Ethan and Pete Mitchell were born during a warm summer night, both slightly smaller than expected. Their father couldn't have been more proud. Their mother, however, was weak and exhausted after long hours of agonizing labour. She loved her sons more than anything else, but she knew that the upcoming months would be hard with Duke being gone most of the time.
All too soon the first weeks turned into months and the two boys turned into crawling rascals, their mother barely able to keep up during the day, crying many tears at night, Duke mostly far away with some Navy related missions. From his perspective, he did all he could to provide for his little family.
However, his wife had no idea that he was more than a simple naval aviator. By the time his sons had turned into toddlers, he was deeply involved in intelligence work. Already back in the day he had started to arrange everything in case something would happen to him. His sister Maggy and his friend Mike would step in and take care of his family for him.
By the time Viper returned from Vietnam, still mourning his best friend (with benefits during those long nights on the carriers), the Mitchell family was gone - Ethan shipped off to his aunt's farm and Pete sucked into the foster system after their mother had lost her fight against her inner demons.
Over the years, memories of each other had turned vague, unsure what had been a dream and what had been reality.
Despite growing up without his father by his side, but a lot of unwelcoming foster families instead, Pete was still haunted by his father's ghost. All he ever wanted to be was a naval aviator. The academy didn't accept him, but that didn't stop Maverick. By the end of 1986 he had a new family, lost his best friend and found the love of his life.
Ethan on the other hand had grown restless on his aunt's farm. Going away for college should have satisfied him, but in true Mitchell fashion he just couldn't stay away from trouble - or rather, trouble always found him. In this particular case, the trouble was called Marie. Meeting at college on the east coast, they ended up in the torn city of Berlin in the autumn of 1989. Ethan had never fully understood what Marie was involved in, but love made him follow her to the end of the world. Several weeks later, he returned to the United States, alone, having been recruited for impossible missions.
In the early nineties, both brothers were caught in the politics of a changing world. One flying missions during Desert Storm, cherishing every night in which he could steal a kiss from Ice after having survived the day before. The other sneaking through the former countries of the Soviet Union, being trained by a new father figure and seeking the thrill of kissing another man’s lips.
Ethan wouldn't allow himself to love Jack. The sex was good, their work even better - he saw no reason to change that. Listening to him being crushed to death in an elevator shaft in Prague, left something broken inside Ethan. He buried it behind thick walls, just beside losing his whole team and being betrayed by someone who had been like a father to him once. It was only during cold, lonely nights, drunk out of his mind when he would allow himself to dig up those ghosts.
Only a few months later, Ethan got sent on a solo mission to Bosnia. There, he not only found his intel in a dirty basement, but also a bloody and beaten version of himself. He didn't care about the mission anymore as he carried his brother into the light of the new day.
