a/n: Historical references!? Now why would you want to see that? Fine. I heard Benjamin Franklin invented glasses. Of course this only has to be partially true. I USE IT. And he called them "bifocals". Bu-but I cannot type that without cracking up so. D:

Glasses not folklore ; PG - gen/humour - America/England, America/Canada

"Well," America is beaming and England dully thinks the sun could not compare.

"What do you think?" and he's pointing to- whatever it is that's on his face and England is already shaking his head.

"What am I supposed to think? There's that- whatever that is on your face!"

"Glasses," America calls them, as if it is one of the most delightful things in the world.

And England sighs, what would America think of next? He had gotten on some kick or other in the last few years of trying to invent useful (and often not useful) things. England was used to hearing him blather on and so forth about them, but honestly he was getting a little irritated about it all (not because he wanted to try his hand in it or anything no- of course he'd be eating these thoughts when the spinning jenny came around) "So, what do these things do?"

Though England thought it should be something obvious.

He was not disappointed.

"They make you see better!" America was out spurting his arms for emphasis and missed knocking England in the nose by inches.

"Oh. Wonderful." And he was going to leave it at that but- "See better?! What do you mean see better?! I'm far-" was this word going to make him sound... well, old? "older than you are, if anyone should have bad eyesight it should be me having to deal with seeing your face all this time- what are you going around getting bad eyesight for? I took care of you better than that! This is all because you had to go off on your own and-"

Another twenty minutes continued of England gushing furiously before it resulted in air heaving, blotches of pink all bout his face before he found his composure again.

"Though I suppose," with hands out, fingers pinching at the edges of the glasses' frames, as if to straighten them out though it was not at all necessary- "it makes you look a little bit older."

From then on America's beaming got worse.

No really.

The sun was having hard competition.

--

"Canada!" America greets his sort of brother, they haven't exactly talked in a while and it was nice to know how the other was doing even if he did seem rather shy.

"Oh hello, Mr America!" Canada replies, hand extended to take and shake America's but he's about five feet off and little bit too much to the 180 degree angle.

"Um, I'm right here Canada."

Canada's body swivels to the sound of America's voice, just a touch louder. "Oh! I'm sorry! I don't know what happened. Lately it's been a bit hard to-"

"See?"

There, that was a handshake.

America noticed Canada was doing an awful lot of squinting, to be honest he used to do a little squinting when he was much younger but now it was. Just. A lot.

"I knew I shouldn't have read all those books in the dark. But it's none too often that I get new books. I just couldn't put them down. You know Mr England came by and-"

"Ah," America replies, knowing exactly what kind of books Canada was talking about, not exactly interested in them himself. "I know what you're saying but hey-! I brought you something. They'll probably straighten things out for you."

He fished into his pocket for a "spare" pair of glasses (just in case anyone else wanted to try them out) and placed them on Canada's face. The other boy's eyes widened instantly.

"Ohhhh."

"Oh ohhhh."

Some ten minutes of this, honestly emotions were starting to look genetic right about now.

"Ohhhh- Mr America I can see your face so much better now!"

That was it.

Canada got a full eye shot of America's grin and the glasses almost failed him, "That's great Canada! You can keep them alright? Less likely to bump into stuff?"

"Oh yes! How did you know I bumped into stuff. A lot." Affirmative nodding.

America gave a somewhat sheepish laugh, shrugging "I just know these things."

And no one would ever find the trash heap of broken plates, pots, shoes, bookcases, various old toys, boxes, and vases in his basement, no one.

--

more a/n: stuff that happened while writing this fic, that I find relevant to bring up:
ohgod, I got spinning jenny and cotton gin all mixed up and versus (forgive me it is, 10:00pm here and I am an early to bed person).

So while looking up British inventions I found that they invented the fire extinguisher! (Ok, it was a French guy who lived in England but shh.) &I thought that was cool and upon telling my mother this she said, "Well of course. They had to, for their protection- what with the Americans always firing at them for independence and burning their tea."

I-I thought it was funny. :O"