Reread What You Left Behind and these two are 10000% ex-boyfriends. There is no heterosexual/platonic explanation for the energy between them. Literally Baptiste can't stop himself from complimentary descriptions of Mauga even as he talks about the anxiety and barbs of fear he triggers in his gut. Describing being around this man just like relapsing 😩 Mauga trusts him as if he never left, even as Baptiste is pointing a rifle at him and speaks VERY highly of him to other people that doubt him even when Baptiste hasn't been present for years because he's so confident in how much he knows the man, knows he hasn't changed significantly, and in how he can convince him to come back home. Almost like a 'I know him better than he knows himself' kind of deal. It's SUPER toxic and I love it.
I think I want to write a little something about the two of them back in Talon. How Baptiste never takes the outcome of a mission well and Mauga always softens that scalding edge just enough to keep him from leaving, but it still tears him up on the inside after the celebratory drinks and being ridden within an inch of his life before having to return to HQ. Lowkey Baptiste probably kept doing it for as long as he did because of a self-perpetuating loop of self harm.