thinking about sentryagent getting together the angstiest/jealousy ridden way possible
John is happy that he is finally a part of a team again. He is with people who actually cared if he lived or died and they against all odds had started to become something like a family. He spars with Bucky, trades stories with Alexei, watches bad reality shows with Yelena and Ava. But the most surprising thing was how close he and Bob got, especially after how bad their first meeting went. They start spending a ton of time together, doing everything under the sun and its so easy and fun and John finally feels something in himself start to settle again.
And then he fucks it up somehow.
He doesn't know what he did, but knows he did something. Bob starts avoiding him, literally leaving the room when he walks in, and making all sorts of ridiculous excuses to get out of hanging out with John. He won't even look John in the eye. And the team...they start giving him suspicious, angry looks, seeing how Bob was avoiding him. John can't even apologize because he doesn't know what he did (and its not like he can even get into the same room to apologize to Bobby anyway).
He starts wandering around the city a lot, not wanting to linger in the tower when he is unwelcome. One night he is sitting at bar, feeling depressed as all hell, when a guy comes up to him and they start talking. Turns out he is a vet himself (airforce) and he is also a PTSD-riddled insomniac that constantly feels like he is fucking up too. Of course they really hit it off.
They start meeting up a bunch at night when they both can't sleep and John can't help to compare how easily they get along to how it used to be with Bob.
And then. One night, when they are hanging out at this guy's place, he kisses John. And John kisses him back.
When he gets back to the tower he has the biggest freak out of his life. He has always been an ally but he never thought...sure he has noticed good-looking men but doesn't everyone...he is almost forty what the hell is he doing. He is scrambling, falling apart. He hasn't talked to the guy in days and doesn't know what is going to do, all he knows is he is silently freaking the fuck out.
Things are still tense between the team when they have a joint mission with Captain America. They are all prepping for the mission at the tower when Bucky insists on John (who knows he has been acting weird, but can't help it, he is still panicking) to just get out with what's bothering him so they don't have issues with the mission. In retrospect, John realizes that Bucky thought John had a problem with Sam, and wanted to shut that shit down immediately--he wouldn't have pushed if he had known what John was actually worrying about.
But John, literally frayed at the edges at this point, just spills everything. Meeting the guy, kissing him, questioning his sexuality. It all comes out like vomit.
Ava is the first to recover. She tells him it's okay to figure himself out even now. And asks him if he wants to kiss that guy again. And John does. So she tells him that that he should just focus on that, and he can figure things out along the way. And that seems to clear John's head for the first time in days.
The team all tell John they are proud of him for telling them, and that they support them.
After the mission, John contacts that guy again and they tentatively start a relationship. The team is heavily invested in it and John, pink-faced, gives them all the details, happy to feel part of the team again. Even Bob starts talking with him again, although it still is a little awkward.
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On the flip side, Bob kind of wants to commit murder.
When John and him started getting really close he felt the familiar pinpricks of attraction and had his own freak out. There is no way John feels the same way--and what if he is homophobic? He is a Georgia-bred, all-American military man. Even if he wasn't there is no way that John wasn't as straight as a ruler.
And so Bob, not really thinking it through, starts avoiding John. Hopefully if he stays away long enough, this stupid, pointless crush will go away and they can go back to just being friends again and Bob won't have to worry.
Bob never could have guessed that doing this would lead John right into another man's arms.
He feels so unbelievably jealous he can't think. Every story he hears about John's dates and milestones with this other guy makes him want to go Sentry so he can deal with the burning anger running through his veins.
He starts trying to find any opportunity to spend time with John, but now John is the one cancelling on him to spend time with his boyfriend. The first time the guy visits the tower, Bob can barely keep the cold tone out of his words (he does a pretty bad job based on the weird looks Yelena keeps giving him) and has to hold himself back from tossing him out the window.
Eventually it all comes to head and Bob gets to be the one to push John up against a wall :)
