Val came back to Capsule Corps one late afternoon, tired from training that now include physical as well as magical. Piccolo had been up there with Kami as well, helping with the former aspect, much to her chagrin. She might have been stronger than Freight, Hull, and Loader, but he eclipsed the four of them. He did not hold back much either. She felt a good kind of worn out by the time she got home.
She took a shower and felt ready to settle in for the evening when she heard someone knock on her bedroom door. She answered it, seeing Bulma at the door, her phone in hand. "Hey, what are you doing tonight?" she asked abruptly.
Val blinked up at her and shrugged. "I don't have anything planned, but I was kind of hungry-"
"Great, you're going with me and Yamcha and Tien out to dinner," Bulma decided for her.
"I am?" she asked, needing a second mentally to catch up.
"Yes," said Bulma, pushing her way into the room and closing the door. Val noticed she was dressed rather sultry. "Best to get dressed quickly. Nice dress, flat shoes only. We're meeting the two of them a few blocks from Capsule Corps."
Val looked at her, feeling caught in a whirlwind. "Why are we meeting them so far away? Aren't you and Yamcha fighting again?" She had been wondering why he had not been around the past few days.
"A bit, but it's not that... Tien doesn't like Vegeta, and with him being like your from outer space best friend and all, it put him off at first," Bulma admitted. "That, and the crying, but you had just seen all the Namekians you cared about leave this planet without you, so that he understood."
"What's wrong with Vegeta?" she asked. He had seemed a lot calmer around her now that she was staying, still just as quiet, but a comfortable, familiar quiet that she was contented to be around. He even went as far as asking why she doing training up at the Lookout.
She went over to her wardrobe and picking out a dress to wear. She held it up for Bulma's approval. Bulma shook her head. Val put it back and pulled out another dress. Bulma cocked her head from side to side. Val put that one away, too, and pulled out a third one. Bulma nodded at that one. Val got herself dressed and braided her towel dried hair back and out of her face.
"Well, Vegeta kind of killed him, but you know, he's changed. Gotten at least a little better now that he's gotten away from Frieza," Bulma pointed out. "Still obsessing over training though and wanting to be better than Goku."
"He's always wanted to be the best," Val agreed.
"Right, well, don't bring him up, or it'll be like politics," Bulma warned, sliding her hand across her throat. "Or his last girlfriend. She was a bit... two sided and dumped him, I don't know all the details, but Yamcha says it wasn't good." Her phone buzzed. She looked down at it. "We need to get going. Don't forget your new phone," she added, nodding over at the phone she had gotten her sitting on the nightstand.
"Right," Val said, taking a purse from the wardrobe just so she would have a means of carrying the tiny little black box computer. It was rather annoying that her dress lacked pockets.
They walked together down off the campus and down the few blocks to meet Yamcha and Tien, both of them dressed a bit nicer than the last time she saw either of them. She noticed Yamcha looked at her a little too long rather than at Bulma, but said nothing. She looked over at Tien for half a second before looking down at the ground, feeling a bit nervous, and a bit stupid that it took her this long to clue in that this was meant to be a double date. She tapped on the hydrangea necklace on her neck, but pulled her hand down and away so not to be all fidgety.
"Hey, boys, thanks for waiting," Bulma greeted. "Someone was a bit later than usual coming back from training with Kami."
"That someone not being you," Yamcha teased in a playful tone.
"Haha," Bulma said, not sounding like she found the joke funny at all.
Nevertheless, she took Yamcha by the arm and started walking, one hand looking like it was almost pinching his upper arm. Val stepped in step behind her, seeing the sidewalk was too narrow for her to walk next to her. She kept one hand at her side, and the other fidgeting with the purse on the shoulder, wishing again for pockets to carry the phone instead.
"You're training how to fight?" Tien asked, looking her over curiously.
"Yeah, up at the Lookout with Kami. And Piccolo today, but he hasn't been up there with us until recently," she answered.
"Huh... So what happened with the break in at Capsule Corps?" Tien asked, breaking the silence.
"There was no break in," Yamcha answered. "She skipped yet another game over it."
Bulma looked up at him and then back over at Val and Tien. "My dad thought there was a break in in the medical research lab in his panic. There's was really just some destruction of research samples from Val and the other Namekians who donated before they left. We caught the worker who did it a few days later and I fired her. For some reason, she couldn't fathom that the idea of the Namekians not being demons." She shook her head in annoyance.
"That seems kind of harsh," Yamcha commented.
"What she destroyed was invaluable. She got off easy," Bulma answered a bit testily.
Val nodded in agreement. "I tried to give more blood samples," she volunteered, "but the medic who managed to do it last time quit without warning right afterwards. No one knows why. The other medics who tried couldn't manage it."
"Was that that red head who wore too much lipstick?" Yamcha asked.
Val thought back about the medic, and then nodded. "Yeah. She was nice," she confirmed.
"Yeah, and lot more understanding," Bulma added. "I tried to contact her to see if she wanted her job back, but she never got back to me."
"Oh, that's too bad," Val added, feeling kind of disappointed. She had stepped up to volunteer more in the medical research area when she was not training now, hoping her more active presence would help the others feel at ease, get them used to her as an alien, and speed up her assistance with getting medical equipment on this planet up to par with the equipment she was used to working on in Frieza's spaceship.
They kept walking, reaching the restaurant Bulma had made at a reservation at earlier today. Val wondered how recently she had planned all of this, double date and everything. They say down, Val feeling she was sitting closer to Tien than she felt comfortable, worried she might somehow mess this up the way she messed up the date with Krillin. Bulma told her a lot things went wrong, but at least Krillin was still okay with being friends with her, so she did not totally ruin that evening. Val thought over it, still thinking the delivery driver that had hit and yelled at her really ruined the evening.
Bulma kept guiding the conversation for the meal, with Val feeling a bit lost when it came to talking about baseball and how she promised once more to be at Yamcha's next game and stay the whole time. Bulma circled it around to getting Val to talk about her training, even bringing up her bracelets and blessing/cursing ability.
"So how long have you been training to fight? Since you got to Namek?" Tien asked her. "Not a lot of women fight on this planet. And I think Goku's wife might be the only one who could keep up with us among them all."
She shook her head. "Since I was twelve," she answered. "The age where all Aviarians train to fight. My father trained me there. And then my guardian when I was stuck on Frieza's ship. Then with the Namekians when I escaped Frieza there. And now with Kami since before they left Earth. And now Piccolo most recently," she summarized.
"She's not as scrawny as she looks," Bulma pointed out. She tapped Yamcha on the upper arm. "Show Tien the video you took of her and one of the Namekian warriors sparring."
Yamcha nodded, pulling out his phone, clicking a few buttons, and passing it over to Tien. Val looked over at the phone, watching it as he did. He moved it over so she could see between them. It was her and Freight sparring, making her loose a sad smile. She remembered the spar and that day, missing him and the others.
"Can you excuse me," she prefaced before getting up. She thought to walk outside, but went to the restroom instead, taking some time to compose herself, standing over the sink, leaning her hands against it.
It must have been longer than she realized because Bulma came in. "You okay?" she asked.
Val nodded to her, standing up straighter. "I just miss them still is all," she answered. Bulma crossed her arms over her chest and nodded. "I stayed... I stayed for a good reason, didn't I?"
Bulma gave her a look. "Only you can decide if that was a good reason or not. Honestly, I don't get why you didn't pursue him instead since you stayed. I mean..." she hinted, face blushing a little bit. "But since you didn't, Yamcha and I decided to maybe see if you would give Tien a shot since you gave Krillin one, and you did."
Val brought her hand to her face, brushing the stray hairs out of her face. "I, yeah... sorry, I just needed the minute," she rambled out. "I'm think I'm okay now."
She followed Bulma out of the restroom, seeing the two men still sitting at the table. Bulma turned the conversation to volleyball, but lost Val completely, even with the explanation of yet another strange Earth sport. Val wondered if it was because some Earthlings could not fight worth a damn.
When they finished eating, they left the restaurant, walking around the city only some what in the direction of Capsule Corp. Val kept the towers from there in sight, wondering why they were walking a different route.
She watched Bulma, seeing her on the phone and wondering at it. She tapped Yamcha on his shoulder before saying, "oh shoot, my dad needs our help. We should probably go back."
"He does?" Yamcha asked, disbelievingly. She smacked on the shoulder. "Oh, yeah, he does," he agreed. "With that... thing...?"
"Another break in?" Val interrupted them, suddenly worried.
"There was not break in," he griped.
Bulma looked at him for a second and back to her, but shook her head. "No, nothing like that. It's fine. The two of got it. Think you can find your own way back after walking around with Tien some more," she said, but her tone sounded like she was hinting at something that Val did not quite understand. She gave her look to encourage her to say yes.
Val brushed a few stray hairs from her forehead, not sure what she do or say. "Um... Okay...?"
Bulma nodded encouraging. "Yeah, no problem. Take a walk around the park over there," she pointed over to the left. "Take your time," she emphasized every word in her last sentence.
Val watched them walk off quickly, talking together short, hushed whispers, seeming annoyed with each other for whatever reason. It did not seem like a good idea for them to go alone to help her father if they were quick to start bickering again.
Val looked at Tien, not sure what he would want to do. "Do you want to walk over there?" he asked, flippantly gesturing over at the park. He seemed like he would not care what her answer would be. She shrugged. "Come on," he suggested, nodding in the same direction. He walked that direction.
She followed after him, stepping in line with him as they walked. The park was nice, especially matched with the twilight. The green shades of the fauna were darker, a color that reminded her of old Namek. She sighed, feeling a pang of homesickness shoot through her.
"Did you want to go back to Capsule Corps instead?" he said, breaking the awkward silence.
"Huh? No, the park just reminds me of Old Namek," she explained.
"You weren't there long," he commented. He shook his head. "Do you miss it?" He seemed to walk back towards the right.
She nodded, hand coming up to her hydrangea. "Yeah, but I chose to stay on Earth on the promise to go to them if they need help," she told him.
"I'm guessing watching the video on Yamcha's phone earlier didn't help any," he added. She nodded. "How strong was that Namekian warrior compared to a human?" he asked.
She looked up at him and shrugged. "I'm not sure," she answered honestly. "I've sparred a little with Yamcha, but he kind of gets too close in a different way than I was trained to do, so I preferred training with them over him. They never fought with Krillin or Yamcha though, just me. So I'm not sure. At one point Loader did mention he would like to challenge Krillin, but Moori forbade it, so he didn't. I'm not sure why."
"Yeah, but you train with Piccolo now though," he commented. "How did he stack up to them?"
She took a second to think about it. "Hmm, he's twice as strong as them, at least. Probably stronger than that. I only started training with him since I decided to stay on Earth, and it's quite difficult," she answered, groaning at the idea of going back next time.
"He's definitely not someone to mess with," he commented. "What about with Kami? He's training you as well?"
She hummed, holding up her wrists so he could see the bracelets. "That was to do with these. So I don't accidentally curse someone else," she explained. "I can hold back from that, but still release the energy if need be."
"How does that work?" he asked.
"I practice on different small creatures he creates to see how far I can push the blessings or curses," she answered. "Find the balance to see how far I can push it before the curse fails."
"How do they fail?" he asked, looking down at her hands skeptically.
"If it is impossible, outside the realm of the cursed person abilities, then it will fail. I'll feel a pull on my energy first until the curse either goes through and is like canceled," she explained. "I didn't understand it before training with Kami. I feared it. Yet now that I understand it more and can manage it with the set of bracelets Kami made me, it's less frightening."
"Kami gave you the bracelets?" he asked, sounding more interested. "What about the necklace?" he said, nodding down at it.
"Oh, that was from Moori, the Great Elder," she explained.
"Only the two of them allowed to give you any jewelry?" he hinted at, sounding curious.
She raised her eye brows. She looked around, seeing he guiding them a bit closer to Capsule Corps. "No, but they just did. I had a lot of things just given to me by Bulma and parents though. Rather generous of them there," she shared.
"The jewelry is generous, too. Especially with being able to keep from harming someone," he pondered. "When's the next time you're going up to the Lookout?"
She looked up at him and shrugged. "I think next week."
He nodded at her purse. "You have a phone, right?"
"Yeah," she said pulling it out of the purse. "Another gift from Bulma."
He took it from her, much to her surprise. He started swiping around on it. "Text me the next time you go up there. I want to see you in action," he said. "Maybe even try my own chance. I'm sure Kami and Piccolo won't mind."
She blinked up at him. "How can I? I don't know your number?" she pointed.
"Yeah, you're really not from this planet," he muttered. He took her phone again from her hand, swiping around once more. "Yeah, you do," he pointed down at his newly saved number in her contacts list.
"Oh," she breathed, not sure how else to respond. She side stepped away from him at the same time that he stepped towards her, a bit hunched over. "Oh," she pulled away, surprised at how close he got unexpectedly. He pulled away from her, straightening up and clicking his teeth.
He looked behind her, commenting, "we're close to Capsule Corps. You able to make it from here?" he asked.
"Oh, yeah, of course," she answered confidently. She pointed over at it. "It's just right there." She looked up at him. "Where do you live?"
"A rural mountain village," he explained. "No much there, but it's home. We train up there, too. Well, the younger men in the village do anyway. Not the handful women or children or old folks though."
She blinked up at him, thinking she would not like that very much compared to Capsule Corps. "There's plenty of room at Capsule Corps. Even for your friend, Chiaotzu. Just ask Bulma," she commented.
"Bulma only takes in strays who have nowhere else to go," he griped. "I mean, you're not like a stray, but..." he hummed disgruntledly.
She frowned up at him, trying to figure out who or what at Capsule Corps would put his teeth on edge like that. Her eyes went wide when she realized it Vegeta, which Bulma had warned her about earlier. "Oh, yeah, I yeah," she rambled.
"You're not a stray, not like some mangy animal. More like a lost puppy, like adorable little one," he was rambling now, too.
She shook her head and shrugged. She said, "ok," rather than telling him again she did not understand what he was talking about exactly. "I should get going," she said, putting her phone away. He stepped closer, but she started walking away.
"You'll text me next time you go to the Lookout," he asked again. "Hopefully I have service," he added.
She nodded, still walking away. "Yeah, see you," she responded, waving at him to hint that she was going to go now, wondering if he did not understand she was doing that. She stopped, looking back at him. "What service?" she gave into the temptation to ask.
"Phone service," he called over to her.
"Oh, right," she called. "I'm still getting used to Earthling terms for things. And the somewhat primitive technology."
"You're not the first, and you won't be the last," he told, somehow finding what she said entertaining. "Are you sure you're not related to Goku?"
She frowned. "No, that's not possible, my mother was an Anthromorph and my father was-"
"I know, I know. It was just a joke," he cut her off. "Take care. Text me," he encouraged.
She smiled, turning back down and walking towards Capsule Corps, a puzzled smile on her face. It did not take long for her to get back for Bulma to descend on her questions.