I hope you enjoy reading about what a messed up place Tony's head is. But it's a good sort of messed up. A genius sort of messed up.
You know the drill; I don't own anything. I do, however, own an awesome T-shirt that says "Stark Industries" across the front. I'm wearing it right now. I'm cool.
The Box Theory
Sometimes, Tony Stark needs to be left alone. And so he locks himself in his workshop, turns Snow Patrol up as loud as his speakers can go, and he works. He deliberates over equations and blueprints and brilliant, beautiful new ideas. The music both distracts him and helps him focus, a strange contradiction, but true nonetheless.
Tony's mind always moves at a million miles a minute. The sheer multitude of thoughts would be enough to drive anyone insane. Maybe Tony is actually crazy. Who knows?
Picture the human mind as a thousand boxes, arranged in long rows, extending as far as you can see. Each box contains a different thought. Most people only have one box open at a time, while the rest remain closed. That's most people. Tony is another story. At any given moment, he has most, if not all of his boxes open. As a result, it's hard for him to focus in on one box at a time. With all those open boxes, Tony has literally a hundred different things on his mind, all pulling at his attention. That's why he needs the music. Just like girls or alcohol or flying, the background noise helps to drown out the extra thoughts, helps him to ignore all the open boxes so that he can focus.
But, by far, Pepper is the best distraction for his overwhelming thoughts. There's just something about being close to her that makes him forget the rest of the world. She is the one person that can make Tony Stark, the very epitome of charisma, at a loss for words. Because when he's with her, nothing else matters.
Tony is madly in love with Pepper, but still he knows she deserves better than him. Despite the drastic changes he has gone through, he still awakes from nightmares full of memories from his past life. He has done so many selfish things and that's why he needs the suit. He feels that Iron Man is the one thing that can redeem him, make up for all those times he was heartless and selfish. He wants so badly to be a better person, to be good enough for her.
He may not deserve her, but she loves him anyway.
You can thank my amazing English teacher for this one. She has this theory that compares everyone's mind to boxes. I adapted it a bit for the fic, but it's the same general idea. She says that:
Everyone's mind is made up of "boxes", which represent many different thoughts. Males have one box, and therefore can only think of one thing at a time. Females, however, have multiple boxes, and think of multiple things at a time and jump from box to box in a matter of seconds. Males also have the ability to think of absolutely NOTHING. Just completely clear their heads and think of nothing. Is that really true? Because I really wish I could do that!
I'm not totally happy with this one, maybe because it's a bit... rough? Well, anyway, review please!