Especially John and Rodney, whom I'm pretty sure would go to great lengths to not characterise their relationship in their heads if it meant they had to, you know. Deal with feelings.

Yes yes yes, precisely! One of the reasons why they work for me, and why I like writing them, is that they're so terrible at the feelings stuff, and so never talk about it, and when they do, they're awkward and evasive and pretty much fail at communicating. But they get it, in the things they don't say or can't say, and I love that kind of indirection.