Double-Sided

2. Quirkless

"BRRRRRING! BRRRRRING!" A yellow and red alarm clock began to buzz, systematically opening a panel on the top where a plastic figure of an extremely muscular man equipt in the same color scheme popped up.
   
"TIME TO WAKE UP! TIME TO WAKE UP! BECAUSE I AM HER—" it's prerecorded robotic voice began to say before a hand slammed the figurine back into the alarm clock's base.

    The hand was the first part that emerged from the covers, in turn grabbing the sheet above it and throwing it off. A green colored mass of hair followed. It was attached to a scrawny looking boy who looked like he had yet another rough night. His hair was sticking up in every direction and its curly nature didn't help either. Pushing his All Might themed bed sheets off of him he went to his bathroom mirror to find his All Might pajamas covered in sweat. He pulled at the black bags under his eyes, sticking out his tongue in disgust.

Sleeping had always been difficult for the boy. He could fall asleep just fine but the dreaming part was his problem. Every night was the same. Every dream would start differently, sometimes occurring at school, other times in bizarre places or long lost locations only now accessible through memory. However, almost like it was on a timer, there would always be something out of place in the dream. There was a figure always covered in darkness. At first it always seemed like he sort of recognized the figure, it was like an old friend that you had forgotten the name of. However he could never seem to recall the name or any real noticeable features about the figure despite the hundreds of dreams he would show up in. The boy liked to experiment in dreams, sometimes trying to walk away from it and other times coming closer to the shadow, but it always resulted in waking up when he encountered it. After that he would receive chills in an almost sleep paralysis state that lasted just long enough to keep him up the rest of the night. The image would always just sit on the edge of his thoughts as he would attempt to fake sleep until the alarm came on alerting him that it was time to start the day.
   
"Good morning, Izuku!" His mother said cheerfully, placing down some breakfast in front of the boy. Izuku nodded to her, always grateful for her shining mood in the morning. The coffee he drank brought a couple streams of life flowing back into the boy, but was followed by the other unfortunate gift he received everyday from his mother.

    "Here's your medication," she said, placing down a case of pills in front of her son. He looked at it with a frown. "Well, don't get too excited," she said gently rubbing his back before picking up her own belongings for work.

    "Alright I'm heading out, see you later Izuku!" She exclaimed as she walked to the door, hoping for an enthusiastic response back. However he just stared at the pills sadly, preparing to take them, like he did everyday. She turned her back with a sigh.

"Love you, mom," his young voice said as she placed her hand on the door.
   
"Love you, too," she replied with a sad smile. Ever since that day, Izuku had been forced to take pills every morning that helped exhaust or reduce the power of his quirk. They were originally designed for imprisoned villains and now they were being used on her own son. On top of that his quirk was linked to emotions and blood pressure so he took pills to numb down his own emotions. It was rare to see him genuinely smile. Most times he just seemed to wear a mask. Not many knew how unhappy he really was, but pills weren't the only reason for that.

The day he found out that he had a quirk was the worst and best moment of Izuku's life. He had been thrilled to find out he had a quirk and didn't fully understand what the doctors meant by "unusable" until a couple hours later. He was not able to use his quirk under any circumstances they had said. It wasn't simply told but drilled into his head until it became reality. They said he had to take around a pack of EpiPen-looking syringes filled with a type of sedative with him at all times, which must be used if his watch altered him that his blood pressure and heart rate were getting too high. It was cautious, with the watch, syringes, and pills, but the doctors said it was the only way for Izuku to attempt to live anything near to a normal life without becoming a threat. When he was first released from the hospital they didn't allow the poor boy into public areas for at least a month. Luckily no events occurred for the following ten years, so Izuku's slate remained clean.