Tien stayed the night, and into the morning as well. Val felt an itch to work, but was lacking anymore knowledge from her time on Frieza's ship. At Bulma's prompting, she took the morning off with everyone else. At Bulma's lead, Val, Tein, Yamcha, Puur, and Oolong had an outdoor barbeque since the weather outside was so nice. Val sat down next to Tein, with him sitting closer than she would have preferred, but she did not move away. They were a bit away from the table as well, but that was not much of a bother either.
She sat quietly, half listening to the conversation more participating in it. The others finished eating before she did as well, picking a bit at the food on her plate. She perked up a bit more when Bulma started talking about Vegeta, wondering where in space he was, and a dream she had about him. Val watched her as she talked at the forefront, but noticed out of the corner of her eye that Yamcha seemed annoyed at the talk. She frowned slightly, wondering if the two of them were fighting yet again.
"In my dream, he was a good kisser. I wonder if that's a fact in real life," Bulma mused. "He might be out of fuel soon as well, even if he listened to my dad and used it sparingly and relied more of the solar power cells." She looked up wondering at the clear blue sky overhead. Val stood up, setting her plate down at the table at a distance from her chair. "Hey, Val, you lived with him for the longest time. You know if that is a fact or fiction?" she asked.
Val blinked over at her, not sure what the question was at first. "If what?" she asked.
"How is Vegeta as a kisser? If you know from gossip or experience," Bulma added, leaning against the balcony rail and taking a swig from her drink and raising her eyebrows up and down.
Val frowned, stepping back towards her chair. She thought as she moved, saying, "I don't know." She shook her to emphasize her point.
She felt a hand take hers, guiding her sideways. She glanced back, seeing it was Tien pulling her down onto his lap in front of the others. She kept herself from drawing away, but was stiffer when he wrapped his arm around her. "I think we all think that's an inappropriate question to ask her," he commented tersely. Val looked away from the others, trying to keep her own terseness at bay.
Bulma shrugged and took another drink. "Why? Jealous?" she teased, tone going for good natured. Val could feel him grow stiffer behind and around her. "Women talk, too," she said before taking another drink.
Val kept herself still, unsure what to do or say at the risk of having to deal another jealous spat. "I was a child physically back then, but I don't think he had any experience with any other women. He was so focused on training. He did also comment more than once that I don't know my ancestry beyond Anthromorph and Aviarian. Besides, I think he'd prefer a strong woman if he ever did decided to look for someone like that," she mumbled out, hoping that made sense.
"You're strong," Bulma commented.
Val shook her head, stuck in the conversation, but wishing to pull out of it. "He knew me as a child, so I think even after I grew that's all he can still see me as on some level," she explained.
Bulma cocked her head at her. "He liked visiting your planet though, that common ground has to count towards something," she teased her now. "His father had even sent money there a few months on a regular basis before the Saiyan planet was destroyed. Sounds like a match made in paradise..."
Val clicked her teeth, surprised by the comment about Vegeta's father that she did not even know about. "A lot of people liked that planet," she answered somberly.
"Desert paradise, huh? What was it like growing up there?" Yamcha jumped in the conversation, changing it.
She shot him a grateful look and shrugged. "I liked it. No rain," she explained. "Had to keep precious resources out of the hands of the Saiyan and Imperial Army though. My father always complained about it. I heard my father comment once that while King Vegeta would over step the line a bit and throw money around as if it made things alright, but Frieza would leap across it with no regard for who got hurt in the process and had to bear the costs."
"You were an only child, weren't you?" Yamcha asked, knowing the answer the answer to that question.
She played along and nodded. "My mother lost three before they were born, and my older brother died as a child before I was born. All of them were Aviarian but me," she explained.
"The scrawny one survived?" Bulma teased, reentering the conversation. She shook her drink, which was empty down and put it down on the table.
"I think my mother may have blessed me to without my father's knowledge," she admitted. She looked down at the bracelet along her own wrists. She ran her hand over the length of one of them.
The area got a little quiet, but the tense atmosphere dissapated into a more somber one. "Better those than gloves at least," she heard Tien comment behind her, bringing his own hand to stroke the other bracelet with the most cautious hand.
Val sat quietly, thinking about her home planet in tandem with Vegeta, wondering where he was and wishing he would come back sooner than later. Her hands felt a little warm as she looked up longingly at the sky. She felt Tien withdrawal his when he realized it. He still feared her, even though she never wanted to curse an ally again after how her curse rebounded on her on the Shinsenkai.
Val felt her ears draw back unexpectedly. She stood up, pulling herself away from Tien. She looked higher up in the sky, trying to clue into what was making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.
"You alright?" Bulma asked.
Val shook her head, eyes trained up at the sky. She rested one hand on one bracelet, ready to yank it off at a moment's notice.
"What is that?" Tien asked. Val heard him stand up behind her.
"Whatever it is, it's coming in fast and heading straight for us," Yamcha commented.
Val watched the sky, eyes watering in the sun as she refused to blink. She saw the outline of a round ship, trying to place it in her memory as friend or foe. It was far too big to be a space pod. It was falling so fast though, too fast as the planet's gravity was controlling the descent. Unless the ship was made of sturdy enough material like the space pods, it was to break apart on impact. She was amazed the entry into this planet's wet atmosphere did not break it apart already.
The ship crashed with a deafening thud not to far from where they all were. Yamcha was running towards it before the dust cleared. Val hung back, watching the dust settle before she risked approaching. However, once she saw the dusty outline of 'Corps' on the ship, she moved. "Vegeta," she whispered, rushing after Yamcha. She felt a hand grab at hers, but she slipped from it without a second thought as she ran over there.
She arrived at the scene of the Capsule Corps ship at the wrong angle diagonally in the ground with a temperamental Vegeta emerging from the ship and threaten Yasha in the process. She surged forward in between the two of them. Then she stopped abruptly when a strong, sour smell hit her nose. She suppressed a gag, but covered up her nose from the burn.
"Figures you're still here," Vegeta commented, looking her up and down. "At least you finally managed to get a little bit stronger. How many times did the Namekian have to kick your ass before you could manage it?"
She stared at him, bringing her hand off her face and breathing shallowly through her mouth. "Did you find Goku?" she asked, trying to think of something, anything else to say.
"The water filter broke before I could. Ships shoddily made," he gripped.
She frowned at him. "The ship survived the worst reentry I have ever seen," she countered. She crossed her arms over her chest. "How exactly did you break the water filtration system?" He grunted in response. "Punch it too hard like you did the healing tank?"
He grumbled under his breath, "at least that still kept working..."
She stared down at him, eyes blazing. She felt a hand clamp down on her shoulder. She tore her gaze away from Vegeta, seeing Tien and feeling him pull her back partly behind him. "Back so soon?" he asked. He half stood in front of her, guarding her unnecessarily.
"You're still hoovering around?" Vegeta countered, looking right at Tien. "At least the Namekian could put up a fight." Val sighed, looking over at him, hoping he would get and take the hint to stop picking a fight then and there. Quietly she inched herself out from behind Tien. Vegeta shook his head disappointedly. He dug into his pocket, pulling out a slim stick made out of plastic and metal. He tossed it over to her. She caught it, looking down at it, needing a second to figure out what she was holding. It was an Earthling flash drive. She blinked up at him. He tossed a second one in her direction, with her barely managing to catch it before it hit her in the leg. She flinched as she felt a third one hit her face before she caught it. "Strength's up, but reflexes just as slow as ever," he commented, sounding amused. "Now you can't complain that I've never given you anything."
She held not one, but three flash drives in her hands. "What are these?" she asked on bated breath.
He smirked at her. "You complained about wanting more data from the Imperial Army. I got a Litt figure out how to get as much data as he could on those human data flash sticks. You're related to them, aren't you? Scrawny birds of a feather flock together?"
She looked back down at her hands, needing a moment for his words to clear her mind. Data... three flash drives worth... She gasped when it clicked in. "These..." she choked out, not sure what exactly to say. She tightened her fist around the flash drives, but not too tight, and sprinted away from the area towards her research station.
"That didn't take long," she heard Vegeta call after her.
She ignored him, running passed Bulma in her rush to get inside. She went inside, down through the hall and to her work station. She shoved her chair out the way, ignoring the sound of it crashing on the floor. She set the flash drives down by her research computer carefully before rushing to turn it on in a rush. Her fingers clumsily hit the button. She took a deep, steadying breath to slow herself down before she made a mistake. Her blood still rushed in her ears in anticipation. She turned on the monitor. She tapped the desk impatiently as the computer turned on. Once on, she slid one of the first flash drives into the slot, pulling up the files on it and immediately copying them over. She tapped the desk impatiently as the data transferred over. She picked up her chair, sitting down on the edge of it. She slid a second flash drive into the other slot, getting it to copy over its data as well. Some of the files were labeled in a weird, circular language she vaguely recalled seeing somewhere before. The first flash drive finished copying over. She replaced it with the third one, uploading the data from that one. She opened the files from the first one while the other two loaded in. So much was there, more than she had even realized she either had forgotten or never knew in the first place. Her mind started racing, not sure where to start or what to work on first, or what was even feasible on this planet, or-
A hand came out of nowhere, turning off the monitor. She blinked, taking a second to stare at the blackness of the screen, worried for a split second that all the data was lost before realizing that was not the case. She pushed the hand away turning the monitor back on. She went back to the data, trying to think where she had seen the circular language before and how she would manage to decode it-
"Val!" she heard someone say her name, not sure how many times it might have been said before she finally noticed it. She wretched her eyes away from the files and looked up to see a disgruntled Tien standing over her. "I said I'm leaving," he repeated.
She glanced back at the files, moving the mouse to open one up. "Okay, bye then," she dismissed, trying to make sense of the first file she opened.
He took a moment before saying anything. "Come with me," he requested.
She looked up at him like he was crazy. "What? Why?" she blurted out. She took a second to think. "Oh," she said, cursing her luck. She looked back at the computer. "I can't go. There's so much data to go through. So much." She brought her hand to her face, trying to figure out how long it would take her to go through all of it. She felt like she would not even be able to get through one flash drive before she was driven take a rest.
"He stole all that," he argued. "You shouldn't be using any of that."
She looked up at him and shook her head. "I'll consider it payment for all those years I was forced to work for the Imperial Army," she ruled, turning back to the data. She opened one file and started looking it over. She hunched over the keyboard, trying to commit what she was looking at to memory.
"Val," he said her name, softer this time.
"Just go," she said, not wanting another pointless fight. She did not look back up at him, nor back to him when she heard him leave.