More Glasses

Chapter Three: Tony is Watching

Tony watched Peter, who had his back to him, as the kid read over some plans Tony had drafted after requesting not to have such a hands on afternoon with tools and such. Tony had noticed Peter's strange actions as soon as he walked through the door with Happy and continued to observe them throughout their afternoon together. Tony decided to test one of his theories and deliberately made a math mistake on one of his equations for his own Iron Man suit.

"Pete, come here, come check out this design. I want your opinion on the repulsor charge times the damage when we're shooting long distance with the extra charge in high altitudes." Tony called Peter over and watched the kid as he jumped down from his stool at the workbench in front of the computer, stumbling slighting before dragging his feet across the smooth floor of Tony's garage to where Tony was sitting in front of his blue prints.

Tony didn't move the paper from where it was resting on the table, and let Peter look at it, leaning over Tony's shoulder to do so.

"I-It all looks good Mr Stark!" Peter gave Tony a big smile while Tony just stared back at him with a frown. The kid should have picked up on his mistake, it was a simple equation that the kid had completed before.

"Sure," the syllables were drawn out long, "hey, are you feeling alright today." Tony watched as the kid tensed slightly at the question.

"Y-Yeah, I-I'm fine... Why d-do you ask?" Tony just made a small humming sound and shot up from his own stool, causing Peter to stumble back slightly, standing a few feet apart from Peter.

"Because there is a mistake in this equation right here," Tony pointed, "and you didn't seem to pick up on it, hm? What? Lose your smarts?" Peter stood there shocked while Tony continued to stare. "Okay, now I want you to do something for me," Peter shook out of his stupor and cocked his head slightly, "you stay right there and I'm going to ask you a few questions, alright?"

"Sure?"

Tony reached into the toolbox next to him and pulled out a ring-spanner, holding it out to his left with his left hand, "Now tell me Peter... What type of tool am I holding up?"

Peter squinted his eyes, "Uh... A... ring-spanner?" the answer was drawn out.

"Lucky guess" Tony thought about it, putting the tool down and pretending to look for another tool to quiz Peter on.

"Uh, M-Mr Stark, I'm confused why are you-" Tony cut Peter off.

"Okay, what tool am I holding up now?" Peter stared hard at Tony for a while, eyes still squinting before he answered.

"Aviation shea-"

"No, trick question, I'm not holding anything." Tony sighed, "Peter... where are your glasses?"

Peter pretends to look at the wristwatch he doesn't have, "Mr Stark, it's getting late, I should really start heading out now before it gets too dark and May starts to worry." Peter had turned around and was beginning to shuffle his way towards where he knew he placed his bag, but a stern voice stopped him.

"Peter, I won't ask again, where are your glasses?" Peter sighed and murmured out a response, "You have to speak louder kid, I'm not as young as I used to be."

"I don't have a pair..."

"And you don't have any specs because...?"

"Flash broke them when – I-I m-mean, I-I dropped them on the floor, a-and Flash was walking pass and accidently stepped on them." Tony's eyes narrowed at Peters rushed response, but he chose to ignore his nervousness.

"Well, why don't you have a spare pair for when situations like this occur?"

"U-U-Uh..."

"Out with it Peter."

"Because I only have one pair, well I only had one pair, because my old ones weren't strong enough and I didn't want to spend too much of Mays money so I said that it was probably only temporary, a onetime thing, and only brought one cheap pair." Tony was silent as he absorbed Peter's response. Peter was wringing his hands together in his blue sweater, staring at the floor before he reached up towards his forehead and rubbed at the existing headache there.

"Why do you need the glasses anyway? Didn't the spider bite fix your eyesight or something?"

"A-Actually, very few spiders have good eyesight, like day active jumping spiders and flower spiders a-and the wolf spider a-a-and the net-casting spider. The others rely more on touch, v-vibration and taste stimuli to navigate and find their prey s-so they pretty much are able to detect little more than light-dark intensity changes that stimulate nocturnal web building and hunting and w-wandering activities and-"

"And why does this concern me?"

"Uh, I can't see?"

"You can't see?"

"U-Uh, well you see, haha, yeah you do, no but um... My eyesight was already pretty bad before the bite; I guess I got astigmatism from my dad's genes... But since the spider bite, m-my eyesight has gotten bad, like, really bad. Bad to the point where I had to get new glasses in the strongest strength they could go before I had to get it specially made, and even then, it's still not so good but, I didn't want May to spend her money she has saved up, on me... It's kinda like, have you ever spent hours in a chlorine pool and didn't use goggles?" Tony didn't answer, but Peter didn't exactly wait for one before he started talking again, "And you get that weird white glow, almost angelic, around everything? Add a cloud of blur on top of that that almost makes most objects blur together and that's what my eyesight is like... " Peter mumbled out the rest of his response as Tony let out an tired sigh but then froze.

"Kid why didn't you tell me – wait... does this mean... during the fight at the airport..." Tony was at a loss as his eyes widened. Peter was back to staring at the floor.

"I told you I could have stuck the landing a little better..."

"So, you're saying you fought practically blind against a bunch of rogue Avengers and all you're telling me is you could have stuck the landing a little better?" Peter didn't say anything. "Is this why you freaked out when I checked on you after you got wiped-out by that tic-tac? You couldn't see who I was? Couldn't tell if I was on the same side?" Peter shrugged his shoulders.

Tony stared at the kid for another moment before he groaned, turned and picked up his car keys before he was back next to Peter. With one hand on his back, Tony guided Peter towards to silver elevator doors, picking up Peters backpack and shouldering it as he went by, twirling his car keys around his fingers.

"W-W-Where a-are we going?"

"We're getting you more glasses." Peter started to stumble out an excuse, but Tony ignored him, hand leaving Peters back as he pushed the button for the elevator.

"I'll get his eyes tested by my optometrist; buy him a few cheap pairs of frames for the lenses I'll get made for him. Give him one pair and sneak the rest of them into his backpack so he doesn't complain about being spoiled. I'll text him later about leaving a pair in his locker, at home... Oh, and I'll get him a pair to keep here, just in case, maybe leave some with Happy. He's going to need another suit upgrade too..."

"Hey, so how the hell have you been getting around all day if this Flash guy smashed your glasses?"

Peter gulped.