[warnings: standard captain america spoilers, just some textbook fluff to start this off]

People liked to say that the defining part of Captain America was that glorious shield he wielded.

Without it, some believed that he wouldn't be the hero he was today.

And perhaps that was true to some extent, the Captain and his shield have always worked together, side by side in flawless synchronization and harmony.

If you spotted that red, white and blue frisbee, you knew the star-spangled man with a plan was somewhere nearby.

That, however, was Captain America and not Steve Rogers. Steve Rogers had a shield of his own.

You were Steve's shield, in more ways than one.

When he first woke up from the ice, you were the one who brought him from the chaos of Times Square to the apartment you had so carefully chosen. Fury had tasked you, and only you with helping him get accustomed to the twenty-first century.

You kept a careful eye on him and brought him to the secluded but peaceful gym that eventually would become one of Steve's favorite places. You were the one who taught him how to turn a tv on and off, and what that waitress at Starbucks meant by free wireless. You showed him how cars really hadn't changed that much in the last seventy years and why Howard Stark's vision of the flying car never became a reality

Your kindness and friendship became familiar very quickly, in a world that seemed everything but familiar. He often worried that he was a bother and thought his endless questions were tiresome. But you smiled and laughed every time he worried and assured that his curiosity was anything but boring.

You were the one who risked her entire career as a SHIELD agent by helping Steve break into a restricted vault on the helicarrier only to find stockpiles of ex-HYDRA weaponry to both of your dismays. You had comforted him and helped drag the evidence to Fury's face, fully prepared to be fired if it meant revealing the horrid truth.

You were the one who saved Steve from falling off of the helicarrier when he was out helping Iron Man fix the engines as Loki's forces attempted to send the aircraft falling through the sky.

You were the one who made sure that Steve understood that nothing, not even Captain America himself would stop you from avenging Coulson's death after he tried to convince you to stay on the helicarrier.

You were the one who ran through the streets of New York beside him, watching his back just the same he was for you.

You were the one he finally learned to trust once everything was over and one he was afraid to say goodbye to once New York was finally safe.

You were the one to reassure that you definitely weren't going anywhere anytime soon.

You were the one who made him Steve smile after showing him his first viral cat video (which he would later become obsessed with to your delight).

You were the one who convinced him to rejoin SHIELD and persuaded Fury to make him your partner.

You were the one who got help from Steve as you two packed your apartments for two neighboring ones in Washington D.C.

You were the one who woke up at godforsaken hours to accompany Steve on morning runs because you didn't want him to be alone.

You were the one who accompanied him to the Smithsonian, holding his hand and being the support he needed when you both came across Bucky's memorial.

You were the one who wasn't at all surprised to find Steve sprinting through the hallway and out the windows and followed him without a second thought.

You were the first person he trusted with Fury's truth and agreed to help him end Hydra, once and for all.

You were the one who held him together as he tried not to break when the Winter Soldier was revealed to be the one and only Bucky Barnes.

You were the one he promised to take on a date after this was all over and the one who excitedly said yes.

You were the one who took two bullets to the side for him at the Triskelion, so he could go on and take the Insight carriers down.

You were the one he never wanted to leave behind but pushed forward because he knew how frustrated you would be with him later if he didn't.

You were the person's whose name he mumbled once he came to in the hospital room, and it took all of Sam's energy to keep him in his bed when all he wanted to see was you.

You were the one whose bedside Steve stayed by, for the two weeks until you woke up.

You were the one he cried for and the one he soon realized he loved, more than anything he'd ever felt before.

Years and years later, you stayed by his side.

Through evil robots, civil wars and everything in between you were always beside him.

Every step of the way you were there, and if a civilian saw you sprinting down the street, you could be damn sure that Steve Rogers was on your left, racing into battle right beside you.

After all, you were the one he got down on one knee for.

And obviously, you were the one who said yes.

(900 words)