I agree with you that this story falls firmly and squarely into the slash camp, partly because of the paucity of any other description. It's not het, not gen, but gen slash. I'm a great fan of hot sex in my slash but it's not an essential.

John and Rodney thought about taking their relationship to a sexual level, and there's something to be said about confusion between very close friendship and sexual feelings. They can be easily confused in these days when sex is in our faces all the time.