WHO:Clint & Tony WHEN: Past weekendish WHERE: Fancy Jewellery place WHAT: Clint has an important purchase to make; Tony is running commentary/back up WARNINGS: Mild language STATUS: Complete
In the week or so following the transplant to get his white blood cells on the offensive and helping his head stop being so damn soft, Clint had been figuring a few things out. Primarily where else his relationship with Kate might be heading. They’d gotten the living together thing down cold, it was easy and fun and it pretty much settled them rather nicely.
And Clint was completely sure that by now Lucky was just as much theirs as the apartment was now too. It’d been a rough couple of months, all things considered, not that he was rushing into any decision. But it still meant he’d dragged Tony along with him.
“You ever done this before?” Not that he knew why he’d dragged Tony along with him, because honestly he was pretty sure they were as out of their depth as possible, in a store, surrounded by rings, with insane price tags, so that Clint could pick one for Kate.
Tony knew his way around a jewelry store. He’d purchased all kinds of things for all kinds of people--thank yous, birthdays, forgive mes (that was mostly for Pepper), etc--but he’d never purchased an engagement ring. He could tell by the way Clint carried his shoulders that all of this made his friend tense. And for good reason; it was big. This whole thing was big.
“No.” Tony said, moving to the glass case that housed the rings. They had diamonds on their own, settings and rings all separate, but there were also wedding sets. His eyes gravitated to the ones with the most sparkle first. “You’re gonna have to help narrow this down. Maybe by your price range?”
Of course, what did Tony know about budgets?
“Five numbers before the decimal.” Sure, Tony probably didn’t need to look at prices or anything, and while Clint was not made of money, he wasn’t exactly spending buckets of his savings. He had a fairly cheap apartment, and a well paying job even after the army. He wasn’t overly picky about the price tag… “But Kate’s not really a massive rock kind of girl…”
He knew she grew up wanting for nothing, knew that she probably grew up with designer everything. But with her self-defence classes and archery teaching, big rings would be way out of place. He really didn’t think she’d appreciate some over the top thing.
Was there somewhere between too much and not enough? Because he was pretty sure the big rocks with dozens of stones was too much, but the single diamond in a little silver band just looked lost too. “This is why I hate shopping.”
Tony nodded. He could count to five. And there was a comma in there somewhere, too, so that would help. He motioned toward the employee--who obviously recognised him and looked a little starry-eyed--to bring out the tray of engagement rings for them to look at.
“No, she definitely doesn’t seem like a massive rock kind of girl. Maybe more like a band?” Tony frowned. “Does she like things that sparkle? Don’t all women?”
“I think you might get hit for that remark in some places, but I guess?” Honestly, Clint maybe should’ve checked out Kate’s taste in jewellery before doing this. He at least knew her ring size though, that was something right? Meant it wasn’t a total spur of the moment idea. Just a ‘hey, we could do that’ sort of idea instead.
“Sparkle is okay. Not too sparkly?” The assistant gave him a look that clearly said ‘make up your mind’ but there was a process, and Clint figured he’d know it when he saw it. But Tony had a point, a band would maybe work best, couple of rocks in it would be fine. There was one that looked to just be a band that was just rocks all the way around, “Hey, can I see that one.” And the fact that he could see it from the distance anyway was pretty darned awesome too.
Tony’s eye went to two different bands in the case. There was one that looked like little diamonds all the way around, and another that was more smooth with stones set in it. He motioned toward those two rings and raised an eyebrow. “She’s got to like the stones, right?”
“These are wedding bands, sir,” the employee said, seemingly losing patience with the pair of them, even though he’d seemed keen to be serving the Tony Stark. “The Engagement rings typically have one larger stone set in the center of the band.”
Tony glanced at Clint. “...maybe you should get her a rock.”
Clint glanced up at the employee, giving him a raised eyebrow because who the fuck cared if it was a wedding band or not. “She’s an archer,” because he felt like that should explain everything, “a larger stone in the middle will screw with her balance.” And honestly, if he was going to spend a few thousand bucks on a ring for his girl he’d buy whatever one would work with her.
And considering their luck, he didn’t want anything so flashy that she ended up getting in yet another robbery issue. He bailed his brother out of jail enough, he didn’t want to start bailing Kate out of kicking attempted muggers asses.
“I need something balanced, not typical, thank you very much.” Clint did not appreciate the input, at least when it wasn’t helpful at all. “Can I see that one with the twist, or would you like to criticise some more?”
Patience, Clint had by the boatload. Just now while shopping.
It all made sense to Tony. If she was an archer, no rock. But hey, what did he know? Tony was shit when it came to this kind of thing. If he ever married Pepper, he’d just have her buy her own ring. If he ever married Pepper... What a thought. Where did that come from?
Tony leaned against the glass case, turning his back toward the employee, while the dick brought out the ring with the twist and the stone.
“I like this one,” Tony said, motioning to the one with the twist. “It’s elegant. Sparkly. And it has a stone.” He said, more a jab at the employee than anything else.
Clint was most concerned about the balance of it, too front heavy and it would throw off Kate’s grip, too thin and it would mess it up too. It was important that it didn’t happen so that, if there was a crisis at some point, Kate didn’t need to waste time getting a ring off before getting her bow out.
See, he was practical like that.
Getting a feel of the ring helped to let him figure out if that would be a problem. “This does suit her,” it wasn’t traditional, just a rock in the middle. It was different, classy still. And snot-nose there with his technically on the rings. “Okay, I think this is the one.”
That wasn’t too hard.
Even though Tony knew it wasn’t his personal choice, he couldn’t hold it against Clint to want to put a ring on it. Iron Man knew very well how the second Hawkeye made his friend feel. He could see it on Clint’s face whenever the brunette came up in conversation. He was pleased this was all happening, and Tony was already planning the world’s most amazing Stag Night.
Tony banged his hand against the counter in mirth. Gently, of course, as to not break anything or shuttle anything out of the way. He turned to the employee. “Wrap it up, Garcon, we’ll take it.”
The employee didn’t seem to notice that he was a bit of a dick. After putting the rest of the rings away, he took the one with the twist and moved to the register to put it in a box and wrap it nicely. For all that Clint was paying for the damn thing, it better come with a bow.
“So, when are you gonna ask?” Tony asked Clint as they moved around the counter toward the register. “You have all that planned out?”
Clint just snorted slightly at Tony before handing over his card while the dude got things sorted out. “I have no fucking idea.” And he didn’t, because Clint and plans didn’t get along, and even if he did plan things out he had a good idea that they would not go the way he wanted or thought they might. And he wasn’t really up for planning out contingencies for them all.
Give him an invasion or a bad guy to fight and he could plan that out with a dozen what if scenarios.
Give him his girlfriend to propose to and he was winging it the whole way. “I guess… I dunno, go out, see how it goes, pop the question?” Wasn’t it better to feel natural?
Hell if Tony should know how this sort of thing was supposed to go. He nodded, because all that made sense. Of course, Tony probably wouldn’t even have a ring ready to go if he did decide to pop the question. (Assuming, of course, that he had someone to ask in the first place.) He’d probably just ask when they were skydiving or whatever. Not that he could imagine Pepper skydiving.
That was a strange and random thought.
“It’s not like you even have to ask, really. You and Kate. It’s like peanut butter and jelly.” Tony mused, waiting while Clint signed the receipt. “This is just the formality part.”
With all the details sorted for the ring, bought, paid for, in a nice little box and ready to go, Clint just laughed a little. “Formality part, right. More like the nerve wracking part.” Not that he saw it going bad per say, no. He didn’t see Kate turning him down, not really, but there was still the little voice in his head saying he could screw this up.
“Maybe a random and sudden trip to Vegas is in order.” Pop the question there, let Elvis marry them the next day. Anyone could get a marriage license in Vegas.
“Yeah?” Tony perked up considerably at that idea. “You’re gonna elope? It has to be after the amazing bachelor party I’ve already got planned for you.” There still was a chance that she could say no. Tony didn’t see it happening, but it was possible.
“I sure hope I’m invited to Vegas. Orrrrr, you could take my jet.” That was Tony for you, digging for an invitation. Because Vegas, man. How could he not wanna go?
“Do you ever miss an excuse for a party? I mean, ever?” Not that he’d complain, complaining about Tony being overly nice was not something a person should do.
“But I dunno, I still need to ask her, I dunno if she wants a big thing or a little thing or a quiet thing.” Clint wouldn’t mind so long as they got to the vows part without anyone bleeding or some insane attack happening. “But yes, Tony. If we elope, in secret, we will be sure to take you to Vegas.” Because actually, if they could borrow the jet for that, well it would mean not going through airport security and that was a big plus.
“Please. Have you met me?” Was Tony’s only reply. Seriously. Would Tony Stark pass up that kind of opportunity? It only came once in a lifetime. (Well, hopefully. In this world. Because in the Dream World Clint had confessed to having been married a handful of times?)
“Good.” Tony held open the door for his friend so they could leave the jewelry store. “I’mma hold you to that. Now… you want Thai? I’m feeling the need for Thai.”