Chapter Text
“Hey Lena, hey Bucky,” Amelia called as she strolled into the Avengers Tower lobby like she totally lived there.
Yelena raised a brow. “Hey, kid. What are you doing here?”
“Oh y’know,” Amelia said, shrugging as she passed them, “just need to go through my dead father’s belongings for my school project.”
Both assassins froze. Bucky blinked. Yelena mouthed what the— but Amelia was already halfway down the hall toward an old storage room marked REYNOLDS.
When she came back lugging two dusty boxes stacked in her arms, Bucky finally found his voice.
“You’ve got a project on him? Why him?”
“It was random!” Amelia said, adjusting the boxes before they toppled. “Teacher picked names out of a hat, and boom—my dead dad.”
“Wow. And the teacher didn’t ask if you wanted to switch heroes?” Yelena asked.
“Nope. I don’t think he even knows he was my father,” Amelia muttered.
“The last names didn’t connect for him?” Bucky asked.
“Or maybe,” a new voice cut in, dry as sandpaper, “he just doesn’t like you.”
Amelia spun. “Since when are you here?”
“Since you walked into the tower,” John Walker said, leaning against the wall like he’d been there since 1945.
“How did I not notice you?” she muttered, baffled.
John shrugged. “Stealth.”
“Anyway—oh! John, John—tell Jess I’m free on Saturday, so she should call me,” Amelia said with a wink as she passed him on her way out.
John groaned. “Still don’t like that she’s dating my daughter.”
“Aww, Reynolds and Walker used to be enemies, and now the mini-mes are dating,” Yelena sing-songed.
Bucky snorted. John rolled his eyes so hard they almost hit the floor.
Joaquin was waiting in the car, drumming the steering wheel. “Got the boxes?”
“Yep,” Amelia said, tossing them into the back seat.
He put the car in drive, but his voice softened. “Honey, are you sure you want to do the project on him? I can talk to your teacher. Get you a different hero.”
“Nah, I’m good,” Amelia said with a smile that was a little too bright. “Kinda happy I get to do my project on the great Sentry.”
Joaquin chuckled, but there was a flicker of pain behind it. Amelia caught it immediately.
“Dad… you don’t have to help me,” she murmured.
“I do,” he said gently. “You barely know anything about him.”
“Lena told me a ton of stories!”
“Oh yeah? Put in your project how he always did the dishes and cried at dog movies,” Joaquin muttered.
Amelia snorted. “Honestly tempted.”
She sighed, leaning her head back. “I’m gonna have to present this in front of my whole class.”
“Does everyone have to present?” Joaquin asked, merging into traffic.
“Nope. Just me.”
“Why just you?”
“’Cause I, uh… skipped school too many times to go smoke with Jess.”
Joaquin nearly slammed the brakes. “Okay, love that you trust me enough to tell me, but one—smoking is terrible for you, powers or not. Two—do not skip school. Especially not with Jess. John will literally murder me if he finds out.”
“Please,” Amelia scoffed. “More like he’ll resurrect Dad just to kill him again.”
Joaquin shot her a look, but he was fighting a smile.
“And also,” Amelia added, “John already caught us once. He was half asleep and thought we were you and Ava.”
Joaquin groaned into his hands. “Fantastic.”
They drove a minute in silence before he asked, “So… what do you need for the project?”
“Just the basics,” Amelia said. “How his story started, how he became a hero, what he was like… how he died, and—”
She hesitated, voice dropping.
“Why he died.”
Joaquin didn’t answer right away. He just reached over, took her hand, and held it tight.