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Alex squinted at the board, pain flaring behind her eyes. She tried to follow along with what the teacher was saying, but it had been such a long time since she’d had to learn about light and wavelengths, and the fact that she couldn’t see the board wasn’t helping in the slightest.
God, why did she volunteer to front today? Why couldn’t she have just kept her mouth shut and let Peter take over? This stupid blurry vision was getting ridiculous.
“Mr. Parker?”
Alex fumbled, hands clenching and crinkling the nearly-empty page she’d taken out with the intention of taking notes. “Um, sorry ma’am, what did you say?”
“Could you answer number three for us?”
The teacher- Anne Marconi, if Alex was remembering correctly- gestured to the board. Alex squinted to try and make out what it said, but the blue and black and red ink blurred together until she just gave up. “Sorry, could you read it out, please?”
A few snickers erupted from somewhere in the back of the classroom. Anne- Mrs. Marconi hushed them and nodded. “What is the definition of the term ‘amplitude?’”
Shit, Alex didn’t remember that. It had been six years since she had taken a chemistry course- she didn’t remember anything! She was a med student, for God’s sake.
Alex flipped through Peter’s notes, hoping her franticness didn’t show through. Thankfully, Peter had been around when learning about the term, and she was able to easily locate the definition. “The wave’s height from zero to its crest?”
“Correct. Next time, please make sure you’re paying attention.”
Her cheeks burned, but she nodded. “Of course. Sorry.” God, she hated high school.
Ned leaned over, whispering harshly, “Dude, you don’t know the definition of amplitude? I thought you were smart.”
“It’s just an off day,” she mumbled, not willing to explain that she wasn’t Peter. Ned was getting better at telling them apart, but some days he just forgot. She didn’t blame him- it was a lot, trying to remember everything, and she certainly didn’t expect him to get it perfect right away. Still though, a tingle of annoyance shot through her.
“Is it your…” Ned glanced around, a hint of nervousness in his faze, before leaning in and whispering, “DID?”
Alex shrugged. Ned bit his lip and went to say something else, but a stern look from Anne- er, Mrs. Marconi- why was it so hard to relearn how to use honorifics for adults?- shut him down. Alex’s phone- or rather, Peter’s phone- buzzed from the pocket of her sweatshirt. She pulled it out, trying to discreetly cover the evidence with her hand, and checked the notification.
Ned: are u ok?? what’s wrong dude??????
Alex hesitated before typing quickly back:
Me: yeah
Ned: you don’t seem okay. who’s out rn?
Alex’s finger hovered over the screen for a moment.
Me: guess
The typing bubble appeared, disappeared, and reappeared a number of times.
Ned: keagan? keagan types short sentences, right?
MJ: yee
MJ: it’s not keagan tho
Ned: how tf would you know, you’re not even in school today
MJ: that’s between me and god, you whorish cantaloupe
Me: jesus christ, it’s peter
MJ: neato
Alex squinted at the screen, trying to discreetly bring it closer to her face so she could actually have a chance at making out the words.
Ned: wait really?? oh ig that makes sense
Me: shut up anne’s gonna be onto us soon
Ned: ight fine. but u better tell me what’s going on after school or i stg i will grind my english textbook into a fine powder, boil it in water, and make u drink it like soup
Me: fine, fine.
MJ: heheh soup boi
Alex rolled her eyes, stuffing her phone back into her pocket, and tried to focus on the lecture. God, she hated chemistry. English was far superior, in her opinion, even though half the time she couldn’t make it through two pages of whatever Peter’s next assignment was without having to take an Ibuprofen for a headache.
Whatever. That was a nonissue.
What was an issue, however, was how criminally behind Alex was on taking notes on light waves and photons. Whatever fresh hell a “visible light spectrum” was, Alex didn’t want any part in figuring out- she’d probably repressed the memory from high school for a reason. And this time, much to her chagrin, nobody else was near enough to the front to recall any bit of the lecture, meaning Alex had to take notes or Peter was fucked for the chapter exam.
She sighed and picked up her pencil, squinting at the board until it hurt her eyes.
Today was going to be a long day.
.
.
.
Alex didn’t front for a long time after that, thank goodness- Iron Man had volunteered to front in place of Alex for a while, noting that since he’d been prescribed Periactin (Alex only knew that because she was in charge of keeping track of the body’s medications), his headaches were significantly less intense. Alex thanked him profusely for that, even now, but she couldn’t avoid fronting forever.
Which was obvious now, since their bedroom was an absolute disaster and the mess couldn’t be avoided any longer, and living with a system mainly comprised of teenage boys meant that nobody else was willing to clean it.
Her head was killing her, but she forced herself to clean the room anyways. After she was done (four hours, three cups of coffee, and a significantly depleted will to live later), she trudged her way to the couch and flopped down.
“Hey,” May greeted, running her fingers through Alex’s hair.
“Mmm,” Alex grunted back, melting at the touch. Being a mother-figure to six children meant that she gave a lot of comfort out all the time, but it was nice to get it in return every once in a while.
“How ya feelin, kiddo?” Sympathy dripped from May’s words like maple syrup.
“Like I wanna punch a wall,” she muttered.
“Bad day, huh.”
“Tell me about it.”
May huffed out a short laugh, reaching for the remote to turn up the volume on the TV.
“The Office? Again?”
“Fire safety is important,” May playfully ruffled Alex’s hair.
Alex snorted and pushed herself up, curling into a tight little ball next to May. She squinted at the TV, the figures blurry from where she was sitting. She could barely make out Dwight’s face, having to rely only on blobs of color to make out where everything was.
“Can you see from here?” May asked after about a minute or so of Alex’s intense squinting.
“Yeah,” she lied, squinting harder, her headache firmly settled in behind her eyes now.
“Are you wearing your contacts?”
“I don’t need them.”
“Yes you do- your vision is terrible, sweetie.”
“Alters can have different prescriptions,” Alex mumbled.
“Ah- forgot about that.”
Alex let out a loose chuckle at that, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Would it help to at least try them on, honey?”
“Maybe,” Alex shrugged, “I doubt Peter and I have the same prescription, though. Speaking of, Spiderman really needs his vision checked too.”
“Oh? Is he having trouble too?”
Alex shrugged. “I don’t think it’s a prescription issue more so than it is a sensory issue, but you can never be too thorough.”
May’s face pinched up in concern. “Sensory issues?”
“Yeah- he’s always said his senses are usually dialed up to eleven. He has headphones and sunglasses, but they can only do so much for him when he has that much input coming in all the time.”
“That makes sense.” May let out a weary sigh. “More appointments, yipee.”
“They’re annoying, aren’t they?”
“You said it,” May muttered. “There’s the appointment with Dr. Picani next Wednesday, Iron Man has a checkup with the neurologist on Friday, and Peter still hasn’t gotten his bloodwork back for his thyroid yet.”
Alex bit her lip in contemplation, staring down at the carpet. Did she really need a prescription that bad? May was already so overworked- they had three appointments next week, and May struggled to even get food on the table- would it really be fair to make her schedule another appointment if it wasn’t necessary?
“My vision isn’t too bad,” Alex said after a minute or so, “I can live without glasses for awhile.”
“I don’t want you to have to squint to see everything, kiddo,” May protested.
“I’ll be fine May, promise.” Alex looked May in the eye, trying to pour as much sincerity as she could into her words. “I can wait a couple months or so, just until everything clears up.”
May looked conflicted, but she gave in with a sigh, hanging her head in defeat. “Okay, just- tell me if your vision gets worse, okay?”
Alex smiled up at May, placing her hand over the older woman’s arm. “I will.”
.
.
.
Alex, in fact, did not tell May when her vision inevitably got worse.
It made sense in theory- her vision seemed to deteriorate a little every so often. She used to have 20/20 vision in elementary school, then 20/30, and eventually, her latest prescription landed her at a whopping 20/40 vision.
But her vision had never deteriorated so quickly before. It was almost scary.
Within just a few weeks, Alex’s vision rapidly worsened. She could no longer make out what few words she’d been able to read on the white board, and faces blurred together until they were formless blobs.
She needed to see an optometrist, but she just- May could barely pay the bills, and there was so much going on with the system’s health. Hell, they had Peter’s low thyroid scare not even a few weeks ago (which had turned out to be a misread lab result, but it was still terrifying nonetheless), Iron Man’s headaches, Finley’s anxiety (the poor guy seemed to be fronting a lot more these days, which took a massive toll on the child’s mental health), Spider-Man’s near-chronic pain- it was a lot, and Alex didn’t want to saddle her with anything else.
It actually wasn’t May who she told first- no, it had been Tony-Goddamn-Stark.
It wasn’t some dramatic reveal moment or any Hollywood bullshit like that. She’d been sitting on the couch for movie night (initially it was only her, Pepper, and Tony, but somewhere along the way Clint had dropped from the vents and perched on the edge of the couch, and Rhodey had calmly walked in and sat next to Tony- she didn’t mind, of course, but she did find it a little strange. Why was Clint of all people there? And why did he not question the fact that a fifteen year old boy was sitting with Iron Man, War Machine, and Pepper Potts? It made no sense), where she’d inevitably been squinting harshly at the TV, her daily headache having long since settled in.
“Kid? You good?”
Alex squinted harder. “I can’t see the TV.”
That made Tony pause. “You what now?”
Alex turned to him in annoyance, struggling to pick out his facial features even at such a short distance. “I can’t see the TV. Aren’t you supposed to be a genius or something?”
“The ‘J’ in ‘Tony Stark’ stands for ‘jenius,’” Rhodey muttered from beside Tony. Clint snickered.
“I’m going to ignore that. What do you mean, you can’t see the TV?”
“I mean exactly what I said.”
Tony opened his mouth to say something, but his eyes darted to the side, catching a glimpse of Rhodey and Clint. “Don’t you have contacts?”
Alex was confused for a split second- didn’t FRIDAY clue him in to who was fronting now?- until it dawned on her. Tony was being… thoughtful, for once in his life. What a nice change of pace.
“They won’t work.”
“Did you talk to Aunt Hottie about it?”
“There’s… a lot of shit going on with… everything right now.”
“Such as?” Tony raised an eyebrow.
“Ir- I have my neurology appointments, May has to pay for our meds, Sp- I’ve got sorta kinda maybe a little bit of chronic pain, P- I got my blood test results back last week-”
“You got a blood test?”
“It was nothing serious!” Clint harshly shushed them. Alex lowered her voice. “My thyroid levels looked a little low and they wanted to double check. Thank god nothing was wrong, May wouldn’t have been able to afford even more medication, let alone all those visits to endocrinology.”
“You thought you had a thyroid issue and didn’t think to tell me?”
“It wasn’t that serious,” she huffed, “worst case scenario, I’d be on more meds and I’d have to go on fiber supplements for a while.”
“Still,” Tony sighed. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. If you can’t see the TV from here, you should get your vision checked.”
“It’s worse than that,” Alex muttered.
“What was that?”
“It’s worse than that,” Alex repeated, louder, “I can barely see your face.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“I said-”
“I heard you the first time. Hallway. Now.”
Alex huffed in annoyance, but she slid off the couch anyway, ignoring the pointed look she got from Pepper. She followed Tony into the hallway, crossing her arms and leaning against the wall. She could feel a slight buzz in her stomach, something she would have once attributed to anxiety, but now she knew that the feeling was usually associated with Keagan. She really didn’t need the constantly-pissed off guy co-conscious with her right now.
“You can’t see my face?”
“Has anyone ever told you that you’re a genius?” Alex could feel Keagan creeping forward a little bit. She frowned. Why would Keagan be coming out now, of all times?
Tony sighed. “I’m serious here.”
“Fine, fine.”
“You’re being snippy with me. I don’t like that you’re being snippy.”
“People get snippy sometimes, Tony. That’s just a part of life.”
“Is Keagan there too?”
“What? No, of course not,” Alex laughed nervously, scratching the back of her head. “...Okay, he’s kind of there a little bit.”
“Define ‘a little bit.’”
“Like… if we were in a car, he’d be in the back seat.” At Tony’s blank look, she elaborated. “He’s there, but he can’t talk to me or anything.”
Tony sighed. “You’re a handful, you know that, kid?”
“And yet you put up with us,” Alex pointed out, slightly amused.
“You’re avoiding the conversation.”
Alex shrugged, leaning her weight further back against the wall. She took a deep breath to calm herself, trying to avoid blending with Keagan too much (she really didn’t want to deal with blending right now. Pan was already a handful, they really didn’t need another one on top of that).
“Right. Sorry.”
“Your vision is bad, and you’re not getting it tested because...?”
“May can’t afford it.”
Tony stared. “Don’t you have other doctors? What’s stopping you from getting another appointment?”
“Exactly that. May can barely afford neurology, therapy, medications, and now endocrinology. Glasses cost money- a lot of it. We can’t just stop eating for a month.”
Tony stared even more, voice deadpan when he spoke. “You’re on friendly terms with a billionaire, and you’re worried about money?”
Alex’s eyes flew open. “Woah, hold up! I am not going to be a charity case!”
“No one’s saying you’re a charity case,” Tony argued, “look- point is, you need money, I happen to be made of it. I can spare a couple hundred for a pair of glasses and an appointment to the eye doctor.”
Alex’s brow furrowed. Was it really right to accept money from him? What would the others think?
”Are you kidding me? The old fart is offering you money and you’re refusing to take it? Are you nuts?!”
Ah, good old Keagan- butting in at exactly the wrong time.
Still- he had a point.
“You look conflicted about this,” Tony pointed out, before letting out a deep, tired sigh. “You know what, if you really don’t want me to just give you the money, how bout I start paying you guys for that internship?”
“Internship? No offense, but the boys just tinker in your lab for a few hours a week.”
“That ‘tinkering’ has made significant progress in my work,” Tony argued, “I wouldn’t have been able to figure out that web fluid formula for several years with the right resources, and Spider-Kid managed to create it in a drawer in his desk at school.”
“He what?!”
“Shit, uh, ignore that. We’re getting off-topic again!” Tony pinched the bridge of his nose between two fingers. “Look, I was gonna start paying you- I mean them- anyway, I might as well start now.”
“Isn’t that kind of illegal, though?”
“Jesus, it’s like you don’t want my money.”
“Wow, I can’t believe it, Tony Stark is actually a genius,” Alex deadpanned. Tony looked like he wanted to rip her head off with his teeth.
“It’s not illegal if you get a work permit.”
“Don’t you have to be sixteen to get a work permit?”
“No,” Tony shook his head, “you can get one as young as fourteen.”
“Huh. Interesting.” Alex mulled it over for a minute. Keagan had gone back sometime ago (thank god), so she had no one to debate the subject with, but she tried to put herself into Spidey and Peter’s shoes. Would they want to be paid for working in the lab?
Well- the answer was obviously “yes-” they were two teenage boys who had never had access to disposable income at any point in their lives. Of course they would want money. But was it right to accept it? Alex wasn’t the one working in the lab! Why should she benefit from their hard work?
Then again, Alex really couldn’t keep fronting if her vision was this bad.
After a minute or so, Alex had her answer.
“Alright.”
Tony smiled and reached out to ruffle her hair.
.
.
.
Getting the prescription actually wasn’t too difficult. She’d just had a vision test at her optometrist in the innerworld, so she already knew her prescription, she just had to double check to make sure it was accurate. She and the doctor were both stumped as to how she had lost her vision so quickly, but Alex had a couple of working theories, one of which involved visual stress, but that was something to think about some other time.
Her prescription had actually changed a little since last time, going from 20/60 to 20/70 (okay, maybe that wasn’t ‘a little,’ but hey, it could have been worse), but her new glasses seemed to sort everything out. At first she considered getting frames that matched what Peter had worn as a child (for simplicity’s sake), but Peter, who had been co-conscious at the time, convinced her to get a pair that matched her frames in the innerworld.
They didn’t perfectly go with the body like they did with Alex’s, but damn did it feel good to wear them.
It was an added bonus to see everyone freak out because holy shit Penis Parker is wearing glasses again, which made Peter laugh.
After all was said and done, however, Alex had to admit- she was grateful that Tony had offered to start paying for the boys’ internship. He really was a decent guy, once you stopped paying attention to what the media said about him.
Overall, she was happy- like, genuinely she was experiencing happiness, and not just the short-term burst of endorphins she got from taking care of the little ones.
That was a nice change of pace, she supposed.