(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Steve scooped up the paper on his way in from his run, unfolding it to see what damage the new day has brought.

CAPTAIN AMERICA'S SECRET ELOPEMENT! it yelled up at him.

He snorted and laid it down on the counter in their kitchenette, skimming it as he assembled his post-workout snack.

"The nation's most eligible bachelor is single no longer! Captain America married Iron Man's cousin yesterday in a surprise ceremony at city hall. Sophia Carbonell, head librarian of the Stark Collection and organizer of the popular Storytime with Superheroes program, has been romantically linked to various members of The Avengers over the past two years, including Hawkeye, Bruce Banner and even infamous femme fatale Black Widow, but Iron Man informs the Bugle that the former Miss Carbonell has in fact been dating the good Captain since last January, and all the other rumors are false.

'Most of those rumors we started ourselves,' said Mr. Stark in an official statement. 'Not gonna lie, we just really like messing with you guys'."

Steve lost interest in the rest of the article, which alternately bemoaned that he was off the market, spun their relationship as a superhero flavored fairy tale, and even brought up Sophie's "wild past" and kidnapping, which Steve thought was rather graceless. He supposed it was only a matter of time before some jerk brought up her time in the psych treatment facilities, and wondered if they should bring it up before anyone else got a chance to, especially since the Stark Silver Ribbon campaign was going so well. And then he kind of hated himself for thinking about PR on his honeymoon.

He flipped back to the front page, studying the photo. Pepper had worked out some deal with The Daily Bugle where they had a photographer at the ceremony, a statement from Tony yesterday and an exclusive interview with Steve and Sophie today, complete with more pictures, which would run tomorrow, providing they ran nothing until the day after the wedding.

Steve wandered into the dining room, where Sophie was sitting, talking on the phone and idly flicking through something on her tablet.

"Yes, Mom. No. No. Mom, would you just—"

He dropped a kiss on her head and the paper in front of her. She read the headline, snorted, and handed him her tablet.

"Mom, as much as I know you would love to blame Tony for this, I can't—"

He glanced at the screen and realized what it was. The kid from the Bugle—Peter?—had come with the journalist to take more pictures with the interview that morning, and before he left, he'd handed Sophie a thumbdrive.

"I figured you might want these," he had said, his words rushed. "It's, um, everything I took yesterday. They're not edited, I just did a quick run through to try and take out the ones with weird faces or where someone's blinking or whatever, but I didn't see any other photographers, and I thought you might like some of the more candid ones."

"Thanks," Steve had said. "That's really kind of you."

The kid had blushed and opened his mouth as if to say something, but the reporter had called him over and he bolted.

Steve had shaken his head at the picture in the Bugle, one of him and Sophie on some steps in city hall, flanked by Natasha, Clint and Pepper on Sophie's side, and Tony, Bruce and Thor on Steve's. Sophie looked stunning, in a white pencil dress and silver t-straps, a blue rose in her hair. Steve looked…more than a little bit of an idiot, but that probably couldn't be helped. At least he'd escaped from wearing his costume, instead dressed in his old olive green army uniform, which Tony had said he'd found buried in storage somewhere, but Steve secretly suspected had been recreated, just so the pictures would look Captain America-y. It looked like a promo shot from a movie, something posed and glittery and not altogether honest.

Now, as Steve flicked through them, he saw why someone so young was getting gigs photographing Captain America's wedding. The guy had talent, an eye for catching moments that said infinitely more about people than any posed photo ever could.

Tony looking at Pepper like she was the best thing in the world as she laughed at one of Bruce's dry jokes. Clint and Natasha, looking sideways at each other, only Steve's close knowledge of their body language letting him know what that look meant for both of them. Thor and Jane from the back, Jane leaning her head on his arm as he looked down at her fondly. Darcy looking flabbergasted when something she'd said made Phil throw back his head and laugh.

A picture of the two of them right after the ceremony in black and white, when they were all getting situated for the group pictures, Sophie laughing up at him as he grinned dopily down at her after he made some crack about her silver shoes and clicking her heels, proud as ever when it made her laugh. With her dress and the way she'd done her hair, all waves and curls, and his army uniform…it had an almost timeless quality, almost a wedding like a thousand other wartime weddings, and for some reason that made him smile.

A close up of the wedding rings before the ceremony, Sophie's an unassuming art deco band with a wheat motif and Steve's gold with an almost invisible claddagh etched on the outside. He couldn't really make out the inner engravings from the picture, but he knew them anyway. He'd stolen Sophie's ring a week before the wedding, and put it back a day later, without her even noticing until she'd picked it up to try it on for the umpteenth time—his girl loved her shiny things.

She'd plunked it down in front of him, eyes narrowed. He blinked up at her innocently.

"What is this, Elvish? Because that would be nerdy even for you, Steve."

He contrived to look offended.

"It's Irish," he said. Her expression softened, because he didn't bring up the Irish thing much, but when he did, it clearly meant something. She picked up the ring, tracing over the words with a fingertip.

"Mian mo chroi," he said, quietly. She looked up at him, their eyes meeting. He smiled, soft and just a little bit helpless, so in love with her it almost hurt. "My heart's desire."

He watched as she caught the meaning—that he wanted her, no one but her, no matter how broken she ever felt. She said nothing, just leaned down to kiss him, but the morning of their wedding he grabbed their rings and noticed something new on his.

Engraved on the inside, right under the heart of the claddagh, was the word yes.

He glanced over at her now, still on the phone with her mother, trying to explain why she'd wanted a quiet civil ceremony instead of some massive blowout party and not getting very far. He dragged the last two pictures up side by side, typed a little note that said "We should print out these two and get them framed" and got up to set the tablet back in front of Sophie.

She looked up at him and nodded, saying into the phone "Well, you can plan the giant reception all you want, as long as you don't actually expect either of us there."

There was an indignant squawking on the other end and Sophie covered the mic.

"Sorry. Mom's kind of freaking out about this. I guess she always dreamed of having her little girl have some massive poufy fairy tale thing. I thought I'd be done by now."

"Have you been talking to her the whole time I've been gone?"

Sophie nodded, rolling her eyes. "Because there's really nothing I'd rather be doing for the precious few days I get with my husband in a romantic B&B in the Catskills before the oncoming media shitstorm than try to keep my mother from having a conniption fit."

Steve's mouth quirked, because there were several things he'd rather be doing, ranging from lunch, to swimming, because it was stupidly hot for June, to Sophie herself. He reached over and plucked the phone from her hand.

"Mrs. Carbonell? This is Steve Rogers."

Sophie heard the squawking stop.

"Yes, I know it seems rather sudden, but your daughter is an adult, and a very intelligent one too. You did an excellent job raising her, by the way."

Sophie heard her mother say something else, but there was significantly less squawking.

"I'm afraid the decision to keep it under wraps was my fault. I'm not very comfortable with large events, and Sophia was sweet enough to compromise. I'm a very lucky man."

Sophie stared. Steve winked at her.

"I am sorry. I know you wanted something different for Sophie, what mother wouldn't want to show off a daughter like her? I'm just too shy, and I get enough of that kind of thing in my work life, I'm sure you can understand," he said, his voice radiating sincerity and the apologetic aw-shucks thing that for some reason made older women pat his cheek and call him sweetie.

And apparently worked on her mother.

"Of course we'd love to come out soon to meet everyone. Sophie's told me so much about her family. Yes, I'll tell her. I look forward to meeting you in person. Thank you, ma'am, you too."

Steve hung up and gave Sophie back her phone.

"Your mother says she loves you. And I bet you twenty bucks the next time she calls, it'll be to invite you to a family reunion so she can show off your new husband because he's such a sweet boy, so polite, and she doesn't want to overwhelm him by throwing a party for the both of us."

Sophie stared some more.

"…how..?"

Steve grinned, flicking his fingers out in bad salute.

"Steven Rogers, tactical genius, at your service."

Sophie shook her head.

"You are a devious, devious man," she said.

"You love me for it," he countered. She just smiled and shook her head again.

"Well, Captain Rogers," she said, regarding him over the tops of her purple glasses.

"Well, Miss Carbonell?"

"Now what?"

He stood up and pulled her into his arms.

"Now I think this is the part where I take you upstairs and show you just how devious I can be."

She wrapped her arms around his neck as he picked up and set off for their room.

"And just how devious is that, exactly?"

"Very," he said, nudging open their door and laying down on their bed, stretching out beside her. "But I promise you'll enjoy it."

She grinned up at him, green eyes lit with mischief and desire. "You promise, huh?"

"Oh yes," he said, skimming her side with one hand. She leaned into his touch. "And I keep my promises."

"I know," she said, pulling him down for a kiss. "You always do."

Notes:

And this is it, lovely people. Thank you so much for sticking with me til the end, it's been a helluva ride. Thank you for all your kudos and comments and views. I am so very glad if you enjoyed yourselves.

Also, yes, Spider-man took pictures of Captain America's wedding. I had throw Peter in there somewhere because he's an adorable snarky awkward bastard and I love him.

But anyway. 'Til next time, dear readers!

Notes Vol 2:

I'm writing a sequel featuring everyone's favorite metal armed assassin. It is a lot more queer. Check it out on my A03: /users/elzebrook