What Matters {B.Barnes Daughter} ✔️

~Fifty-One: Anger~

"Tony! Hey, you got a minute?"

Lizzie bounded into Tony Stark's office, a tattered spiral notebook in her left hand and a ballpoint pen in her right. She smiled when Tony saw her, and he beckoned her to come in. A glass of whiskey was sat beside him on the table, a half empty bottle on the opposite side.

"What's up, kid?"

"Math," she said, rolling her eyes. "Geometry, to be exact."

"Oh, then you've come to the right person What are we looking at?"

"Volume of a cylinder."

Tony gave her an incredulous look, his expression serious, yet his eyes playful. "Really? That's it?"

Lizzie shrugged. "Listen here, old man. I'm ten. I don't even know what a cylinder is!"

Tony chuckled quietly, looking back down to the notebook. "A cylinder is basically a can. Now, to find the volume of it, you simply follow the formula, pi times the radius squared times the height."

"Ooh, pie! I like pie. Math just became a lot more interesting."

Tony sighed, placing his head in both his hands. "Why don't you get Vision to help you? He is a computer, after all."

Lizzie shuddered. "He creeps me out." 

Vision was a new addition to the team, and was still heavily adjusting to normal life. It wasn't surprising that a fully-metal robot wandering around the tower would frighten a shy ten year-old.

"Oh, come on. He's not that bad."

"He set Peter's bed on fire."

"So?"

"...It was a waterbed."

Tony opened his mouth, drawing in a sarcastic breath. "Alright, point taken. Back to math."

"No, let's keep talking about how Vision destroys things!" Lizzie pleaded, looking up at Tony with puppy dog eyes.

"Come on, kid. It's not that bad. Here, look." Tony grabbed a pencil from his cluttered desk and began drawing on a blank page in the girl's notebook. It took him less than ten seconds to print a perfect cylinder on the paper, and Lizzie nodded her head with impressment.

"Okay, this is a cylinder."

"Got it," Lizzie said, nodding. 

"Alright, so the height of this cylinder... oh, I don't know, we'll say it's five inches." Tony indicated that by drawing a line to signify the height of the shape, scratching a five down next to it. 

"Height is five, okay," Lizzie nodded.

"Yep. And now, the radius... well, let's start with diameter. The diameter is basically a straight line passing through a circle, showing how... wide, I guess you could say, the circle is. So, let's say the diameter of this circle is eight."

Tony drew a straight line through the circle, labelling it "eight". 

"Now, the radius is simple; it's just half the diameter. So, half of eight is...?"

"Four," Lizzie answered, a smile on her face. 

Tony smirked back at her, giving her an encouraging pat on the shoulder. "Yep. And, finally, pi. No, not the food. Pi is... basically an ongoing number that never ends. Or, if you wanna impress people, you can say it's the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. The starting numbers are 3.14, so that's what we'll use here."

Lizzie quirked an eyebrow, finally stumped. "Okay... sure. So... 3.14, times four, times five, and that's it?"

"Nope, you forgot something. It says radius squared." 

"Oh! Isn't that like... two times two is four, three times three is nine...?"

"Yes, and four times four is sixteen. So, the problem would be...?"

"3.14, times sixteen, times five!" Lizzie exclaimed, grinning. 

"Exactly! See, it's not that hard, is it kid?"

"No, not at all! Thanks, Tony. You're the best!' she exclaimed, throwing her arms around the man's neck. Tony was taken slightly by surprise, but soon sprouted a smile on his face and returned the girl's embrace.

He hadn't really realized it then, but that girl had brought a lot of joy, fun, laughter, and smiles into his life that he was desperately missing. 

"Hey, Tony?" Lizzie asked, pulling apart from the man and grinning up at him.

Tony quirked an eyebrow, encouraging the kid to continue.

"Can we go eat pie now?" she asked, laughing.

Tony poked her shoulder, giving her a grin.

"You just read my mind. Come on."

{ * * * * * }

Tony Stark was living in an angry haze. His vision was blurry and faded, blinded by fury. He wasn't in his right state of mind, and couldn't control his actions.

He was pacing his office, clutching his hair with white knuckles. His breath was evading him, and he was breathing in smothered gasps. He had spent almost twenty-five years of his life living with the monster who slaughtered his parents in cold blood. 

More rage coursed through him, and he punched through the wall in anger. He hissed as fresh blood cascaded from his clutched fists. He cradled his arm to his chest, grimacing. 

"Sir, your heart rate is growing dangerously high. I think it would be best if-.."

"Shut up!" Tony yelled at the computer program, contorting his face in anger. He let out a huge breath, allowing his eyes to close momentarily. He brought a shaking hand up to his forehead and he let his head rest in it for a second, his eyes still closed.

After a minute, he brought his head up, his eyes lit up with an eternal thirst for revenge. 

"F.R.I.D.A.Y.... prepare Mark L... and an automated plane set for Wakanda."