Disclaimer: Anything not immediately recognizable as a registered trademark of Marvel and/or Paramount Pictures is probably mine. Anything you do recognize I'm simply borrowing. I seek no monetary gain from this. I wrote it simply for fun (and because I really like these characters).

Author's Note: In my infinite wisdom, I decided one night a few weeks ago that (on top of the long list of other projects I have to tackle this summer) I was going to write a one-shot fic for every song that Tiësto included in his Elements of Life set list (as I loved the tour). This amounts to forty-one fics for forty-one songs. The stories don't really have anything to do with the songs, though (ie - these are definitely not songfics). This is technically the third of the series, though the song was 40th in the set list.

As the stories are not interconnected by anything other than their titles' origins, I have decided not to post them all in a single entry, but to treat them as the separate stories they all are.

Summary: Tony has decided he wants to take his relationship with Pepper to the next stage. But he doesn't have a ring - and so he ropes Rhodey into helping him find one. Rhodey is, of course, thrilled.

Other: Iron Man Movie!verse; gen. One-Shot. Set some time after IM2.

Platinum

"Let me get this straight," Rhodey said slowly, taking care to speak clearly and enunciate every word. He wanted to make sure he had this situation completely clear in his head. No confusion. No miscommunication. The latter was especially important because it might mean the difference between being roped into doing something with Tony he really didn't want to do and finding a way out of the whole situation. "You want to propose to Pepper. That's good. I'm proud of you. That's a big step. But you don't have a ring. So you want me to go with you to help you find one. That sound about right?"

"Uh, yeah," Tony replied. "That sounds about right. It is, basically, what I said."

Rhodey licked his lips – a subconscious sign that he wasn't quite sure what to say next. He had to tread carefully here, had to phrase his sentences right, had to make sure he didn't accidentally find himself up a creek without a paddle, so to speak. "And you don't have any…female friends that you think would be better suited to the job?"

"Nope." There was a definite note of glee in Tony's voice.

"What about one of those SHIELD agents? Don't you have about five of 'em there somewhere? Take one of them."

The silence on the other end of the phone either meant Tony was considering this possibility or waiting for Rhodey to figure out why it wasn't going to happen, that Tony had already made his decision and that Rhodey would, in the end, come along.

Rhodey sighed. Time for a new tactic, hopeless as it probably was. Breaking the silence, he said, "Tony, I don't shop. You know I don't. The military provides me with all of my uniforms and -"

"Rhodey," Tony cut in. "I just need a second opinion. It's just a second opinion! I just need someone else who knows Pepper and might be able to…keep me from getting too ostentatious."

"Happy?" Rhodey suggested. "You and Pepper and Happy have been working together for years. He probably knows her better than I do."

More silence.

Rhodey made a face. "Yeah, okay, that's probably not the best idea. What about Jarvis?" He winced as soon as the words were out. That was reaching. That was really reaching.

But he really, really didn't want to go shopping with Tony. He could already imagine what Tony would make the experience like, and Rhodey wanted absolutely no part of it.

"Jarvis is an AI construct, Rhodey, come on," Tony said, adding, "We're just gonna do a little shopping, that's all. It'll be fun. I promise. See you in an hour."

And that was when Rhodey, having run out of other options, knew that he was going to end up hating today with every fiber of his being.

He was going ring shopping with Tony Stark.

As a decorated officer in the United States Air Force, James Rhodes had seen and done and dealt with a number of high-stress situations before. He'd been in convoys hit by IEDs. He'd taken fire and stared down the barrels of enemy guns. He'd been roused out of bed in the middle of the night to deal with incoming enemy fire – including a missile or two. He'd even seen his fair share of arms, legs, hands, feet, fingers, and toes blown from hell to high heaven and barely broken a sweat in the process.

And, you know, he was War Machine.

But this…this was unlike anything Rhodey had done before.

The shop was called Arlen Designs. It was lumped in with a bunch of other shops in a small strip mall not too far outside Los Angeles and from the outside it looked small and ramshackle. The only way Rhodey could tell at all that this was not, say, a sketchy pawnshop, were the two cast-bronze tree sculptures on either side of the front doors.

Once inside, Rhodey could see why Tony had chosen this place. After his eyes adjusted, that is (the lighting was especially unique, with each of the bright lights hanging at about dead level with Rhodey's face – all the better to showcase the jewelry designs, though Rhodey noted that he needed to avoid leaning a cheek or his face against one of the lights accidentally). Case after case of nothing but intricate, glittering rings stretched from the front of the store to the very back, where Rhodey thought he could make out the dark forms of a couple of the store's workers.

"Mr. Stark!" Chirped a voice from the back of the store, and Rhodey watched one of the shadows come towards them even as he and Tony headed towards the back. "Welcome! I'm Charles Clark. My wife and I own Arlen Designs. We've been expecting you." Clark's eyes darted towards Rhodey and then his brows came together. Clark asked, "Is this…?"

Tony and Rhodey exchanged a look. Then the mostly-unasked question sank in.

"No!" Rhodey said hastily. "He's looking for the ring—" Rhodey pointed at Tony in clarification "—I'm just here to help."

"Moral support," Tony added. "And to keep me from getting too ostentatious."

Rhodey sighed inwardly, rolling his eyes ceiling-ward. That word was going to lose all meaning to him by the end of today. He just knew it.

Clark smiled, nodding. "If you would give me a minute, I will go and collect the design you were considering, Mr. Stark."

"Please," Tony replied, and Clark headed back towards the rear of the store.

"You already have a design?" Rhodey said to Tony through clenched teeth.

"Uh, yeah?"

"If you already have a design picked out then why am I here?"

"Moral support," Tony said, giving Rhodey a look that said this should be obvious. "And to—"

"Don't say it," Rhodey hissed.

Clark returned in a few minutes with a ring box that Rhodey noted immediately was about twice as deep as any ring box he'd ever seen in his life – and his mother had a passion for collecting rings (last he'd checked, she had over three thousand of them). Leaning over the counter so that the box caught the full, direct force of the light, Clark lifted the lid.

Inside was a massive diamond probably half an inch wide and three-fourths of an inch long flanked on either by smaller (but still very large) diamonds and set in a white gold band that seemed impossibly thin by comparison to the diamonds.

Rhodey recoiled in horror.

"This is it." Tony smiled proudly. "What do you think?"

The word as out of Rhodey's mouth before he could stop himself and tailor a better response: "No."

"'No?'" Tony frowned at him. "What's wrong with it?"

Rhodey sputtered. "Tony, I don't even think my finger could support that ring. It's not a diamond. It's a rock. Three of them. All bright, glittery, eye-catching, dead weights…"

Tony blinked, his expression slightly quizzical. "You're vetoing my choice."

"Yes. I am. It's a bad choice. It's—" Oh, God, he was going to hate himself for this "—way too ostentatious."

"Really?"

Rhodey glanced at Clark, who looked rather amused.

"Perhaps, Mr. Stark," Clark said, "you should weigh this design against a few others. What is the recipient like?"

"She's Pepper," Tony said, as though that description alone was enough.

Rhodey rolled his eyes.

Clark pursed his lips as though fighting back an amused smile. "Why don't you have a look around," he suggested. "Try and get a feel for what else we can do here."

Tony nodded almost reluctantly. Rhodey, for his part, inhaled deeply – it was either that or drag Tony out of the store.

Fifteen long minutes later and they were still looking through cases. Tony was still picking out every bright, flashy, gaudy ring with a big diamond (or two, or three) that he could see. With increasing despair, Rhodey realized they were only about a fifth of the way through the rows.

"This one, then?" Tony asked.

Rhodey took one look at the ring Tony was pointing at and cringed. Again. "No, definitely not."

Tony looked at it, then back at Rhodey. For once in his long, know-it-all life, Tony seemed confused. "What's wrong with this one?"

"Is there even a band holding those diamonds together?"

Tony looked down at the ring. "Of course there is."

"It's not right," Rhodey said, shaking his head.

"I like it."

"This…" Rhodey sighed. "Look, this is Pepper we're talking about." He began moving around the store, stopping at random intervals to survey the display cases. "She doesn't take to the cameras and the paparazzi the way you do. You buy her something big or flashy and someone's gonna notice and ask and this whole protective circle you and SHIELD have got set up around her is gonna come crashing down. You'll want to get her something that looks classy but that doesn't look like you spent that much money on it." He stopped at another display case and tapped a finger against the glass. "More band, less diamond. Try this one."

Tony, smiling in amusement, joined Rhodey at the display case about the same time the sales guy did. "Which one?"

"This one here," Rhodey said, tapping the glass. "The silvery one, with that center diamond and the those blue side stones." He watched Clark – who had all but appeared from nowhere to help them – deftly remove the ring from its holder and pull it out of the case, holding it so Tony could see.

"This," said Clark, is our three-stone, trillion cut blue sapphire. It's set in platinum. Very nice choice. Mr. Rhodes has good taste."

Tony looked at the ring. He tilted his head at it, making first one face then another. Abruptly he walked away, wandered idly around the store, periodically scanning cases, before circling back and studying the ring again.

His face broke into a grin and he reached over and clapped Rhodey on the shoulder. "See, Rhodey? This is why I brought you along."

Rhodey smiled thinly. "Congratulations, Tony. Please don't ever make me do this again."

Tony grinned even more broadly. "I won't."

Author's Note: My apologies for the long absence, everyone. Life decided it wanted to really, really test my patience, and now that I'm back in school (last year for the win!) I have even less time than I used to. :/ But a friend of mine caught me when I was in a bit of a writing mood (well, more like a 'dangit I haven't finished any fic in months and I have all of these unfinished files waiting for completion and a herd of plot-bunnies hounding me wherever I go' mood) and dared me to finish something. So I did. And I hope you all enjoyed it!