Barry pulls the spectacles towards his face, then holds them away, then pulls them back and tucks the ends over his ears in an awkward attempt wear them. It's obvious he'd never tried it before, and Bianca giggles when his eyebrows furrow and pupils dilate under the tempered glass. He frowns, taking them off again.
"I dunno how you can even wear these," he sniffs, handing the red spectacles back to her. "makes my vision all blurry - ridiculous! Aren't they supposed to do the opposite?"
"That's why glasses are custom made- everyone has differently adjusted glass." the girl explains, slipping them on, relishing in the way the fine contours and freckles that pepper his face become visible once again. "The power on mine's are kinda high, too."
He crosses his arms. "Your eyes must be pretty messed up."
"Doesn't Lucas wear them too, now?"
"Yeah, but only for reading or something. I've never seen him actually wearing them, though, so I dunno."
She idly wonders if Lucas is shy about wearing glasses, smiling at the notion. "That's kinda funny."
"Funny, you say?" Barry wags a finger at her. "Lemme tell you what I told him, then: you could go blind!"
"B-blind? Like, legally blind?"
"Well, blind blind - you'd only see darkness! And if you do go blind, I'll fine you, like, six million dollars for destroying your eyes!"
Her mind briefly returns to the memories of hours spent poring over piles upon piles of reports for Professor Juniper - determined to help ease the researcher's heavy burden, even by the smallest margin - deep into the night, until her neck ached and eyes burned from the strain. But- "I don't think-"
"Are you saying your sight is getting better?"
While he's a about year older than she is, and he's her third destination for advice (first Cheren, of course, then Professor Juniper) when it comes to her research-y things, she can't help but doubt his knowledge of ophthalmology - he doesn't even wear glasses himself, now does he?
"Um, no, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's getting worse!"
Barry shakes his head, unconvinced, though she notices that he shifts his weight from one foot to the other.
"I have Patrat though," Bianca says. "patrat have awesome eyesight, so he could help me around if I…"
"Patrat's really short though, you'd trip over him."
"Well, if he evol-" a passerby exiting the adjacent shop gives them an odd look, and she's suddenly reminded of the reason why they even came here, "-wait, wait a sec! Why're we talking about this?"
Barry falters - his shoulders fall and his whole body seems to droop with sudden uncertainty. She realises they'd been loitering by the doorway of the store for a while now. "B-because-"
A smile breaks out onto her face.
"Right, we were gonna get you some glasses, weren't we?" she grabs his hand - he doesn't bother to hide his flinch at her touch - and with renewed fervour, drags him into the optical centre. "Your dad told me to help you!"
"Wait- he wouldn't know! My eyes are perfectly fine!"
"Even after all that Call of Almia? You know you have a video game problem." she shakes her head. "Besides, what if you go blind? I'm not lending you Patrat since he'll be guiding me."
His cheeks burn red.
"I-I'll fine you a gazillion dollars!"
"W-what for?!"