Ethan reasoning with himself that he DOES love Benji…never mind that it’s a distinctly different kind of love. Sometimes you do things for the people you love without expecting to get anything out of it yourself. That’s totally normal and healthy. Guy who doesn’t know how to be anything other than a tool ☹️
Crucially, Benji knows what’s up and is equally miserable, even as he goes along with it
god the angst potential with these two is actually unreal. When I first joined the fandom I knew benthan was going to be the primary ship but I just couldn't see it myself, but then as I kept rewatching the films I was like "ok well benji is clearly in love with ethan" and as you said, ethan doesn't know how to be anything else other than a tool so it makes sense to me that he would be like oh, benji wants to destroy my ass and I care about benji and want him to be happy so therefore I should bend over and let him
And yeah maybe benji knows this but goes along with it anyway because hes very lonely and miserable and at least this way he can pretend theres something there GODDDD