There are a million reasons for Cougar to not get involved with Jensen.
Aside from the fact that the kid is fuckin' annoying 90% of the time, babbling on about the stupidest stuff, like hot dogs and cats and the latest episode of Mythbusters that he downloaded. Sure, 10% of the time, he's great to be around, and for being such a nerd, he's a pretty good shot and excellent in hand-to-hand, and he has to admit that the more time Jensen spends hacking means less time Cougar has to shoot someone, and that's always good.
And Cougar'd be an idiot to not think about DADT. Yeah, he got lucky when Clay decided to poach him from his previous unit — right when he was positive Sgt. Bannerman was going to tell his CO about catching him at that bar down in San Diego, but there's a big difference from Clay knowing about Cougar's inclinations and it actually being right there, in his face.
But, strangely, the biggest reason Cougar's stuck just watching Jensen through his scope is this:
He's a sergeant. Jensen's a corporal. And if there's one thing that was hammered into his skull, it's the chain of command. It's the fraternization policies. It's the sheer fucking fact that he could order Jensen to do practically anything, and that power — that responsibility — he can't fuck that up.
But when Clay snaps "Don't call me that" to Jensen's "Colonel", something starts stirring inside Cougar, something that could become more.
This The Losers story was written by Kate Bolin. If you liked it, there's plenty more at http://www.dymphna.net/fanfic/. And you can feedback her at dymphna@dymphna.net.