Disclaimer: I still own nothing.

Chapter 10

A week later, Part II

When Bruce walks in on Tony, he's yelling at Butterfingers. "WHAT? You left it running? Who told you to do that?!"

"I believe you did, sir" JARVIS cuts in.

"Oh. Well, never mind then." Tony hears Bruce's step and turns towards the approaching scientist. "What's up, Sci-Bro?"

He's pretty sure that Bruce is rolling his eyes, even though it looses some of the effect when Tony can't see it. "Your package arrived. It's on the table like you asked, unless you want it down here?"

"Nah. I'll get it later. Thanks." He turns back to his work and listens for Bruce's leaving. "Right. JARVIS, send Dummy to the package and bring it to me. I need you to find me a room in the tower: twice as big as the rec room at least, containing several smaller pieces of furniture, and I can't have been in it in the last... six months or so."

There are several seconds of silence. "I believe room 713 would serve your purposes. It was just emptied this morning, however, there are several lightweight pieces of furniture in the area. I will have You move them."

"Thanks, J."

AAAAAAA

When Thor finds Tony, it's been almost two hours. Tony hears the knock on the door while he's taking a break for the bots to rearrange the furniture.

He considers hiding the long white cane that he's been practicing with, but it's really long, almost five and a half feet, and there's no way he would know if it was totally hidden anyway.

"Come in," he calls out to whoever is knocking.

"Greetings, Man of Iron! I have been sent to inform you that preparations are complete for the evening meal!" There is a pause, and Tony can feel the air currents shifting as the huge man moves towards him.

"What is this that you are using?" Tony shifts the cane in his hands, holding it out so that the god can see it better.

"It's a cane. Here on Midgard, they are used by people who are blind, or almost blind, to help find their way around. Even though I did that thing with the sunglasses and the eargear, sometimes I'll need to be less dependent on technology, in case something happens."

"How does it work?"

"Stand over by the wall." Tony motions in the general direction of the door Thor came through. "J, are the bots done and out of the way?"

"Yes, Sir. The objects in the room this time are: coffee table, footstool, two office chairs, one small waiting room couch, and a side table."

Tony sets off slowly, making a grid as he walks around the room, cane sweeping the floor in front of him. He works on keeping it in time with his steps, which was strange at first but is already feeling more natural.

Over the course of ten minutes or so, he locates and identifies all of the objects, ending with the side table, which is about four feet from where Thor is standing. "And that's how it works. I've been working on it for a couple hours, so it's starting to feel better. Haven't tried anything really complicated though"

Thor's hand hits his shoulder, and Tony doesn't flinch. It's easy to feel the big man coming. Thor speaks. "Truly, you are amazing, Tony. Already almost back to normal."

"Not normal, but close. Thank you Thor. Dinner?"

They move towards the elevator together, Tony holding the cane upright, letting Thor and his eargear with JARVIS guide him.

When they exit, Steve calls out "There you are! We were starting to think that Thor was lost!"

"Never fear, shield-brothers, I would never be so foolish to be lost in this tower, where the all-seeing JARVIS guides me." Thor proclaimed.

"So what held you up?" Clint asks.

"I was practicing, and Thor wanted to see," Tony answers. He pokes Clint with the cane, somewhere in the vicinity of Clint's knee. The assassin laughs and pushes back on the end of the cane, but then lets go. Good, because the feeling of the extra weight on the cane is slightly unnerving to Tony.

"Pepper sent a package. Here." Bruce says from the left as Tony moves towards the table, slightly behind Clint. Pepper was on a trip for a few days, having left the day of the press conference but only after making the Avengers swear that they would look after Tony. (Much to Tony's chagrin.)

Bruce slides the box to Tony across the table, knowing Tony's aversion to being handed things, especially now that he can't see what it is. The genius runs his fingers across the box, which is about the size of the textbooks he used in college.

He slides it back to Bruce. "Open it, please?"

There's the sound of scissors sliding through tape, then an item is being pushed back towards him. It's cool to the touch, plastic and metal, about an eight of an inch thick and the size of a starkpad. "What is it, exactly?"

"The packaging says it's an interactive learning device for the blind. There should be an 'on' button at the top." Tony slides his hands around the device until he finds the small button and pushes it.

"Hello! Welcome to learning interactive! This is a braille reader, puzzle and code edition. To start the first level, please press the continue button." What feels like a small arrow pushes up the bottom corner on the device's face. Tony presses it.

"Level one: basic coding."

Twenty minutes later, Bruce practically has to wrench the tablet out of Tony's hands so that he'll come and eat. It feels wonderful, to be able to read, even just a handful of letters and words. The machine either gives him a handful of words in braille that he has to dictate out loud to the machine or it tells him to write a line of computer code given a line of braille letters that push out of the machine.

It's amazing. Tony resolves to call Pepper and ask her for every version of this she can get her hands on. For now though, he'll settle for several hours with this new found skill.

Ack, that ending was bad. Review, please, on everything! WHO GOT MY HARRY POTTER REFERENCE?! Hope to have a new chapter soon.