A/N: This is Chapter 6 of Thieves in Time, following Encounter with Violence. Something's bothering Vila and turns out to be a 14-year-old Avon!
This is a romp for Vila, something to relieve the tension from the last chapter and show how Vila and Avon's relationship is changing.
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Vila couldn't sleep, which wasn't normal for the thief. It's more normal for Avon, he thought. Even though it was deep into the late night watch, something nibbled at Vila's consciousness, something he couldn't pin down.
Finally giving in to his subconscious, he got up, dressed, and left his cabin to restlessly prowl the ship's silent corridors. He didn't know what he was looking for, only that he wouldn't find it on the brightly-lit flight deck where Kerr Avon by his own preference stood late watch alone.
Vila pursued his phantoms through the dim corridors and uninhabited passageways of Liberator, looking for whatever was calling to him. He was deep in barely explored territory when he heard a sound that froze him in his tracks - someone crying, but no one he could identify, exactly. Cat-footed, he crept up on the source. At the final corner, he peeked around cautiously.
"Avon," he muttered softly in astonishment.
But it wasn't Avon, exactly, at least not his current Avon. Who or what he saw most resembled his memory of a 14-year-old Avon, gangly, dark-haired, dark-eyed, still unsure of his rapidly growing body and often not in control of his changing voice.
But Vila had never seen Avon, at any age, sitting on the floor with his head on his knees, backed into a corner, crying. Even when Vila rescued him from the kidnapper when they were both six*, Avon hadn't cried. He'd been furious! True, Vila admitted to himself, there had been the glimmer of tears in the young Avon's eyes later that same day as his father towed him away from Vila and Vila's family.
This, though, was heart-rending and Vila could delay no longer. Moving toward the boy, he knelt and gathered him into his arms. Avon stiffened at first in surprise, then, seeing Vila's face, wrapped his arms in a near strangle-hold around Vila's neck and buried his head in Vila's shoulder. He ceased crying, though he still shook in Vila's arms for a few moments more.
In a gesture totally anathema to Vila's Avon, the boy drew back and wiped his eyes and nose on his sleeve before meeting Vila's eyes for a brief moment. Then he went suddenly shy and looked away.
"Hullo, Vila," he said shyly.
"Avon?" Vila began uncertainly. "What are you doing here, and for that matter, how and why are you here - I mean, at this age? Right now, your adult self is standing watch." Vila was severely confused, but, as the adult here, he knew he had to take charge - at least that was the way he'd been raised. However, this was Avon and even at 14 Avon had been the natural leader of the pair. Vila felt he needed a lot more information to clear up this puzzle.
The youth reverted to logic now, as his adult counterpart always had.
"You mean I'm already here, as an adult? Vila, where is here? I don't even know exactly how I got here, I just was here, in this place that isn't at all familiar. I knew I was looking for you, but I've wandered about here for hours and finally I…gave up. I…was afraid you'd never come find me." He looked up, a smile lighting his face at last. "But you did! Now we can fix this problem together," he finished, with more assurance than Vila felt.
"Problem?" Vila knew Avon hated it when he echoed his words, but Vila was still at sea in this whole matter. "I think we'd better go somewhere more comfortable and talk, huh?" He stood and held out his hand to Avon. He thought for a moment that the boy was too grown up to accept his guidance and implied reassurance, but after a moment's debate that showed clearly in the troubled brown eyes, he reached out and clasped Vila's proffered hand firmly.
"Okay, Vila." The trust these two had built up over the years spoke loudly from those two words.
They followed the passage to an unused crew cabin, put on the lights, and made themselves comfortable. Even though it was "night", Vila feared to take Avon to his own cabin. Even if he locked his own door, Avon could, with provocation, pick the lock as handily as Vila himself, a skill the thief had taught Avon at about the age of the boy sitting beside him.
Though very confused, Vila still took the initiative. "Avon, how can you be here at, what, 14," he asked, "and be up on the flight deck, as a grownup? At the same time? Have you any idea how much of a…paradox this is?"
Avon smiled and cocked his head at Vila. "Learned a new word, have we, friend?"
Vila laughed, both at the comment and to hear again the bantering he'd so much enjoyed.
"That and a lot more besides. After all, I'm twenty years older than you are." He fell serious again. "Spill it. What's going on? Why are you here - not that I'm not glad to see you, you understand, just…startled."
*See 'Glimpse into the Past, a Thieves in Time story.'
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A/N: How has Avon managed being in two bodies as once – and two ages? Can Vila fix whatever problem Avon's presenting him with? Find out in Part Two: The Story.