The dog days are over
The dog days are done
The horses are coming
So you better run

Run fast for your mother, run fast for your father
Run for your children, for your sisters and brothers
Leave all your love and your longing behind
You can't carry it with you if you want to survive

Steve had never stopped fighting from the moment he was born. Fighting poverty, fighting bullies, fighting his bad health, fighting Hydra, fighting Schmidt, fighting to find his place in the future, fighting Loki and the Chitauri. It seemed like no matter how far he came, there was always there was always something to fight for, fight against, or fight through.

It was no different when Darcy burst into his life one summer afternoon. He fought his attraction to her until she told him it was mutual. He fought to reconcile the morals he was raised with, with what he believed to her modern expectations to be, until she taught him that there was no prescribed time table their relationship. He fought the belief that good things in his life never last, by showing him unconditional love and patience. And when he fought his own insecurities by asking her to marry him, she absolved him by saying yes.

And when she said 'I do' in front of a small collection of their family and friends, Steve knew that at least for today the fight was over. And when the next thing invariably came up, because something always did, he would never be fighting alone again.