Chapter Text
The Sun
The Sun upright reveals a radiant warmth in how someone feels about you. They see you as a source of joy and inspiration, uplifted by your presence. Your energy draws them in, and they appreciate the light you bring into their life.
It took almost fifteen years with the IMF for Ethan to realize that he is never going to get a happy ending.
Luther had warned him, of course, that being in a normal relationship simply doesn’t work for them as agents. Ethan had fooled himself thinking that he could have that with Julia, but every night he came home to her, he put his head on the pillow, and he couldn’t ever sleep knowing the world is in danger, knowing that he puts her in danger.
So, he made a deal – for Julia.
The IMF would arrange a cover up so that no one knows she was still alive. In turn, he would accept their mission to infiltrate Rankow prison. He questioned himself whether he would have accepted any more of their missions if it weren’t for Julia. The IMF had disillusioned him, and after everything he had sacrificed, he descended into something akin to bitterness.
Of course, the unexpected happens. He suddenly finds himself in a team, and there he had found – Benji.
Ethan remembers that time he did a double take from the back of their van, having been extracted from the prison. “Benji? How is it you’re here?”
“Oh, I passed the field exam!” Benji said to him from the driver’s seat, catching his eyes from the rearview mirror with a little grin. “Crazy, right?”
“Yeah,” Ethan says, almost as if in a daze. “Crazy.”
Ethan doesn’t really know what he’s getting himself into after that.
There’s something endearing about the way Benji can’t stop talking when he’s nervous, and it would be a lie to say that Ethan’s heart didn’t skip a beat when Benji says that he’s excited to be in the field with Ethan. And when Benji stumbles, rushes in his haste and adrenaline, Ethan can’t help but reach out to steady him, help Benji to feel anchored, looking into his eyes until Benji understands without words –
You can do this. I believe in you.
And Benji does pull through. He springs into each task with enthusiastic energy, he adapts and adjusts and he is fresh with ideas, especially when he’s thinking on his feet.
Even when things go downhill as they get disavowed and are forced to turn into ghosts, even when Ethan at times turn short-tempered and impatient when they hit rough patches during the mission – the team pulls through, and Benji proves himself to be an invaluable part of it.
When they all sit together at the end of it all, relieved and a little hysterical that they managed to prevent a nuclear war, Ethan looks at his team, his friends – and he looks at Benji.
Ethan had been in the dark, after everything he had lost. But now, the burden on his shoulders feels a little lighter, and as cliché as it may sound, the world does seem a little brighter.
“Your mission,” Ethan offers to them all hopefully. “Choose to accept.”
And Benji does accept – readily, unhesitant, and undeterred by the horrors of the aftermath of the mission.
“Thanks, Ethan,” Benji says earnestly, and Ethan must know what he means – for guiding him, for believing in him, and most importantly, for his friendship.
Ethan smiles and shakes his hand – warm, strong, promising. “Thank you,” Ethan says to him, green eyes looking into clear blue ones. He wonders how far Benji would go with him if he asked, if Benji would stay with him when his missions go south.
Someday, on another evening over drinks, Luther will tell Ethan with raised eyebrows, “You do realize you’re the reason Benji was taking all those field exams?”
That someday, Ethan won’t be able to hold back the unbridled smile on his face, beaming like the rising sun.
It’s the start of a new beginning.