easily outmuscle and intimidate Cardin given his size, but even as Cardin recovered with a right hook, the blow slammed into the larger boy's torso and Cardin cried out in pain as the giant didn't even so much as budge.

"We thought we'd made this clear last year, but it seems we have some feisty firsties this year." The girl was speaking now, her weapon hefted at the three other members of team Cardinal who wisely didn't try and join the obviously one sided fight.

"We will not tolerate bigots like these four, picking on Faunus just because you think that being human somehow makes you superior. Any Faunus here probably deserves to be here more than you do, and if you have a problem with that?" The giant reached over and grabbed his sword, picking up both the sword and the table with it with one hand, frowning for a moment and then slamming his free hand into the table and wrenching his blade free.

"You will end up worse than that table..." Having said what she seemed to think needed to be said, the girl turned away and started walking back towards the table that seemed to be her team's, only for the sound of clapping from Blake's left started the murmuring into a clamour of shouts and cheers of support or condemnation depending on the source.

Catching sight of the rabbit Faunus from the incident a couple of days before things started to make sense in Blake's head, though why Jaune had seemed to know the pair of them and what they had planned she couldn't yet work out.

"As much as I love to see Cardin getting shown he's not the biggest kid on the block, anyone know what that was about? Just so that I can say we were absolutely not involved before Goodwitch hands out anymore detentions our way..." Her partner's comment, and Jaune's lack of immediate response to clarify, showed that he was unwilling to expand on his seeming relationship with the team for the moment.

"They are members of bunny's team, obviously they wanted the chance to break Cardin's legs before I get the chance, though Goodwitch would then probably have banned me from pancakes..." This input came from Nora in her usual cheery and almost distracted manner, the delivery method managing to make everyone miss the fact the girl had been the one to make the connection, everyone bar Blake that is.

"Huh, well from the sounds of it things aren't as peachy as Ozpin leads everyone to believe, and I have no doubt Cardin will target us if he is planning retaliation, even I wouldn't want to take man mountain there on even with Ember Cecilia..." Despite her seemingly mature words Blake could already see the desire for said fight building in her partner's body language, if the boy wasn't a second year Blake would have had a sure bet on who the first challenge of the year would be aimed at.

"Forget him, did you see it? It was beautiful, so big and powerful only turn into a handbag! Do you think she would take offence if I asked to play with it?" Like her sister Ruby was in obvious awe, though given the way the girl was being forcibly held back by Weiss she obviously didn't have the same restraint.

"So their whole team looks like they are going on a mission and they issue a threat like that just before they leave? Seems like they are daring someone to prepare something or act out whilst they are away..." Her contribution probably wasn't strictly necessary, and normally Blake would have been more than ready to merely observe rather than talk in front of everyone, but she could see the thunderous expression on Cardin's face as he retook his seat still nursing his right hand.

"And given how pig headed Cardin can be that means display is just going to piss him off rather than actually teach him a lesson..." Weiss didn't look particularly concerned, but from what Blake knew of the Schnee family the heiress was probably the most experienced with dealing with this kind of threat from the white fang, a bunch of students were no real comparison.

"Well, as long as we stay alert I don't think there will be any problems, Cardin isn't going to pick a fight in front of everyone again after what Goodwitch said last time, so he will probably try and get his team to humiliate us in class..." Or try and catch someone alone and outnumbered, but that was probably a step too far for CRDL at this stage, so Blake didn't try and add to Amber's statement as the girl finished off one of the flapjack pieces that her partner seemed to provide her with alarming regularity.

Besides, it would be fairly easy for Ozpin to work out what had happened in a case like that, and assaulting another student in such a manner would at least get him suspended if not dismissed entirely. Catching Cardin throw a mutinous glance in their direction though, Blake couldn't help but feel uneasy even as she turned back to her tuna pasta bake. Just because it didn't rationally make sense didn't mean that Cardin would be thinking that way right now...

!"£$%^&*()_+

Hi Mum,

It's been a while since I have written, sorry about that...But I'm at Beacon now! It's a bit of a long story, but you always said you wanted me to aim high so here I am. Okay, that sounded really lame but this is the sixth time I've tried to write this blasted thing and I have not come up with anything better...

Still, enough about that, Jaune-kun is here at Beacon too! I didn't get to be on his team directly, but Amber-chan and I are a 'support' team that will integrate with the other teams, so that means that me and Jaune-kun still get to hang out all the time.

You remember Amber-chan from my other letters right? She's the cool if slightly overprotective one of Jaune's older sisters, the one with robot hand... She still not entirely forgiven me for running away almost two years ago, but she is trying to understand why and that's better than nothing...

Oh right, I never told you about that little tit bit...

Rine sat back in the remarkably comfortable armchair, which she had managed to requisition when Ozpin had given them the go ahead to renovate their room, looking down at her mostly finished letter with the resignation of someone who wasn't happy with what was in front of them but knew it was the best they were going to get.

"Damn, I knew there was a reason I stopped writing these things in the first place, but if I don't Kaa-san will be so mad when I see her again..." Deciding she could try and finish the damn thing later, Rine stretched her arms and looked around for what to do next. Growing up in the wastelands meant that she was almost subconsciously programmed to always be doing something, the harsh conditions and Grimm meant that laziness was the same as a death warrant for both you and the people you lived with.

It was a habit that was hard to break, and one that Rine wasn't entirely sure she wanted to end, even with life in the Kingdoms allowing her the opportunity to do so if she wished. Amber was out, no doubt working on her present for Jaune again, though Rine did wonder how long such an endeavour actually took, knowing Amber she had probably gone overboard with the support equipment pieces or gotten distracted on another project.

Whilst Rine couldn't really justify her annoyance at the older girl, it did make her attempts to patch up her relationship with the girl that much harder if Amber was never around to talk to. Sure she was the one who ran away... Regardless, if Amber was going to stay cooped up in her forge, Rine knew that she should probably check in on her before coming up with something else to distract her for the evening.

Jumping up and off the chair, Rine slipped her feet into her combat sandals before grabbing her uniform top and putting that over the Kevlar body armour she always had on, unless she was changing from one set of armour to another or in the shower. She was surprised Jaune didn't keep the same habit, but it was probably less ingrained in him than it was in her, and his semblance probably helped on that point as well.

Buttoning up the front of the jacket, Rine took a second look at her appearance to make sure she was at least presentable, eyes lingering on the scar that started at the base of her left jaw line and continued down to disappear into the hem of her jacket for a moment, before a toss of her short cut hair mirrored her turn away to the door.

"Remember what Kaa-San always said, learn from the past not live in it..." Even after being here a week and a half Rine still found the mingling tumult of students to be off putting, too many bodies hiding a potential threat, so she stuck to the edges of the corridors and did her best to avoid being noticed as she traversed down to the forge area.

Being small had it's advantages at times like this, slipping through the gaps in the mingling students with flair if not practiced skill, she was much more used to open terrain or wall fighting instead of crowds after all. Though her lack of height did come with disadvantages at times, not that she would ever admit that in case it got back to Jaune...

"Head into the village, get the others to the trees or the rooftops, get as high as you can!" Jaune's cry surprised her even as he slashed another minor Beowolf down that had just raised its ugly head over the ramparts, the teenage human obviously directing it at her given the deer Faunus had been dragged over the wall of their outpost point several minutes beforehand.

"What? Why?" Her lessons with Kaa-san had always taught her that staying on the ground was better than climbing out of the Grimm's reach, as the Grimm could always just starve you out of the tree tops into a ground fight, a more expansive questioning of his order cut off as she ducked the lunge of a small cat sized Grimm known as a Kneazle and cut it in half with a swing of her arm blades.

"Just do it, trust me!" The boy was asking a lot, given they had known each other for only a couple of days, but he had tried to save her life when they met even if she hadn't really been in danger, so it wasn't as if she had to worry about him trying to get her killed deliberately.

"Come on then, you can't hold the wall by yourself!" Which was definitely true given they hadn't truly been able to do that between them, the low part of the wall they were manning was deliberately easier to climb up to them the rest of the wall was meant to be manned by at least twice their number, and the Grimm were already slipping by them into the hamlet itself.

Trusting that the boy would follow, because if he didn't she honestly couldn't risk staying to try and save him from Kaa-san would refer to as 'useless heroics', Rine took a running jump before latching onto the zip line that served as a rapid method of withdrawing into the main body of the hamlet for occasions like this with the belt she had drawn from her waist. Skimming down the line she felt it jerk a moment later, causing her to sigh in relief that the boy had followed.

"Behind you!" Jaune's voice came just before another jerking shudder made her look back, and her face whitened in horror as she realised that a beowolf had leapt after her and was sliding down after her with remarkable adaptability, using it's wrist pads in place of a man made zipline rope.

It wasn't catching her despite it's much heavier weight because of this, but it's beady eyes were fixed on her and it was clear that it would fall upon her the moment she dropped off the zipline. Given the size of the hamlet she only had a few seconds to make a decision, mentally preparing herself for the fight that was to come as best she could as she quickly eyed the ground beneath and in front of her for any kind of advantage she could use.

Seeing that she was nearly out of time Rine dropped the ten feet remaining to the ground, wincing as she did her best to absorb the impact correctly whilst preparing her blades, turning just in time to catch the Beowolf's glistening claws descending towards her face. Twin blades suddenly cut into it from both sides, one blade cutting into it's neck whilst the other bisected it at the waist.

"Huh, ballsy move brat, if you didn't have Aura that jump would have broken something and then you really would be useless to us..." Kaa-san was here! Rine felt so much safer already, until Kaa-san turned to her and gestured back towards the main buildings.

"Despite that, we could hear your yelling even over the fighting, and the brat has the right idea. Rine, get the others to climb as high as they can, we will keep the Grimm busy!" As much as being dismissed so easily hurt her feelings, Rine knew that as the one without aura she would be the least useful in the fight.

The next few minutes were a blur, flashes of fire, claws and blood all that Rine could remember until the moment of cold and stark clarity as she fought her way backwards up a set of stairs up to a rooftop, that the other faunus were using as a point to get up into the large trees that protected the village from airborne Grimm. The reason she hadn't tried to fall back ahead of the Grimm was that she was protecting Misha, a pregnant bear faunus in her late twenties and her young boy of about 7 following behind her.

Slashing at a Gaunt, which was a dog like Grimm that had poisonous claws and bite, Rine heard a roar from below them before the entire structure shook as an Ursa Major charged into the stairs foundations. It tore at the woodwork, trying to climb up towards Misha who was doing her best to keep moving upwards, the wooden supports screeching in protest for a few moments before failing catastrophically, the whole stairway buckling and the part directly behind Rine falling away, Misha's boy falling and barely grasping a support beam to stop himself falling into the Ursa's maw.

The damage to the stairway had knocked the other Grimm off, but there wasn't time for Rine to catch her breath, the platform she was standing on and the boy was clinging to was shifting uncertainly and whilst the destroyed part of the platform had fallen on the Ursa major and stunned it for a moment that wouldn't be a saving grace for long. Reaching down as far as she could, Rine found that she couldn't quite reach the boy from where she was knelt, the boy looking up at her with complete terror covering his face.

As she went to lay on the walkway and cover the last few inches she needed to grab the boy though, the platform shifted dangerously once more as the Ursa forced it's way from underneath the fallen wood, the motion causing the boy to lose the last vestiges of a grip even as she threw herself as far down as she could in a futile attempt to grab one of his flailing arms...

That attack had spelled the end of their outpost as well as any last ounce of innocence Rine had possessed as a child, Misha's devastated and traumatised face as Rine managed to drag her to the 'safe area' as clear in her mind now as the boy's pleading face had been before he had fallen to grimm below.

"Hello Rine!" The voice made Rien realise that she had managed to traverse the rest of the distance to the forge area, stood as she was in the doorway to Amber's personal forge, the elder Arc sibling smiling brightly even as she switched her arm from it's hammer attachment to her normal prosthetic.

Despite the injuries that Amber had suffered at the hands of the Grimm and the loss of her brother for two years, Rine couldn't help but feel a little jealous of the girl's bright and warm personality, the effort it took for her to act in a similar manner to the other members of Jaune's team was exhausting even for a short amount of time.

"Amber-chan, sorry for bothering you whilst you are working..." Whilst she had said that it was the sheer bedlam that was the Arc household that had caused her to leave, Rine got the feeling that certainly Jaune if not Amber had understood the real reason for her departure, the overwhelming feeling of being a burden on the already financially burdened family had quickly taken it's toll even if they had deliberately not said or done anything to indicate the extra difficulties she was causing them.

"Please Rine, don't worry about it, you are my partner so this forge is yours as well." Stepping inside and closing the door, Rine had to try and ignore the burning feeling in her cheeks that erupted at Amber's overly generous statement, it had to be an Arc mentality that was so generous and kind despite all the things she had done.

"Besides, I needed someone elses opinion on my present to Jaune, and I think you know him better than anyone else here..." Amber gestured off to her left as she said this, and as Rine's gaze followed the gesture her eyes fell upon something she knew she shouldn't really have been surprised to see, especially with all of the hints that Amber had been unintentionally been dropping over the last couple of weeks.

"Amber, is that?" The blonde nodded with the kind of smug glee that came with such a reveal, moving over to smack her metal arm into the main body of Jaune's present with a metallic thunk.

"Yes it is, it was about time Jaune got a proper suit of armour to replace that tattered old hauberk anyway..."

A/N: And I think we will leave it there for this chapter, primarily because I need to have a sit down and a think about where I want to go next.

I hate all these stories where either the courses the guys do don't matter or Jaune suddenly somehow becomes one of the top in the class with minimal effort, so my Jaune will be struggling academically for sometime to come even with Velvet's help.

Let me know what you think and whether you have any ideas guys!