When Daniel was eight, his vó Rute passed away.
After the funeral, after the burial, after the tears, and after the pain, Daniel's pai had handed him a small box
"Rute wanted you to have this, Daniel," pai had said, a sad smile on his face. "Said it should go to the grandson most like her Amancio."
Daniel practiced getting down on one knee.
When his pai had handed him the ring of vó Rute's, he hadn't ever imagined that he would have to practice the simple action of getting down on one knee.
He stood in front of his mirror, watching his reflection grimace at the sight before him.
He couldn't do it quickly. Probably would never be able to. He took nearly a minute to kneel. A dark part of his mind couldn't help but point out that Captain America could probably have knelt fifty times in that one minute.
The ring was gold. The exterior was engraved with simple leaves. The interior held the phrase "anjo na terra."
Angel on Earth.
After Daniel had made the decision to propose, he kept the box with him at all time. He didn't want to risk either losing it, or missing the perfect moment.
After a month with the ring in his pocket, he realized that when he was nervous, he tended to fiddle with the box. He'd never remove from his pocket, but would simply run his fingers over the box.
He also realized that most of the fiddling was done when Peggy was near.
Vó Rute had told Daniel the story of how she met Vô Amancio once.
She had spent all of her life in Portugal. Lived in Lisbon, in one of the wealthier areas. When she was fifteen, she and a friend had decided to spend the day in one of the toughest areas of the city. Vó Rute had insisted it had been her friends idea, but Daniel knew better.
The two girls had been there for two hours before they got into danger. Several older boys had cornered them in an alley. But before they got a chance to touch Rute and her friend, a much older boy had come to their rescue. Amancio was twenty-three, and vó fell in love with him at first sight.
Daniel couldn't remember when their relationship had shifted. He just knew that one day while they were pouring over a report, he had glanced up at her and been struck silent by her beauty.
He had known Peggy was beautiful from the beginning, but he had also managed to push it from his mind, to focus on the job.
After his realization, it became much harder to ignore the speeding of his heart or the slowing of his tongue when she was near.
Vô Amancio was still in Portugal. Vó Rute had said he was buried in their churches graveyard. Daniel didn't know much about the graveyard, but he knew it was one of the poorer parishes.
Vó had been disowned when she's married Vô.
Pai had told Daniel once that the hardest part of coming to America was telling his mother that she would have to leave Amancio.
Inés and Carlota said she cried herself to sleep every night on the boat.
It was Peggy who finally cemented their relationship as not a friendship but a romance.
It was after a particularly bad mission. Daniel had been stupid - he'd gotten himself first kidnapped then stabbed - and Peggy had been level headed - she'd managed to rescue him and then stitch him up.
At around midnight he was lying in the infirmary, the excitement had settled down several hours before, Peggy had returned. She had gone with Thompson and Dooley and the rest of the agents to have drinks, and Daniel had most certainly not been jealous. When she'd entered the room, he had been fighting against his bodies desire to fall asleep, preferring instead to wallow in self pity.
"The other agents are planning on taking you out for drinks when you're healed; I thought that after the week we've had, you shouldn't have to wait," she started, holding up a bottle of aguardente and smiling at him. "Besides, any excuse to raid Stark's alcohol storage is an excuse I will jump at.
The two spent the next several hours, drinking and laughing. Around two, Peggy had gotten very serious.
"What's wrong, Peg?" Daniel had asked, sensing the shift in emotion in the woman.
"I once prided myself on my ability to remain level headed in an emergency. You're only the second person to have thwarted that ability, and the first went down with a plane somewhere in the Arctic. I cried when he went down. I didn't even cry when I found out that my childhood home had been destroyed in the Blitz. My sister had already moved, and my mother and father had died before the war even started.
"When the chief told us that you had been taken, I had to excuse myself. I went to ladies room, and I cried again. I was terrified that I might not ever get the chance to tell you that at some of my lowest points, it was you who helped remind me that everything the other agents were saying was false. I was terrified that I had spent the last several months trying to find the perfect to time to tell you that I care for you as more than a friend for nothing. I was terrified that we might never find you, and that I might have to attend another funeral with another empty coffin of another man I had grown to love.
"So, perhaps after the other agents take you out for drinks, you and I could have dinner?"
Before Daniel was shipped out, he gave the ring to Carlota. He had told her that if he didn't make it back, it was hers. His eldest sister hadn't cried, simply nodded and given her brother a tight hug.
After Daniel was shipped home, Carlota gave the ring back. She had told him that she had always known he would make it back. He hadn't cried, simply nodded and given his eldest sister a tight hug.
On May 9th, over ten months after Daniel had shared drinks with Peggy in the SSR infirmary, he proposed. He got down to one knee in the office of the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Peggy Carter, and asked her to let him have the honor of being her husband. Peggy dropped to her knees right in front of him, repeating the word he hoped to hear; yes. She kissed him soundly and swiftly, not giving him a chance to say a thing.
After the kiss had ended, she gave him a chance to slip the simple gold band with it's engraved leaves and engraved phrase on her hand. He had given her a raw smile before going back to pressing his lips to her.
That was how Colonel Chester Phillips found the two; kneeling in the empty office with their arms around each other.
After Daniel had been home for several months after the war, during one of his lowest points, he had tried to give Inés the ring. Inés had steadfastly refused, calling him an tolo, a fool, instead. He had tried to explain that the ring was useless in his hands, that no one would want to marry him now with his leg, as a crip.
Inés had responded with a slap, and then a bone crushing hug. Daniel had felt his shoulder grow damp as his sister whispered that he was more than the prosthetic, that he was still her irmãozinho perfeito, her perfect little brother. She told him that only a cachorra would be unable to see past the crutch.
He had cried into her shoulder in response.
The wedding was on October 7th, held on the grounds of Stark's mansion; the inventor had insisted, saying he couldn't in good conscience allow them to not. Peggy hadn't wanted to accept the offer - she was still bitter about what Howard had done - but had finally done so when Daniel had pointed that it would allow them to put their money to some other use. At the time, Daniel had been thinking of their honeymoon, but Stark had also decided to pay for that. Ultimately, the money ended up going to a small brownstone.
Angie was Peggy's maid-of-honor, and one of the men from Daniel's company, Elliot Hill, was his best-man. The two hit it off right away, sharing a love of film.
Peggy's dress was simple but elegant, made for her by Anna Jarvis. The other woman had smiled brightly as she saw Peggy walk down the aisle, tears already forming.
But Daniel hadn't noticed any of it. He had been unable to look away from his bride-to-be. He had long ago realized how beautiful Peggy was, but as she walked toward him, he also realized how blessed he was to be who she chose. He knew that he was grinning like a fool, but he couldn't bring himself to care.
Vó Rute had described her wedding as perfect.
It had been only her, vô Amancio, and the priest in a rundown church that they went to every Sunday. The dress she wore was the same one she wore when she met vô.
The flowers she carried were ones picked from the church garden, and tied together with twine.
She had explained that it wasn't perfect because of the where or the when or the why or the how. It was perfect because of the who.
The new couple visited three places; London, Paris, and Lisbon. They filled their days with sightseeing and shopping on Stark's dime, and their nights with conversation and passion.
Daniel had been a given a small camera by Edwin Jarvis before the new couple had left. The butler had explained the gift by telling Daniel that his biggest regret was that he and Anna hadn't gotten the chance to capture their honeymoon on film. Daniel had nodded, clapping the man on the shoulder and promising that he would take as many pictures as he could.
In London, they explored the underground, visited the location of Peggy's family home, ran across Westminster Bridge in the rain, and visited the gravesite of Gail and Goodwin Carter.
In Paris, they dined beneath the Eiffel Tower, kissed in the Square des Batignolles, had their image painted in Montmartre, looked at the paintings in the Louvre.
In Lisbon, they watched the operetta A Capital Federal Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, viewed the home his família had left, climbed as high in the Belém Tower as they were allowed, and visited the gravesite of Almancio Sousa.
When Daniel was seven, he had asked vó Rute how he would know when he was in love.
She had sat quietly for several minutes - Daniel had actually started to think she hadn't heard him - before she answered.
"Você acorda de manhã, e seu primeiro pensamento é deles. Você dorme à noite, e seu último pensamento é deles. É assim que você sabe que está no amor."
You wake in the morning, and your first thought is of them. You sleep in the evening, and your last thought is of them. That is how you know you are in love.
A.N.
Translations:
(quite helpfully provided by Google Translate and corrected by AdharaBlack)
(portuguese = english)
pai = father
vó = gram
vô = gramps
anjo na terra = angel on earth
aguardente = an alcoholic beverage in many spanish countries, similar to brandy
tolo = fool
irmãozinho perfeito = perfect little brother
cachorra = bitch
família = family