Ben couldn't believe it! When his boss asked him to walk the new guy through the office he'd never expected to come face to face with James Winton.

Huh, he must have had one final growth spurt.

As he approached James he took the opportunity to to drink in his new look. James looked the epitome of masculine good looks. His clearly expensive, tailored suit hung flawlessly off his broad shoulders, hugging his arms and showing off every inch of his large, toned biceps. His shaggy mop of red curls had been cut shorter and slicked back, perfectly framing his strong, symmetrical face.

His eyes were as deep and as piercing as Ben remembered them to be, but he couldn't find the warmth that always radiated from them in the past. Instead, Ben saw anger and hurt.

As Ben came to stand in front of James, he watched as the coldness of his stare was masked by fake warmth, and a casual, welcoming smile presented itself on his face.

“James Winton. Nice to meet you.” James said brightly, holding his hand out for Ben to shake.

Oh... Ok.

“Ben Stokes. Welcome to the team.”

Ben was sure that this farce of a first meeting had fooled absolutely nobody. The tension between them was suffocating, but somehow all Ben could think about was the warmth of James' hand, and the comforting familiarity of his scent.

He knew he'd missed James, but he hadn't realised just how much until now. Suddenly, he could breathe again.

Dropping his hand almost as soon as Ben had grasped it, James turned towards the elevator.

“Shall we?” He asked, being only as polite as he deemed absolutely necessary.

“Of course. Please follow me.” Ben took the lead, determined to play along until he was able to talk to James alone, walking him to the elevator and pressing the call button. “Usually Matthew, the head of HR, does the intake tour but he was unavailable this morning so I was asked to fill in. You'll get a chance to meet Matt soon enough. Great guy.”

The two stood in awkward silence for a few seconds as the elevator doors closed and the cabin started it's accent. Could Ben bring things up now? Would they really just pretend to be strangers? How would they be able to work together if they didn't talk about things? How could Ben continue being relaxed and friendly knowing that he'd done such an awful thing. All he wanted to do was apologise. His whole body was screaming for him to act.

“James,” Ben started, turning to face the other man. “I'm-” The elevator doors opened and a few people trickled in. Ben had lost his chance, and he didn't know when he'd get another.

The elevator doors opened again, this time at their floor. Ben and James shuffled themselves though the crowd and out of the elevator, now looking out at what could only be described as an average office space.

“This is your floor. The Planning department is to your left, and Accounts, where you'll be, is to your right. Everything you could possibly need is on this floor, except for HR. We're up one floor.”

“Good to know.” James replied, seeming to slip from his happy facade just a bit.

“Well... Follow me. I'll introduce you to your boss, Will”

Ben lead James to to the Accounts department, walking up to a corner office and knocking on the door before letting himself in.

“Hi, Will, I've got James here for you” Ben greeted the person inside before stepping back and standing away from the door to let James pass. “I'll see you around. Welcome, again.” Ben gave James his nicest smile before walking away. He didn't dare stop walking until he'd made his way back to the elevator, fearing he may turn back and throw himself at James' feet to beg for forgiveness.

He understood James' anger, he really did, but it didn't hurt any less to be on the receiving end of it. What Ben had done all those years ago was truly awful, but he thought James would have understood his reasoning by now.

Ben had tried to contact him over the years, but every attempt failed. He could have done more; show up at his home or try to apologise through Emilia and Haruki, but he was too ashamed to ask for help. Besides, why would they want to help the person who disappeared on their son after being confessed to. He was scum, and he didn't deserve their help.

He had tried some years back to contact Jed, but no matter how many messages he left, Jed simply ignored him. Ben had expected no less. Jed would have James' back until the bitter end, and he was lucky not to have received Jed's wrath back when it all happened.

But this had to be fate or something, right? Why else would James have turned up at the same office, working for the same company if not a sign of some sort of divine intervention? He had to take his chance to make things right.

The rest of Ben's day was spent trying to formulate some plan to talk with James alone. He knew what he wanted; to apologise to James, explain his side of everything, and go back to how things were before his stupid teenage brain ruined everything. Was there any possibility that he could actually repair things?

No. Expecting that from James would simply be too much. Ben hurt him, and James deserved better than the pathetic excuse of a human Ben had proven himself to be. He could try to repent for the damage he'd caused, though, and if it helped James move past things, that was enough for Ben. He just wanted to see the love of his life happy.