A/N: I guess I do own Master Elbe, though why I'd want to, I don't know!

Chapter Two

As Avon left work, he noticed Vila leaning in a building corner, inconspicuous as only a thief could be. If Avon hadn't long ago become sensitized to Vila's presence, he wouldn't have seen Vila either. By now Avon knew that Vila was a journeyman thief. He'd even seen Vila's Master Elbe at a distance, once.

At seventeen, Vila was still a rangy colt of a man, growing and changing each time Avon saw him, it seemed. With his long blond hair clubbed back and tied, he appeared even younger. His nondescript clothes in muted grays and browns were not flattering. Somehow, Avon pictured Vila in ruby red and gold and sapphire, though he'd never seen Vila wear those colors. The baggy jumpsuit, he knew, concealed many hidden pockets and tools, as well as a well developed body and a very nice ass.

Avon continued on his way, giving no sign that he'd seen Vila. Shortly he found Vila in step beside him.

"What's the matter? Bad day?"

Vila's head snapped up. "How'd you know?"

"You never wait here unless something's on your mind. Something serious. Usually you pick me up much closer to my apartment."

"Well, okay, you're right. But I don't want to talk about it here." He gestured to the crowds of workers surrounding them. He continued, handing Avon a fistful of something, "Oh, and here's your wallet and watch. Just practice, ya know." He smiled disarmingly at Avon's expression of dismay, as his friend automatically patted his empty pockets.

"I didn't feel a thing!"

Vila smirked. "I would hope not," he said, managing to sound affronted. "I'm much too good for that. Even my apprentices are too good. Really! The very idea…" he trailed off, muttering and shaking his head.

Then Vila turned and eyed Avon appraisingly. "You know, I could teach you to pick pockets and locks and things like scams and security systems. I am a journeyman and teacher. You'd be good at it too, I bet."

Avon laughed at the idea of an Alpha picking pockets!

Then he got a crafty look on his dark, handsome face, considering the lockpicking and security system angles and revised his opinion. Although he was confident that, given time, he could break into anything or anyplace protected by a computer, he grew fascinated by the thought of new techniques he might pick up.

"You're on, Vila. We'll discuss it. Later," he said, gesturing around them as Vila had earlier.

It was Vila's turn to laugh, delighted at the idea of teaching his Alpha friend anything, let alone thievery! It sounded like fun, with such an able and quick student.

Avon's apartment was small but neat and tidy, even his work area. His 'tinkering' was never-ending and usually frustrating, since his very junior position paid little enough to live on, let alone buy 'extras' in the way of electronic equipment or components. Avon yearned for even a junior post in research, one that would give him access to better equipment.

Hanging up his jacket, Avon turned to find Vila sitting cross-legged on the floor. For the life of him, Avon couldn't' understand Vila's preference for the floor. Taking his own favorite chair, with its better lighting and neatly stacked books and papers, he inquired, "Now. Are you ready to tell me what's bothering you?" He was then treated to the sight of Vila squirming and blushing. Avon caught himself thinking, he looks so…vulnerable. That's just not like him.

Vila began uncertainly, "Well, ah, it's this girl, see." He glanced up from his study of his hands to catch Avon smiling indulgently. Rushing on before he had a chance to freeze up, Vila explained, "She's another journeyman with Elbe. Anyway, we tried to…you know…make love…and I couldn't!" he burst out at the end, averting his eyes from Avon's in favor of the tile pattern on the floor.

At his friend's short bark of laughter, Vila reacted in unthinking anger. "You didn't have to laugh! It's not funny! Just because you're two years older doesn't mean you can judge me!"

"Oh, Vila," Avon said, shaking his head. "It's not that. I just figured, coming from such a large prolific family, you'd know the facts of life already. I mean, we were taught that in the crèche at thirteen and merrily experimented on each other."

"Come on, Avon, I know that stuff too," he said disgustedly. "I've been with girls before. I'm seventeen, for gods' sake! It's just that…this time I couldn't…you know…perform. I'm afraid there's something wrong with me!" he finished in anguish.

Avon didn't laugh this time. He saw that Vila was seriously disturbed by this…non-happening, as it were, and needed advice and comfort from his best friend. Gracefully sliding out of his chair, he came to sit on the floor next to Vila. But when he tried to throw a comforting arm about Vila's shoulders, he was startled by the almost vehement shake Vila gave to dislodge it.

A frown creasing his forehead, Avon tilted his head inquiringly at Vila. "There's more to it that that, isn't there? You came to me," he pointed out. "You'll have to tell me everything," he ended reasonably.

Then he waited.

Vila refused to meet his eyes but continued his story. "Oh, yes, there's more to it." He was trying not to show emotion, but failing miserably to Avon's expert eyes. "See, I've been chasing this girl a long time. Since before I even knew you. I…thought she was everything I wanted, the one I could take home to Mum and the family, maybe marry and set up housekeeping with. All those old-fashioned ideals my family believes in. But…when it came right down to the physical act, I…found I wasn't interested in her body." He stopped, afraid he'd stressed that one word too much for his own comfort.

It hadn't been lost on Avon, however. Suddenly, all the clues and mysterious actions and references solidified into one breathtaking reality. He sat quietly a few moments, willing his breathing to a semblance of normalcy he didn't feel but knew he had to project if he wasn't to send Vila screaming out of his life forever. That thought, being alone again and without Vila, gave him the strength he needed to steady his nerves.

"Her body?" he inquired gently. "Just whose body were you interested in?" He hoped he wasn't going too far, too fast.

Vila leaped up, a coiled spring suddenly released and bouncing about the room. "Your body, okay?" he spat out, ceasing his pacing abruptly to stand, hands on hips, glaring down at Avon.

Infuriatingly to Vila, a tiny, amused smile graced Avon's lips as he cocked his head up at Vila. "What's so bad about that?"

"What's so bad…" Vila sputtered. "You haven't been around Deltas enough if you have to ask that." He paused to run a hand through his hair, before resuming his pacing. "Among Deltas," he explained, "sex is for making babies. Period. And the very idea of having sex with someone of your own sex is…well, it's just not done! I know, I know. Among you Alphas it's different." He grew quiet. "Deltas do get forced by Alphas, all the time. They either try to forget it – if their families will let them – or…they die from rejection by their own families."

He dropped to kneel before Avon. "I…never had thought like that…about you…before. I shouldn't have them now! What am I going to do, Avon? Please help me." He slumped back on his heels, head hanging in dejection and misery.

Choosing his words as carefully as he knew how, Avon began trying to put the pieces of his friend back together again. "Vila," he explained, "among Alphas, same-sex couplings are accepted as normal, except where children are wanted. In the crèche, the saying went, 'Why eliminate half the population just because of their sex?' We experimented with both sexes as a matter of course. I…can see that with your background, the very idea would be shocking and unpleasant, but it's still a normal human thought at some time in your life."

He was about to go on spouting platitudes in search of the right balm for Vila's troubled soul, when Vila burst out, "That's just the problem. The idea wasn't unpleasant." He was staring into Avon's deep dark eyes, his own blazing with something Avon didn't dare put a name to just yet.

Shaken and at a loss for words, Avon held Vila's eyes for an endless moment before daring to say quietly, "Then do something about it."

In the heat of the moment and the emotions raging through Vila, he did exactly what Avon wanted him to do. He gripped Avon's upper arms tightly and pressed his lips to Avon's in a fierce, starved kiss that left them both breathless when finally Avon's hands gently pushed Vila back.

Huskily, Avon said, "There are more…comfortable places to discuss this, I think, Vila." Lithely uncoiling from the floor, he extended his hand to help Vila up, scarcely breathing lest he refuse.

With only a brief hesitation, Vila accepted Avon's offered hand. Rising, they stood almost nose to nose, eyes searching and finding a common need for each other, born perhaps of their two years of almost exclusive friendship or maybe just the currents of fate joining. In that moment they only knew they needed each other, with a desperation that wouldn't and couldn't be denied.

Retaining Vila's hand in his, Avon let him into the bedroom. He hoped Vila wouldn't hate him in the morning, but resolved to make the experience as pleasurable for Vila as he knew how.