Peters was not having the best Thursday. He had started his day waking up with a raging headache. Stumbling over the mess in his room, trying to find his new glasses, which were missing from his bedside table where they should have been.
Chasing a stolen car caused Peter to come back from patrol a lot later than he would have liked, causing him to stay up later to complete his homework and assignments that were due the following day – he must have misplaced his glasses at some point after completing homework, between the tired journey from his desk to his bed.
The search for his glasses were making him increasingly late for school as the minutes passed and he eventually had to ask Aunt May to come in and help him locate the missing glasses for him.
They were under his bed.
He missed the subway train he would usually take to school because of the morning misadventure and had to wait for the next one, which made him late, and by the time he had gotten to school, his first class for the day was already well underway meaning he missed homeroom.
Arriving late to class had caused him to gain extra attention from people he was always hoping to avoid. He stumbled through the classroom door of his first class, new glasses slipping down to the tip of his nose, the stack of books Peter was barely holding onto just about to slip out of his hands and fall to the floor.
Everyone in the room were silent as they watched him collect himself, pulling the books up higher against his chest and pushing his glasses back into their proper position. The teacher began telling him off about his lateness as he made his way towards the back of the class where his empty desk sat. Dropping his books down onto the desk and letting his backpack fall of his shoulder as he fell into the plastic chair, Peter let out a heavy sigh, letting his head collapse on top of his stack of books with a soft thump.
“What made you so late to school today Penis Parker? Huh?” Flash was walking behind him as Peter made his way through the crowd of students towards his locker, trying to avoid the bully. “Working late at that Stark Internship you have, huh?” Flash emphasized on the words Stark Internship while using exaggerated air quotes, “If you know what I mean.” Flash’s goons snickered behind him. Peter turned around at this comment to stare straight into Flash’s eyes, mouth opening to say a retort before he changed his mind, shaking his head and turning back around to continue trying to make his way down the busy hallway towards his locker. “Oi, don’t ignore me Penis Parker! Hey!” Peter pushed past students, the speed of his walk increasing as he tried to get far away from Flash’s taunting.
When he arrived at his locker, Ned was there waiting for him as usual, leaning against the unoccupied lockers next to Peters.
“Hey Ned,” sighing, Peter dropped his backpack onto the floor, opened his locker and began stuffing his books inside, grabbing any books he knew he would need for homework, “How was your last class?”
“Yeah, it was alright Mrs-“
“Penis Parker!” Ned never got to finish his sentence, Flashs name calling interrupting it. Peter breathed out a heavy sigh rolling his eyes shut, closing his locker and letting his head fall onto the door as he locked it.
“Hey, I… I gotta take care of a few things… is it alright if I text you later, after the Stark Internship and all?”
“Are you sure? I can stay as back up you know.”
“N-No no, I’ll be fine… Well, you know I can kick their buts into next Thursday, but you know… Plus, the last time you came home with a bruise, your mum freaked – and didn’t your mum say that she needed you home early today or something?”
“Oh shit, I forgot about that! I gotta run! See ya’ Peter! Sorry I can’t stay! Text me!” Ned was already jogging out of the schools front doors, throwing peter one last concerned look before he disappeared around the corner.
Suddenly, the strong overpowering stench of men’s body spray filled Peter’s nose, making him scrunch it up in disgust. This could mean one of two things, he has walked into the cologne section of the pharmacy, or Flash Thompson is right behind him.
“Penis Parker,” the name was drawn out in a sneer, “you think you’re so smart and cool ignoring me, ha! What a pathetic joke you are!” Flash continued to laugh as Peter turned around to face his bully, shoulder leaning against the lockers.
“Can we wrap this up Flash, I have places to be.” Peter’s phone vibrated in his jean pocket, undoubtedly an angry text from Happy, who he should be in the car with by now, driving towards Tony’s workshop instead of standing in front of Flash.
“You’ve got your little Stark Internship on this afternoon do you Peter, huh?” Peter didn’t reply to the comment, pushing up from the lockers to begin moving away from Flash.
Peter never expected half the violent things Flash did, especially since the boy would usually stick to just name calling, publicly embarrassment, and assaulting Peter verbally. So, when Flash’s right fist came up and met with Peters cheekbone, you could say he was shocked, shocked enough to trip over his own feet and send him spiraling to the cold floor. Flash laughed, head falling back before he suddenly stopped and looked around for witnesses. Luckily, for Flash, there were barely anyone around, and for those who were still at their lockers, did not take any notice to Flash’s doing.
Peter was still on the floor holding his cheek, and was starting to get up with one elbow placed beneath him, shaking the dizziness from his head, but Flash put a hold to his actions with a kick to Peter’s ribs. Peter fell to the floor again with a groan.
Bending over, Flash snatched Peters cracked glasses off his face before dropping them onto the floor next to Peters head and stomping on them. “Guess you won’t be needing these. Find you way home now, Puny Parker.” Flash stepped over Peter, kicking him ever so slightly so he would fall onto his back and towards the exit of the school.
“Oh come on, I just got those glasses.” Peter groaned.
Peter waited until he could no longer hear Flash’s footsteps on the schools cold tiled floor before he jumped up, grabbed his backpack and headed towards the schools exit, not bothering to clean up the mess on the floor that was his new classes. He stayed close to the walls, one arm out in front of him to help with his balance, but also as something to break his fall if he were to trip at any point.
Peter squinted at the brightness of the sun when he stepped outside, and hunched in on himself as he walked through the front courtyard of the school, both hands holding tightly to the straps of his backpack, elbows tucked in. Peter shuffled, keeping his feet low to the ground in hopes to feel anything in his way that might make him trip, but when he saw the familiar blur that he recognized as Happy, his pace sped up, hoping to get to the car without bumping into anything or anyone.
Noticing Peter’s anxiousness, Happy did not say anything about his lateness and opened the door without a word and watched as Peter said his thanks and fell into the car, legs kicking in the air before the kid had pulled himself in. Happy ignored this and closed the door.
The ride to the tower was quiet, which was unusual as Peter would usually be jumping around in the back seat of the car, asking Happy questions about Stark Industries. However, today, Peter kept to the right side of the car leaning against the door and watched the passing concrete scenery of the New York buildings as the car traveled along the strip of road. Happy didn’t say anything and kept his eyes on the car in front of him, hoping to arrive at the tower as quickly as possible so he could remove himself from the awkward tension in the air.
Peter had his backpack slung over his left shoulder and his right arm placed slightly out in front of him as the pair walked through the automated doors of the tower. Peter was walking closer to Happy than usual, slightly behind him, eyes darting around to take in everything as he shuffled.
“Hey champ!” Tony was leaning against the wall next to the elevators as he watched the kid turn his head towards him, eyes darting around.
“M-Mr Stark!” Peter didn’t move from his position behind Happy like he would usually, causing Tony to shoot a confused look to Happy, who returned his look with the same expression, shrugging his shoulders slightly so Peter wouldn’t see the movement.
Tony pushed up from the wall and walked up next to Peter, throwing an arm around his shoulders, pulling him away from Happy and leading him towards the elevator that would take them to the garage, talking to Peter about what they were going to do that day. Tony threw one last look over his shoulder towards Happy before the elevator doors opened up and they both stepped in, silver doors closing behind them.
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 the newly drawn up 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 left shoulder to do so.
“I-It looks all 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 he'd 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?" 'And your stutter is pretty bad today' Tony didn't say the last part aloud. 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 walked over the a toolbox that was placed next to his silver Audi A8 Sedan and reached into it, pulling 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 a-accidently stepped on t-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 a-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? What about your suit, huh? Are you fighting blind?” 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 the 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.