Frankly, Rodney was the one who agreed to the terms of a buddy-fuck with a dishonest ulterior motive in mind, which makes him the one with the questionable ethics in this particular case, IMO. Just my two cents.

I know I speak from a position of mad mad Rodney love, but I think saying he had a dishonest unlterior motive is kind of harsh. As Icarus says, he might've been lying to himself about what was going to happen, but people tend to believe their own lies, you know? He might've agreed to one thing while having somthing else in mind, but I don't think he did it deliberately.

Also, I don't really know a lot about buddy-fucks, but I don't get the feeling that this was one. John wasn't treating Rodney like a buddy; he was treating him like a one-night-stand bar pickup. (Is that what buddy-fucks are supposed to be like?) Which, I totally agree is not a moral failing, nor is there anything wrong with it per se. *I* just think it's a crappy way to treat a friend. And I think a WHOLE lot of my reaction to this fic is a reaction to real life stuff and not to John/Rodney as fictional characters, or as men. It's just a very realistic, sad, human scenario, as you pointed out in your original comment.