This village was dull and boring, warmer than the one Tien came from, but boring as far as Val was concerned. Staying there for weeks only using a laptop and a computer to work off of was limiting. She swore to stay here, and was able to find it more of less enjoyable, but dull compared to Capsule Corps. Working three days by herself in its silence made her miss working with Dr. Daiki, even though he needed explanations about what the research... he... stole from the Imperial Army was beyond him without her there to explain it. It was quieter, but at least... he... was not there. Or so she told herself.
Chichi would visit on days she was not training, encouraging her to take a lunch break earlier than she preferred, but was easy enough to get along with. Gohan would visit often as well, at least once a week for 'tutoring,' which ended up being him working off the study materials he brought himself and then her checking it over with the use of the answer key. At least the books were not as primitive as she thought when she read them over. She also allowed him to look over her research, surprised that he could somewhat understand it at his age. She told herself not to be envious of the child for already being stronger than she was and would likely be smarter than she was when he was older.
With Gohan around in the house, Piccolo seemed more relaxed, almost doting on the child. Val found for her herself, it was not a difficult thing to do, either. With training though, that sentiment seemed to be left at home. Try as she might, Val was not able to keep up most days with the three of them. Piccolo did not hold back against her, just as he had not before. He seemed half determined to beat her within an inch of her life, with her trying to do the same to him, but less successfully. She felt thrilled at the challenge, rising to it, almost enjoying it with him, in spite of the unspoken tension between the two of them.
At least she could tell she was making progress in getting stronger as well, and in her research, but came up with nothing to find out anything more about the future out of Piccolo. She found it frustrating that he would give her not even a hint beyond what he already told everyone. Goku had not revealed anything more either, beyond that something else must have changed and she might have something to do with it. Although he did offer to let her see the vial of medicine the fighter from the future gave him so she could read the ingredients on it. She tried to resist the temptation at first, but gave it. It was half disappointing that it did give her a hint at what to aim for, but some of the ingredients were foreign even to her. It did help course correct her out in the a better direction though, which was something.
Val sat at her laptop in the evening, trying to work as well as work out another way to get the future out of one of them, when she saw she had a video call from Bulma. She stared at the computer screen a second, wondering why Bulma did not just text her like usual. She accepted the call, wondering why she was getting it.
She saw Bulma's face pop up on the screen, cheerful voice asking, "hey, can you hear me?" Val nodded, staring at the screen. "Can you say something back so I can confirm I can hear you?" she asked, tone a bit teasing.
"Oh, yes," Val said, clearing her throat. "I can hear you," she added a little bit louder. She shifted in her chair, still wondering why this phone call was happening out of the blue. She also sensed Piccolo returning from training, but figured he would not enter the conversation. She made no reaction to him being there.
"Good. Haven't seen you in a while and was wondering if that was really you texting me or a robot you rigged to answer back or something," Bulma teased.
Val frowned at that. "Where would I get a robot and how would I have time to code it for that?" she asked genuinely.
Bulma rolled her eyes. "Some of your answers about coming back anytime soon were getting pretty scripted. 'I don't know.' 'I'm really focused on my training.' 'I'm not sure.' 'I'll come back when I run out of stuff to work on.' Did I miss any of them? Because Daiki says you've been telling him the same things as well," she pointed out, leaning a bit closer to the camera.
"Isn't he away on his honeymoon right now though?" Val asked.
"Oh so you do read our text messages," Bulma teased. "Yeah, he's away. Before he left, he was struggling to make heads or tails of some of the stuff you send him over emails. He gives it to me when he doesn't understand and I got to say sometimes takes me a second to understand it."
Val frowned and then shrugged. "I can try to be more clear with what I send him stuff in the future."
"That'd be good for him, because he keeps trying to figure things out. He still asks why you're working so hard on antiviral research, and I just keep telling him its because you almost died when you were a kid from an epidemic that hit your city and want more than just someone staying at your bedside praying to keep you or anyone else alive," Bulma reasoned with a quick hum at the end. She then did sometime odd. She gave a quick glance up above the camera line and raised her eyebrows.
"Yeah, we don't have my father to do that this time around," she answered, recalling the memory of the epidemic that hit her city when she was three. How Anthromorphs had gotten sicker than the Aviaries from it and how her mother had been to sick to care for her, so her father did. She partially recalled on her worst night where she nearly died hearing him pray to the Great Hawk Spirit to lend her her strength to live. She shook her head at the memory. "When the virus comes, it'll make more sense."
"Yeah, and Capsule Corps will just so happen to have the market on the antivirals for it..." Bulma added, raising her eyebrows up at Val. "Maybe you should swing by sometime sooner than that though. Like tomorrow for a few hours. So to check over what Daiki has been struggling to do in your place." She shot a quick glance over the camera and back at Val.
Val clicked her teeth, feeling tempted to do that. "I'm sure he's capable. He's one of the smartest there," she answered. "One of the smartest humans I've met."
Bulma raised her eyebrows up and down. "That 'one of the' better include me at the top of the list..." she said with an odd tone. Val nodded, which made her smile. "You should still come check it over just in case. Make sure he isn't making any mistakes that could hinder your progress."
Val fidgeted off screen with one of her bracelets. "I've just been..." she fumbled for an excuse. "So busy training. Do you think you can do it? Being that you are the smartest human I know..." she hinted, aiming for flattery to get her to drop the pressure to show up in person. He... would still be there, with her her having no desire to see him nor break her oath to not go to Capsule Corps until the androids showed up. The later was feeling more and more impossible to avoid though. She pictures the fighter again, making her cringe internally.
"Yeah, but I've been pretty busy lately," Bulma said. Val could hear the sound of fingers drumming the desk loudly off screen. "And will be more so in the future." Her eyes flicked up briefly and back down.
"What are you looking at?" Val asked her curiously.
"The clock," Bulma answered quickly.
Val hummed, wondering why she would not just look at the time on the laptop she was on instead. Val looked at the time on her own laptop. "Look, I should get going-" she started.
"You can still come over and check things though, right? Preferably like 5 tomorrow?" Bulma rushed out before Val could hang up the call.
Val hummed, shrinking a little bit when she shook her head. Bulma looked more annoyed on the other end than she expected. Before either of them could say anything back, Val heard an annoyed grunt from off camera. It took her a second to recognize it. "Whose with you?" she asked.
Bulma closed her eyes briefly. When she opened them, she flicked her gaze up and over the camera. "I thought I told you to keep quiet since you insisted on being in the room when I took the call," she hissed through her teeth. She glanced back down at the camera and at Val. "Everyone's favorite spoiled prince," she admitted. "I think he's missed you, but won't admit it. Gotten kind of lonely as of late since I can't argue with him with the same grace you can. He doesn't have to be around tomorrow if you don't want him to be," she promised.
Val heard Vegeta grunt off screen again and say, "what?"
Bulma looked off screen again. "Is it impossible for you to stay quiet?" she huffed.
"Get her to commit to the time tomorrow. She won't show up otherwise," he advised.
Val shifted, feeling mad at both of them now. "Look, I have to go, I have a lot to do," she excused. Part of her hoped she would see him come on screen, but an equally strong part hoped he would not. She thought about the fighter from the future again, reminding herself that he looked absolutely nothing like her. His fighting style had not matched hers either.
"Tomorrow, 5, okay?" Bulma rushed out, throwing her a pitiful looked that was partially put on.
"I have to go," Val repeated, this time hanging up the call with that.
She pushed herself away from the laptop, standing up and feeling overly agitated. Her hands felt warm, too warm. She got up, getting herself outside to release the heat there before going back into the house. She shut the front door behind her and leaned against it, fuming. She saw Piccolo then, not seeing him before, in the kitchen with a bottle of fortified water. "You hear all of that?" she accused.
"You're not going," he said, clarifying he had eased dropped.
"I won't go," she ruled. "I absolutely won't go. I have to stay away from him," she said, stomping over to sit down on the couch in the main room. The thought of the fighter, who had to have Saiyan blood, came to her mind and made her hands heat up again. "I'm going to run out of things to do here sooner or later though," she confessed. She frowned. "I'll have to get Daiki to bring me more or something," she ruled, shaking her hands out and then rubbing them to sooth away the heat and calm herself done. She bent forward on the couch, determined to stay away from him, even if it meant staying away from Capsule Corps, as long as possible. She looked over at Piccolo, daring to ask, "what's Vegeta's future? Before the androids come and they kill him?"
"Val," he said her name in warning.
She grunted, slouching herself back on the couch. He was not going to answer. Asking him coyly had not worked either. She crossed one arm over her chest and took the hydrangea necklace with her other hand. She pictured the fighter once more and then shook her head to free the image from her mind. "I can't... I must stay away from him..." she grumbled. "Even if I do miss him," she confessed.