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Since he was a kid, Rhodey had always been the reliable one. The kind of guy who, you give them a job to do, the job gets done. Who handed his homework in on time at school, got his chores done without being nagged, and then showed up on time to meet his friends after; who always took on exactly as much as he could do and got it done; who could balance off his obligations against each other and make it work.
That record lasted until MIT.
Then Tony Stark happened.
If there was ever a spanner in James Rhodes' works, it was probably Tony Stark who put it there. He was unpredictable and irrepressible and irreverent and completely off the rails; and Rhodey fell into friendship with him without knowing what had happened, and by the first time he found himself thinking (sitting on a rooftop in the rain, drunk on both vodka and adrenaline, with his eyebrows singed off and Tony leaning on his shoulder and laughing hysterically) I have made a terrible mistake, it wasn't a mistake he could have fixed, even if he wanted to.
He has the feeling that night that that is going to be a recurring thought in his life, and he is not wrong. Sometimes it seems Tony is the only problem he won't ever be able to solve, and somehow that only makes him more magnetic; Rhodey can't ever pull away, there's always something that needs to be done – even if he can't always work out how to do it, he can see that it needs doing. Even if it wasn't his job – and Tony might be his friend, but that doesn't mean being given the job of liasing with him doesn't feel like an indication that someone hates him – he would be there.
And then there's Afghanistan, and life around Tony goes from “frustrating and a little crazy” to “terrifying and certifiably insane”.
Rhodey has more and more moments these days when he feels out of his depth in a way he never has before – with Tony, you're never quite on solid ground, but the shore always used to be at least in sight. Now, open ocean, and flickers in the deep that are probably sharks.
There are scales he can't balance, there are loyalties that can't be reconciled, when his duty to the military and his duty to his friend collide, but he can weather them, he will weather them, because at the core of him, his driving force, is that he will make things work out.
Tony has drawn him always, partly because he is a rush of chaos and Rhodey cannot help but be caught up in his wake, and some of that is the knowledge that someone has to pick up the pieces. It is no coincidence that Tony's closest friends are Rhodey and Pepper; Pepper is order to Tony's chaos; Rhodey strives to be the steady place in his storm. They ground him and he lifts them; they are his mirrors and his complements, and that is why they have lasted so long – Tony could not last long around someone else like Tony; they would crash down in flames (and the resulting explosion would be felt for miles).
And there is no-one quite like Tony, will never be. Rhodey knows this: he will never find someone else who draws him as Tony does, who is as maddening and as fascinating and as magnetic, and he wouldn't want to (doesn't think he could stand it).
He has other friends, of course; lovers; he has many people who he loves. But it's not quite the same thing; and Tony is somehow always what he ends up coming back to. What Tony needs from him is to be there, and he is there, whenever and however he can.
It sounds kind of stupid if he says it out loud, that his life ends up revolving around Tony Stark. But Tony is like that, he pulls you in, and you end up orbiting him. When he's in a room, he's the most important thing in the room, and even when he's not around he's liable to pop up at any time and expect you to be ready to devote your attention to him – and somehow, Rhodey always does, mostly willingly.
It would practically be a relationship, if it weren't for two factors: one, Tony and Pepper's gradual dance into coupledom, and two, the fact that Rhodey is pretty sure Tony isn't interested in him that way (barring a few drunken fumbles, but Tony does that with everybody). So it's friendship, and the fact that the most important person in his life is his male best friend is not in any way a problem, or so Rhodey keeps telling himself.
He doesn't expect anything else, and so he's surprised when Tony apparently decides that the best way to evade a lecture is to kiss him. (Possibly, Rhodey thinks, Tony is too used to Pepper. Does this work on Pepper?)
There are a thousand and one reasons why this is a terrible idea, and he is fully aware of all of them; and yet he still goes along with it, in the same way that he has been caught up in so many strange Tony-related things. And at least going along with this one isn't likely to result in death, maiming, or massive property damage, which puts it head and shoulders above a lot of the other things Tony has had him doing over the years.
On the other hand, if Tony thinks he can get out of listening to Rhodey this easily, he is dead wrong.
As Rhodey intends to prove.
Tony acquiesces suprisingly easily to being pinned to the floor with Rhodey on top of him. Which, this being Tony, means he keeps up a steady flow of complaints until Rhodey puts a hand over his mouth to shut him up. He doesn't actually fight this, either, which, this being Tony, is effectively enthusiastic consent.
Apparently Tony will actually take a talking-to if it comes with a side order of being pinned down and fucked.
Rhodey intends to take full advantage of this, in more ways than one.