Well, I got bored at school, I had a pencil and a notebook, and I just ended up drawing a bunch of headcannons for Xander.
What can I say? I love the guy.
And I kind of want him to suffer. Is that weird?
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(Sorry for the poor quality - I don't usually do traditional art nowadays.)
That drawing of Kit and Xander in the upper left hand corner was supposed to be the only doodle, but it all went downhill from there.
1+2: Xander is the self-defined "big brother" of the group, so he was the automatic target for emotional abuse from Unitize. They would tell him that his teammates were singing like canaries, but when he didn't believe that, they told him that they would start hurting his teammates if he didn't start giving them information about their Elemental Powers. Though the thought of any pain coming to his team pained him, he decided to put his faith in his brothers and kept his mouth shut.
But when Unitize couldn't pressure him, they decided to torture him. They would insult him, degrade him, tell him he was a horrible teammate, the works. Along with torturing him emotionally, they would torture him, along with his teammates, physically. They would take regular skin grafts from them, place implants in their temples, take blood samples from various places on their bodies, test their reactions under stressful conditions... and they rarely used painkillers.
Xander was suffering, the entire team was, but they refused to break.
When Unitize decided to freeze them in vengestone, that's when Xander decided enough was enough. He fought back with everything he had, but Unitize was eventually able to freeze him along with the others. To ensure his Element would never escape, officials took him to a Unitize outpost in the polar ice caps and buried him deep within a glacier below sea level.
Xander remained there for about a hundred and fifty years until Kit tirelessly researched his location and broke him out with a few members of their team. However, his mind was still stuck in the frenzied state that he'd been in when he was frozen, and he flew into a blind rage when he was released, attacking everything and everyone in sight. It took a little time and a few bruises, but they were eventually able to calm him down. When he realized that they were finally free from Unitize, and that he himself had almost hurt them in his rage, he broke down crying and tried apologizing for everything that had happened up to that point.
They don't blame him, though. They never blamed him.
3+4: The first two things Xander does when he's reunited with the rest of his family back at UA is hug them, check them over for any lasting injuries, then hug them again. He'd thought that he would never see them again and Unitize kept promising that they were hurting them, so now that they're reunited, he's desperate to know if they're okay. The others try to ask him if he's okay, but he waves off every question. They're his priority.
I showed him checking over Yugo for reasons I will not get into.
5. Xander is exhausted. Everyone on the team is, thanks to Unitize's abuse. Only problem is every time they go to sleep, chances are they're going to have a nightmare. Xander's are more frequent and twice as bad, so he needs constant physical comfort in order to help him ride it out. Everyone is happy to help, because the comfort helps them, too.
6. While Unitize was interested in probing nearly every other square inch of their bodies, they didn't really care about their hair. They didn't give them dramatic haircuts or anything; the more uncomfortable they were, the more entertaining for the scientists. Though even after they were free from Unitize, none of them really felt the need to cut their hair for some odd reason. Nothing a classic ponytail can't fix, though.
I kind of love Xander with a ponytail, not gonna lie.
Page 2:
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(I gave up on shading halfway down the page.)
7. Xander was always happy to give his teammates rides on his shoulders. Even before Unitize, they got his rides down to an exact science:
Step 1: Stand next to him. Make sure that you're standing in front and to the side of him.
Step 2: Put your arms on his forearm so he knows what you want.
Step 3: Hold on to his arm TIGHT, because he will start lifting it up and over his head, which will eventually flip you around (I think - the physics are kind of iffy on that one).
Step 4: Position yourself on his shoulders and enjoy the view.
It happens so often that he's memorized the calluses of every single one of his teammates. He doesn't even look down when they tug on his arm for a lift - won't break his stride if he's walking, won't even break eye contact if he's having a conversation with someone. Just up and over his head so his family can join in on whatever he's doing.
He used to get annoyed whenever he got numerous requests for rides in a day, though after Unitize, he enjoys the rides almost as much as those he gives them to. Some part of him still can't believe that they're all really here, that they're really free after being on the run for so long; he'll have long moments during the day where he'll just stop moving and try to comprehend the whole thing. But if he feels one of his teammates on his shoulders, it helps reassure him that this is real. That they're safe.
8. The free rides also come in handy whenever they have to study for anything. Dual study partners!
9. I read somewhere that Ukyo is considered to be Xander's hair stylist, so I'd like to think that whenever Xander gives him a ride, he returns the favor by cleaning his hair while he's up there. It gets really messy, for whatever reason...
10. Even Lui enjoys getting rides from Xander, though he will bite off the arm of whoever points it out. He claims that it's comfortable up there. That's the only reason. Or so he claims...
11. That doesn't mean that Xander gives out free rides to everyone; only those that he cares for. If someone else asks for one, he either straight up ignores them or tells them "no". The only one not in his family that he willingly gives rides to is Eri. People who frequently ask for rides, like Denki, ask him why, and his only answer is "Because I know what she went through."
They enjoy apples together. They just do.
12. Xander's personality also differs depending on who he's talking to on UA campus. If he's talking to someone who's been known to cause trouble for his teammates, like Neito or Katsuki, he comes off as very aggressive and angry. If given the proper incentive, he will gladly throw down for his teammates.
If he's talking to someone who's been known to help his teammates, however, like Hanta, he recognizes them as allies and respects them. He still comes off as passive aggressive, though.
I honestly don't know why I'm still making headcannons about this AU...
