#slightly irrelevant gifs but I can't think of vila handing someone anything apart from the drink and that's an avon whump so idk

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💝💙💚for A/V (someone else probably already sent haha)

OH NO! After all my bravado the other day, I fell victim to losing all my responses before I put the gifs in! Eat that humble pie.

Thank you for the BEST ask. So wholesome, so good...

send me a ship with a heart and i'll tell you..

💝: who spends more time (possibly overthinking) what presents to get the other?

Vila 100% Something I’ve probably mentioned in tags before: I think Vila’s love language would be giving gifts (if love languages can be separate each way ie. Person -> others, and others -> person; Vila probably doesn’t need gifts given to him, but he expresses his love by giving). I think this suits his backstory of (potentially conditioned down/out) mild kleptomania and his background as a thief.

With the crew, he was known to give the odd bottle of wine to Jenna or old Earth book to Blake. “No reason. Just I was down in the market and saw it and thought of you, you know? So I picked it up; thought you might like it,” he shrugs, grins warmly and walks away before they can thank him.

He likes giving people a little unexpected surprises like that – something that’s apt and shows he is actually watching what others are doing/show interest in.

With Avon though, he agonises over gifts. He knows Avon could use a new set of laser probes or a replacement datapad for the one that he keeps complaining about, but it wouldn’t be special. He wants to give Avon something that shows him he really cares and listens to more than just Avon’s whinging. Birthdays (idk about Christmas/other holidays – that’s a whole other set of headcanons) are the WORST time of the year because Vila can never decide what to give Avon. In reality, he’s got a whole drawer stuffed to the brim with nice things he thinks Avon would like, and he very rarely pulls one of those thoughtful little gifts out (usually opting for something easy like the probes at the last minute because he gets so flustered).

Avon would struggle to remember Vila’s birthday (to say nothing of his own).

💙: who is more protective?

A tough one, but I’d say Avon is more protective. Vila would LOVE to be actively more protective, but Avon doesn’t respond very well to mollycoddling, so he gives Avon space and just checks in from afar (and worries incessantly when he’s gone).

Avon does a lot to avoid putting Vila in actual bodily danger, but he also does something a bit more… he protects Vila from psychological dangers. For example, (I had more and they’re bloody gone now!) in BLAKE, even though it’s post-Orbit, he refuses to answer Vila’s question about where Tarrant is. Even in a non-ship context, I don’t think this is because Avon’s “gone a bit mad” or is doing it to be nasty; he’s protecting Vila from the truth. In any other situation, he’d have taken steps to avoid Vila having had any reason to ask the question at all, but because it’s such a salient point in the story, Avon can’t do anything to soften the truth so he says nothing at all. If he doesn’t speak, it isn’t real. Vila doesn’t have to process it. Maybe Avon doesn’t either.

In TERMINAL, Avon also goes out of his way to prevent the crew from learning why he is leaving them – he doesn’t want to get their hopes up if he’s really found Blake – there are just WAY too many things that could go wrong, and it’s better if he goes down and sees the situation for himself, even if it’s a trap; Vila, and the rest of the crew, need to stay out of it and stay safe.

  💚: who tends to get sick more often? who is better at taking care of the other?

Sick – Vila (though let’s be real, it’s mainly him moaning about a headache or a tummy ache or some phantom twinge). Avon’s got a good constitution (and all the immunisations he’d conceivably need as he was an Alpha on Earth) so he doesn’t get sick in the conventional sense all that often.

But if we’re talking about injured, I think both have equal capacity to be injured at one time or another. Both Vila and Avon have keen senses of self-preservation in general, but they live a dangerous life and these things aren’t wholly unavoidable.

Vila is actually a fantastic nurse – his hands are always warm (Avon can never understand this) so when Vila is redressing a wound or giving Avon an injection (or something else, all taught to him by Cally), he is incredibly gentle and never hurts Avon. He’s also incredibly dedicated – he just can’t focus on anything when he knows Avon is laid up in bed (and probably hating it), so he does hover a bit, offers to play games or read to him. Avon’s usually pretty cranky about being injured too, but he tries not to be grumpy around Vila and secretly loves all the doting and attention. If he puts on a twinge of pain a bit too strongly when Vila is checking to see if he’s recovered, well… could you blame him?

Avon, on the other hand, has a terrible bedside manner. He usually ends up being grumpy that Vila’s hurt himself in the first place (probably blaming himself in S3/4, and then grumpier still that Vila’s not well and he’s actually worrying about the man A LOT). So he’s a bit rough with taking care of him and finds they end up bickering if he stays around in the medical bay too long. The crew arguably suffer more because they end up bearing the brunt of Avon’s bad mood while Vila is recovering.

Thanks for the ask!