Drowning Slowly

Main Points:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Iron Man Crossover (Self-Made Hero)
Summary: Xander isn't taking the loss of his eye well.
Word Count: 245
Rating: Teen

          Xander’s new best friend, following the accident, is the hospital-grade painkillers.  He’d expected morphine to interfere with magic, but instead it seems to accentuate it, only making it slightly harder to focus but pouring energy into the casting.  In general he’s having issues with focusing, but, well, it’s nothing he didn’t expect, even if it is disappointing.
          He has an addictive personality.  There’s brain hardwiring involved, he remembers that, so the fact that there are alcoholics (plenty of ‘em) in the family isn’t a good sign, and coupled with all the Starks in his head…
          But he deals with that the way he (Xander as well as all the Tonys) deals with the rest of his problems.  He puts them off for another day.
          No one expects anything from him.  They all treat him like he’s a leper.  Which is why he joins in with the combat training in his own unique way, generating shields and augmenting punches.  Faith had tried to stop him, at first, but he’d glared her down, ignoring the panic from seeing her.
          It’s hard working with the suit.  He’s getting flashbacks worse than normal.  Every time he glances at the suit, he sees Caleb again.
          But he’s not one to let himself be intimidated by that sort of thing.  So he works far into the night.
          He’s not sleeping much these days.  But it’s fine.  It’s just for the time of crisis.  He can relax after they save the world.