It was the third day of the first week back at Beacon Academy after everyone's winter break. Velvet had a free period before lunch to head to the library. On the walk there, she received a text from her teammate Fox Alistair about bringing him notes from their World History class since he sprained his knee during his Muay Thai training, she chuckled and replied with a two emoticons: one bunny with buck-teeth and a thumbs up.

Upon arriving at the library entrance, she saw into the window's glass that Cardin and Sky were ripping some pages from books while Russel was carving his name on the wooden table. She jumped with a gasp when Dove opened the door for her as a taunt, she immediately froze, keeping her eyes to the ground as she walked in. Sky reacted to the noise and nudged Cardin who glared at him for bothering him until he saw Velvet from peripheral view.

"Well hello, Bunny," he greeted with a toothy grin.

Meanwhile, someone else was rather annoyed at Team CRDL's antics. It was bad enough that the four goons were making so much noise in a library, but now they were tearing pages out of books?! He'd done his best to count to ten. He really had. But these jerks were bad enough to wake up a hibernating Ursa. Well, at least the Ursa would make lunch out of them.

Then came the last straw: Cardin and company set their sights on a Faunus, a rabbit girl. If he weren't so angry at Team CRDL, he would have thought how cute her bunny ears were. He took a deep breath and cranked his music up as he approached the team from behind. "For big, bad bullies," he said, "against one little Faunus girl? You four must be pretty scared of her to do that."

Everyone, even the people who weren't involved in the heat of the confrontation, silenced when Amarok spoke. Several had their phone and other electronic devices to record whatever was going to happen as youngsters do. Cardin patted Sky to move aside while the other three circled around Velvet whose stiff ears were trembling and looked on nervously at Amarok as though telling her with her scared stare to not get involved. Her anxiety seemed to fade the moment her eyes met his pointy, wolf ears and his hair, white as a blizzard in Atlas weather.

The moment she felt her mouth slightly ajar from gaping, she blinked down in bashfulness as she wrapped her arms around herself but Russel was grabbing her from her right forearm.

"Oh hey, Amarok! Look guys, it's the big bad wolf. Are you gonna huff and puff and blow us away?" they all laughed. "That's a good boy," he tauntingly cooed.

"You might get a bone for trying," Sky added with a grin.

Amarok turned his music up further. By now he was reading lips and using his Aura. "The Big Bad Wolf was stopped by a brick house," he said. He punched his right fist into his other hand. It was only now obvious that it was a mechanical prosthesis. "Right now, I see some birdbrained blockheads who may or may not lose some hands if they don't let the little lady go."

His body language shifted. Amarok's muscles tensedin preparation for combat. The four bullies had no idea how much he was going to enjoy this. "Miss Scarlatina? You may want to find some kind of cover. This might get messy."

Cardin stared eye to eye with Amarok as Russel traded places with Dove so he could keep an eye on Velvet. Cardin's light blue eyes glinted with excitement as he put all his force into his left shoulder, shoving Amarok. Sky and Russel immediately pulled out their weapons in the process.

Amarok's hand abruptly launched from his mechanical arm, attached by a metal cord. The hand latched on to Dove's wrist, squeezing until the young man let Velvet go. "Now, I'll be polite and tell you once more," Amarok growled. His hand snapped back into place. "Get lost, or drop dead. Either way, I'll be happy."

They all froze and watched the metal cord carefully but Cardin was more frustrated with the outcome, glaring at Dove to not do it but released with an angry sigh at himself. Velvet was astonished and it took for her awhile to regain movement in her arm, massaging the pain as she moved to Amarok's side. Velvet gave them a stern look and Dove flushed. Cardin shot a look back at Amarok and loosened up as the others marched to the door.

"Your arm will look nice in my room some day, Paladus," he cackled. "Come on, guys. Early lunch time."

Velvet watched them leave and turned to Amarok with a hint of blush pink on her cheeks. "Thank you..." she quietly said as her ears drooped. She realized that his music was turned up and bowed of thanks instead, fumbling with her hands.

Amarok watched them go before turning his music off. However he kept his headphones on. "You're welcome," he said. "Cowards won't make a move unless your team isn't around." Yatsuhashi was easily the most imposing member of Team CFVY, but it was really Coco you didn't want to get mad. After all, why argue with a girl whose handbag turned into a minigun?

He sighed, fixing his hand back into place. It was a bug he still needed to work out. "Velvet, right?" Amarok was more familiar with her surname than her given one. "How's your arm?"

She lightened up when she chuckled at the mention of her team. "I wish I could've had Fox over since he texted me just before I came here. He does Muay Thai. Yatsuhashi and Coco are in class, unfortunately. I'm not really one to stray from the group but I guess I was too confident," she joked. "And yes, I'm Velvet! It's nice to meet you. Thank you so much for helping me out. You're one of the few Faunus I've met here. What's your name?"

"Amarok," he introduced himself. "Amarok Paladus." His expression changed a bit. "But I'm not actually full Faunus. One of my parents was human." Amarok shrugged. "But, anytime. My mamaw taught me that you should always help someone when they need it. And for Team CRDL, I'd be more than willing to go out of my way just to mess with them. I dealt with enough people like them growing up."

"You've obviously come from a humble, loving family. That's very rare. In Team CRDL's case, maybe that's because of the way they are. Either way, I'm happy there's still hope in people like you, Amarok," she smiled. "I'd say you're the first then to be more human than Faunus!" She looked down at her shoes, kicking the carpet floor. "Are you going to lunch after this? I think we could get a headstart since there's only about eight minutes left. I usually sit with my team but Fox is injured while Coco and Yatsuhashi are obsessed with a new TV show so they take their lunch to our dorm."

Amarok didn't know quite what to say to Velvet's first comments. However he couldn't very well turn the girl down if her teammates were away. "I think my teammates could stand a day away from me," he answered simply. "If they catch me with a girl they'll never shut up." He chuckled, fixing his uniform. It was presentable, at least. Unlike most male uniforms, he'd opted for a sleeveless shirt under his jacket, since a long-sleeved shirt would mess with his arm. "Well, I'm game."

"I'd say the same about my team but they're not here!" she laughed as they headed out.

Once they arrived inside the cafeteria, she headed over to the salad bar where she prepared herself a salad topped with sliced peaches and sprinkles of shredded cheese. For the main entree, she grabbed a slice of cheese pizza and a brownie for desert. She kindly greeted the lunch lady and showed her Beacon ID to her. She decided to go on off ahead of Amarok so she could reserve a spot of the long tables nearest to the door that had a view of a garden where students were planting herbs for their Medicine class.

From across the large room, she waved her arm at him. She had never been this much happy and excited to meet someone new since Velvet was generally bashful even before Team CRDL came to make life harder on her. She was a little bit acquainted with Team RWBY and others but not on the basis of "friends-friends".

Amarok didn't his best not to laugh. It just seemed so perfect, a bunny girl immediately going for the salad bar. If Velvet got a piece of carrot cake for desert, he'd probably die from laughing too hard. However he contained his mirth and followed quietly. The two were drawing attention already-- Velvet Scarlatina, the quiet Faunus girl, and Amarok Paladus, music and headphone addict extraordinaire. Granted, their height difference was noticeable, but he didn't mind.

As Velvet took a bite into her salad, she looked ahead at Amarok who was seated in front of her. "I don't really talk to people so I'm sorry if I'm quiet," she blushed. "What is your team like?"

"Well there's me," said Amarok. "Then there are the twins, Guy and Theia. They were both born blind. But they're skilled fighters. They trained to use their Aura like echolocation, so they can detect what moves an enemy might make. Then there's Robyn. Maybe you've met him? He's a Fox Faunus. Fancies himself a ladies' man."

He himself didn't view himself as anyone spectacular. Amarok was Amarok, and that was that. He remembered the fiasco at the beginning of the year when Robyn hit on Coco. To this day he still had a bullethole through his right ear.

"I don't think I've seen them before... I don't know why Robyn's name rings a bell though," she shrugged not knowing that he was the one who played with Coco's buttons too much just for a date but she wasn't there, Coco told the story but never said who it was. "What's your story, Amarok?" she smiled as her ears perked up with eagerness. She really hoped they had a class together so that she could have someone to hang out with apart from her team.

"It's kind of a long one," Amarok said. "Really, it's not something I like to talk about. Just suffice it to say... Crap." He stopped midsentence. He saw Team CRDL a few tables away. They were being their usual jerk selves. And now it seemed they wanted to settle the score. "Methinks this is gonna get ugly, Velvet..."

"Hey, Mutt!" Cardin shouted. "Still upset about the books? Oh, having lunch with your bunny girlfriend?" Amarok scowled at the team leader, feeling his blood boil.

Velvet had a sad frown at Amarok's response. Her tail and ears stiffened at the sudden shout of Cardin from across the cafeteria, she looked over at Amarok's shoulders and saw that Cardin had just gotten his lunch and was ready to come over to them.

"Don't, Amarok," she pleaded. "He's not worth it. I mean, we're almost done anyways so let's just go..." She was already getting ready to throw away her tray until Sky met her at arm's length from behind and took the tray from her. "Allow me," he giggled. "Sky, just leave us alone. We already took care of this at the library, just stop it."

Sky took the uneaten brownie from her plate and munched it in front of her. "Nah, you guys are too much fun." Velvet was disgusted, looking back at Cardin, Dove, Russel, then to Sky. "I said leave us alone," she asserted, yanking the tray back from him with the peaches drenching his chest and shoes. Velvet gasped and met eyes with Sky who was more infuriated than ever.

Amarok couldn't help laughing. "That's a good look on you," he commented. "You guys should wear food more often." He stood up, his expression becoming more serious. "Look, get lost. Can't you just spend your day not making others miserable?"

Cardin crossed his arms. "So, are you gonna make us, Mutt?" he asked. The confrontation was getting attention from other students. Smarter individuals were making themselves scarce.

"I'll ask you kindly to leave us be," Amarok growled. "I'll give you to the count of five. One... two..." His arm shifted and clanked into a sword. "FIVE!"

And with that, the second lunchroom brawl of the year began.