Val stopped midflight, looking at the directions on her phone again one more time as to how to get Tien's village in her phone. She frowned at it, blinking through the snow flurries around her and feeling herself shiver a bit. The coat, pants, gloves, and boots Bulma had given her seemed to only half keep the cold at bay. She adjusted the bag on her back, trying to shake the snowflakes off of it. She texted Tien and landed on the ground, looking around the snow covered, mountainous landscape. Her breath puffed out in front of her face. She waved it out of the way, annoyed by it obscuring her vision even more. She felt confused, looking around and sensing for someone, anyone. She picked up on Tien's ki, trudging towards it. She felt the wet, cold snow seep into boots as it covered over her the top of them as she sunk into it midcalf. She groaned, flying up instead and towards his ki.
She flew farther, seeing the lights of a tiny village wink half heartily in the distance. She flew towards the outskirts, landing, and shivering. She pushed herself uphill towards the closest building. She saw Tien come out of the closest building, if it could be called that, and was walking towards her. He was dressed warmly, looking warmer than she was at that moment. He was not alone. A muscular, blonde woman almost as tall as he was came out of the building not long after him. She strutted after him, catching up to him and walking with him up to Val. Val blinked up at the two of them, wondering who the woman was.
"Dah, is this that space witch?" the woman asked. She had an odd, thick accent that took Val a second to understand what she said. Val did notice her nose looked a little crooked, like it had been broken once or twice in the past. "Looks half frozen in those city slicker boots." She clicked her teeth, nodding down at her cold and soaking wet boots.
"Whose this?" Val asked up to Tien, trying to sound polite and pleasant to the bearish woman sizing her up. Val felt herself shiver, toes starting to go numb. She felt like the woman knew exactly what how she felt and was sizing her up for it.
"Oh, this is Aiko. One of the fighters in the village. We grew up her together. Before Chiaotzu and I left to train under Master Shen," he explained.
"Oh," Val hummed, nodding. She faintly recalled hearing the woman's name before, thinking this was the villager who informed them when their parents passed away while they were off training.
"Strongest female fighter in here the village," Aiko said, crossing her arms confidently over her chest. "You've never been up here in the mountain before?" She paused, with Val blinking up at her and then shaking her head. "Ah, well, being from the jungle, you wouldn't know that much cold, eh?"
Val shook her head and then spoke up. "I'm not from the jungle," she answered.
Aiko gave her a look. "Oh, the planet from space you are from. Wasn't it a jungle planet, no?" she asked.
Val shook her head. "No," she answered.
Aiko hummed, searching for a word. "Grasslands... no, Savannah planet?"
"Desert paradise planet. No rain," Val explained.
"Ah, that explains it then," Aiko hummed, ending the somewhat confusing conversation between the two of them.
Tien looked between the two of them, nodding down at her. "Bulma give you those clothes?" Val nodded up at him. "Figured. Come on. Let's see if we can't find you something warmer to wear."
He offered his hand out to her. She nearly took it, but Aiko reached out and slapped his down with protective force. "Don't touch her, remember? The cursings."
Val drew her hand back, looking between the two of them. "How much did you tell her about me?" she asked him. She slipped up her sleeves just enough to show her bracelets, which had been seeping cold from the outside into her wrists. "With these on, I cannot curse anyone," she explained. Her exposed skin felt the bite of the cold around them.
"Ah, yes. The bracelets. My apologies. I could not see them in those gloves," Aiko said, looking a bit relaxed.
Val reached her hand out again with Tien taking it. He started to lead her away from Aiko and towards more of the village. "You told her a lot about me?" she asked him softly.
"Not just her. I mean, others were asking after you," he explained weakly. He threw a glance over his shoulder at Aiko, who was strutting over towards them like snow was nothing to to her. "I didn't know she was going to come out with me to get you," he whispered quietly down to her. He sounded a mix of annoyed and nervous.
"Oh, it's okay," she hummed, not sure what to say back. She waved away the foggy breathes from in front of her face. She shivered, hating the cold already. She drew closer to him, drawn by his warmth. She did her best not to trip either of them up though. She missed her temperature controlled room in Capsule Corps that Tien would say was too warm to sleep in. Now she understood his complaints a bit more.
Aiko caught up them with quick, limber strides. She walked next to Tien, not Val. "Dah, do we have the clothes here that would fit her?" She gestured her hands wide then narrow.
"We'll find something," he said dismissively.
"Hah," Aiko said. "If you're certain. I'm certain nothing of mine would fit her. Probably those two legs would fit my one pant leg. Mmmn."
They kept walking, going to a small building compared to the ones on Capsule Corps's campus, but the biggest one in the village as far as Val could tell. She met others from the village, feeling relieved to see Chiaotzu there as he was a familiar face. A few were smaller than she was, but others were a lot bigger than both she and he were. Some even bigger than Tien. Next to the biggest ones there, she felt like child sized all over again.
She found out most meals done in the village were communal and some of them were preparing to make dinner. It was hard to understand some of them when they spoke, their accents similar to Aiko's. It seemed to her like some of them had a bit of trouble understanding her accent as well.
One thing she did pick up on was that no one would touch her except for Tien. Even when one of the smaller women in the village gave her a set of her warmer, fur lined clothing and boots to wear, she just sat the them down in front of her rather than hand them to her directly. At dinner with the others, Val sat between Chiaotzu and Tien, with Aiko on Tien's other side. Only Tien and Chiaotzu would hand her anything directly, unafraid to touch something at the same time she did.
The food was a bit different from what she was used to, but she made herself eat what she could, even if some of it sat heavy in her stomach. When it came to an alcoholic drink sat down in front of her, she raised her hand up to refuse, but pulled it right back down when the person who passed it to her flinched away. The drink was sat in front of her.
"Oh, I don't drink," she said firmly yet politely. She did not touch the glass, but could faintly smell the strong, sharp scent coming off of it. She tried not to wrinkle her nose up at it.
"Dah, why not?" Aiko asked her, leaning her head over to look at her.
Val leaned forward and looked back at her. "I just don't like how dizzy it makes me feel," she answered honestly. She remembered a time Bulma had convinced her to drink a few sweeter drinks with her, and how she called her a 'light weight' when she got so dizzy she threw up. This drink did not look sweet at all, and not at all appealing. After that, she ruled never to touch the stuff again. "I don't mind if others do, but it's just not for me."
Aiko reached over and snagged up the glass from in front of Val. "The more for me then," she ruled. She brought the glass to her lips and took long, deep gulps from it. She drained half the glass, breathed a confident sigh, and sat the glass down on the table. "Maybe that's why you're so scrawny. Can't hold liquor, no?"
Tien shifted uncomfortably to be in the exchange. "She's fine," he said. He gave he drink in front of him a tempted look before pushing it away. Aiko finished Val's drink and then took his drink for herself.
The rest of the evening was a bit confusing for Val to follow, with her still feeling cold, overly full, and sleepy. She waited patiently for the evening to end so she could go to sleep somewhere warm and dry. There were tales Val had never heard told by a few in the village to the others. One talked about the dangerous wild animals who lived up there, especially something called an onikuma. A few wild ones had livestock in the past, as well as villagers who had tried to stop them in the past. Aiko seemed riveted to hear the story about those, pulling out a knife sheathed in her boot, and playing with it during the story, humming to herself determinedly. That story and the others were hard to follow for Val, and she felt her head nod off more than once. When the tales finally ended, Tien bid the others good night for them and led her out of the bigger building.
She followed him, trudging down what felt like the yet another steep slope. She nearly tripped over a root above the ground, but hidden beneath the snow as they walked past the trees that obscured the main building from view. Her bag on her back felt heavier than it had earlier in the day. She wrapped her arms around herself, shivering slightly, even though she was in warmer clothes and boots now. The cold chilled her bracelets, making her rub them against herself to try to warm them up. She looked very much forward to being somewhere warm. She followed him up to a series of yurts, with them going into a small one on the outskirts. After they both shrugged their boots and socks off, she had a second to look the place over. She was surprised to see how small and simple it was inside. It small, too small. Barely a quarter the size of her room in Capsule Corps. She understood now why he lived alone. There would not be much room for two people in here, if there was technically room for one. On the opposite side of the one room lay a double futon on that ground. It had a large, wide fur blanket on top of it. Two pillows lay at the top. She pouted in spite of herself, realizing the room was not much warmer than the building they had eaten in was nor was it an appealing place to stay the night either after wanting somewhere warm to be for so long.
"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked, sounding worried. "You don't like it?"
She crossed her arms over her chest once more and admitted, "I'm still cold." She cringed at the amount of whininess that was in her voice. She shrugged off her bag, letting it thump on the floor. She shrank into herself, trying to convince herself to grin and bear it.
"Hey, come here," he said, pulling her close to him. "I can warm you up," he said suggestively. When his hands started to roam and pull at the bottom of her coat, she pulled back, not wanting to separate herself from it. Yet she did not want to separate herself from him either. "It'll warm you up. You can be under the blanket the whole time."
She bit her lip and nodded, giving into her desire for him. She pressed as close as possible to him, craving warmth and feeling just how blazingly hot he was as they kissed. He slipped away just far enough to shrug off his own fur lined cloak. She felt tempted to snatch it and put it on herself. He stripped his own top off as well. He reached for her coat to take it off, but paused without letting go when she hummed in protest.
"Your body won't acclimate to the cold if keep on your warmest clothes, especially inside. It's colder at night here and you will freeze," he warned her. She hummed again, but nodded. He took off her jacket with precision. She half wanted to snatch it right back when he dropped it on the ground. She felt herself tremble as he pulled off her sweater and bra as well. "Whoa, you are really cold," he said, sounding suddenly more concerned. He ran his warm, dry hands over her bare sides.
He picked her up and carried her over the few steps over to the futon, getting the two of them under the blanket immediately. He laid on top her unabashedly. She clung to him, drawn to his body heat. He was so warm, so pleasantly warm. She felt herself grow warmer by proxy. She could feel he was hard and aroused, but hesitant. He brought a hand up to the dip on her forehead. "It'll warm you up, but..." he started, sounding conflicted.
"I'll be warmer?" she chattered out. He nodded down at her. She leaned her head up in line with his neck and shoulder, wondering how he could be so warm right now. "Please," she breathed over his neck.
He reached down, only undoing her pants and slipping his hand beneath that and her panties. "You're warm here," he commented, breathing a sigh of relief. She clung to him meekly, not going to the point of digging her nails into his skin nor desiring to bite him at all. She felt herself building tiredly, chest growing warmer. "That's it, kitten, that's it. It will warm you up," he encouraged. She sighed out, legs kicking up as she came weakly, tiredly.
He pulled away from her, making her groan to lose his warmth, even if she was warmer now. She reached for him, grunting out a whine.
"Just a second," he bid, going over to the nightstand by the futon. He grabbed out a condom before shrugging his pants and boxers off.
She curled up as she watched and waited, pulling the blanket in over her chest. He came back to her, stripping her down, even as she felt chilled when he did that. She rolled herself back on her back so he could get back over top of her. He slipped inside of her with a grunt, moving slower and gentler than he normally did. She held on to him, less desperately now as he moved. She could tell by the time he finished, he was sweating, making her feel a twinge of jealousy.
When he finished, he went to the bathroom by himself. She rolled on her side, eyes heavy. She felt conflicted. On one hand she did not want to get out from under the blanket, but on the other hand, wanted to put her pants and sweater back on for their warmth. She slipped out from under the blanket, feeling the chill in the room as she clumsily dug her pants out and started putting them on.
He came out of the bathroom and saw her doing so. He knelt down next to her, stopping her. "It sounds contradictory, but it would be better if you didn't while we slept. You'll warm up better if there's less between us."
He climbed under the blanket with her, pulling her closer. "You're still sweating. You'll overheat," she commented, hating how jealous she sounded at the thought of him being overly warm while she still felt a little bit cold yet. She huffed, thinking about how the Lookout was crisp, but not a lingering, wet cold like the room was here.
"You can cool me down while I warm you up then," he commented. He seemed more than willing to be a heat donor for her.
She hummed, thinking over the day since she arrived there. "Aiko seems a bit... interesting," she commented out loud. The women seemed not likeable now, but potentially likeable later.
She felt him stiffen up. "She's just a friend is all," he said, sounding a bit nervous all of a sudden. "Nothing to worry about it."
She hummed against him, not sure what to make of that as she felt herself quickly fall asleep.