Maybe it was silly, but ever since Alexandros Michaels learned his name translated into Defender of Men in Greek, he just loved it. It used to irk him that people called him Alex, or Lex, or even Xander though he came to really enjoy the Xander as a name after some time. He used to envision himself as a protector, a defender! Only… sadly, that never happened. He was teeny tiny from birth, and no one had ever taught him to defend himself. Hell, Xander had never managed to protect himself or anyone from anything. 

Not even from his parents, or worse... Bryce, his older brother. 

Born with a silver spoon in his ass, Bryce was a hulking figure of masculine vigor. He was strong, powerful and had a natural gravity that made people love and all but worship him. Their mother and father more than anyone fell to this bullshit, but not Xander. From the moment he could understand the wrongness of the entire situation, he hated it, turned against it. He refused to worship his brother, he was not some infallible god, after all. 

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No... but this defiance did not come easy, nor cheap. Bryce was, for the first ten years of their life, a terrible bully toward Xander, and even if that mellowed out with age and experience, he was still no golden boy. Instead, after a near death experience when Xander was ten, in which Bryce nearly killed Xander, they all but ignored him. He was fed and clothed, but that was really it. 

Nothing felt right about all of this, but Xander didn't care. His eighteenth birthday was coming in just a year, and then he would be free... Free to live, love and find his peace...

In theory, that was. 

Life and his own stubbornness would always find a way to throw him a curveball, changing everything. This is that story, the story of how the meager might of a nobody, found his power.