Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Izuku was super excited. He was going to be getting his quirk soon, the doctor conformed it too. He just didn’t know when or how it was going to happen yet. He wondered if it would be like his mom or dad’s quirks, or would it be a mix of both. However it wasn’t what he expected.

Izuku was usually a very light sleeper. Sleeping for only a few hours a night, much less than what a normal 3 year old should be sleeping, which worried Inko somewhat, but Izuku was, (if not more) energetic than most kids his age, so maybe he just didn’t need to sleep as much as others. Which has lead us to our current situation. Izuku had watched the late night news with his mom, watching the new debut of an up and coming hero. He was particularly interested in this new hero as their quirk was similar to his moms, but that it could both attract and repel objects around them. Soon after the news segment, Inko turned off the TV.

“Alright Izuku, it’s late and you’ve got school tomorrow,” Inko said as she gentle began pushing Izuku towards his room.

“Mom, can I write about his quirk into my notebook?” Izuku asks, looking up to his mother, not feeling the slightest bit tired after watching the news.

“No Izuku, it’s too late at night for that. But if you wake up early tomorrow, you can write about it before you go to school.” Inko relied as she helped Izuku onto his bed and changed him into his pyjamas. Izuku made a little frown and pout before smiling at what Inko suggested.

Inko pulled the covers over Izuku, tucked him in and gave him a small kiss on the forehead. She said goodnight and turned to the door, turning off the light and closing the door behind her. Izuku however didn’t want to go to sleep and kept thinking about the new quirk he saw on TV.

-I wonder if he has a weight limit or if the size of the object affects the how much force he can put into it? Can he change the speed the object is travelling at? Can he lift people? Can he only push and pull the objects? , etc., etc.…. - Izuku continued to think up theories and questions until he could no longer take it. Slowly Izuku got out of bed and walked to his desk and grabbed to notebook on it. He sat down and turned on the desk lamp. If he was quite enough and finished writing down his thoughts now, he would be able to go to sleep easily afterwards, and hopefully his mom won’t wake up in the night and find him at his desk. Izuku began writing and very quickly lost track of time, not only writing about the new quirk but also other quirks and updating his older writings. His notebook looked more like a kid’s drawing book but there was still some very interesting observations in it.

The door to his room began to open startling Izuku out of his notetaking. He began to panic as he realized he didn’t go to sleep and mom was walking in on him. Before Izuku could say anything to defend himself against his mother’s worry, Inko spook before him.

“Looks like someone woke up early.” Said Inko as she saw her son at his desk writing. “Finish what you’re writing Izu and come downstairs for breakfast.” She said, as she left his room and headed towards the kitchen.

-Got up early? - Izuku thought.She mustn’t has seen the panic on his face. Confusion soon followed after. Maybe because it’s still early morning and she just couldn’t really see his face to question him further.

“Did I really stay up all night?” he asked himself. “I don’t even feel tired, I don’t even feel like yawning.” Izuku decided not to question it now and leave it to later. Izuku closed his notebook and began to change into his clothes that his mom had picked out for him last night. However he felt somewhat different after getting changed. He could hear his mom doing something in the kitchen. Usually he could only hear her so far away if he was really quite and stilled his breath. But right now he could hear her faintly while he had put his clothes on. Was it because he was wide awake all night and there was no sound at night, therefore he just became overly sensitive to sound? He didn’t think so, but he soon started to notice other things as well.

Everything around him suddenly had more clarity to them in a sense. He could see details on his toys and posters that he couldn’t see unless he was really close to them and stared at them for long periods of time. What was happening here? Also when he put on his clothes, he was able to feel details in the cloth he previously couldn’t feel before. He felt like he could almost count the strands that made up the cloth and it also felt softer. He grabbed his notebook and put it into his school bag taking note of the different and new textures he previously couldn’t feel before.

Confused as exactly what happening with his new was found senses, Izuku left his room and was immediately hit with a new sense. He could smell the most amazing thing coming from the kitchen. Izuku quickly made his way down the stairs, mouth-watering at whatever could be making that wonderful smell. When he got to the kitchen, he realized with a bit of shock that it was just a plain omelette with bacon. Somewhat confused Izuku walked to the kitchen table placing his bag beside him and seated himself at the table. He slides to plate of food closer to him, getting a fork and taking a bite out of the omelette. What happened next Izuku couldn’t describe. He could taste a variety of things and it was all so wonderful. How could food taste this good? Izuku began crying tears of joy at how such a plain omelette could taste so good. Inko seeing this immediately began to worry at what was happening.

“Izuku what’s wrong? Is there something bad wrong with the omelette?” she asked worry in every word. She was about to take the plate away when Izuku suddenly grabbed the plate and brought it closer to him.

“No-no mom the breakfast is great! It just tasted so good I started crying.” He relies while trying to both clear tears away, as well as eat more of the food because he couldn’t get enough of it. Inko looked at Izuku for a moment trying to figure out if she should be concerned but quickly brushes it off, seeing at how much Izuku seems to be enjoying the food.

Inko looks at the clock and sees that they needs to be leaving soon. She tells Izuku to hurry up and finish, so as not to be late for school. They finish up the rest of their morning routine and Inko starts walking Izuku to school. Izuku quickly notes that with his new senses everything around him seems to have changed slightly in some way. Inko takes note at how Izuku seems to be buzzing with energy, more so than usual but dismisses it, thinking that Izuku is just that excited for school.

No more than 15 minutes later, their at the school and Izuku is waving of his mom as he runs towards the building, heading immediate into his classroom to sit at his desk and write down all the things that have happened to him this morning. -Is this my quirk?- Izuku mumbles to himself as he writes. He’ll have to do more tests to figure it out. The day goes on as usual, nothing really interesting happens other than the new experiences’ of interacting with everything around him, with his newfound senses.

Chapter Text

Nothing else happened for the rest of the day, which disappointed Izuki somewhat, but he quickly bounced back thinking that if it was a quirk it could take a while to figure out exactly what it did. Izuku noted that Bakugou seemed to have picked up that something was happening with him but he didn’t say anything about. He didn’t want so say anything about possible getting his quirk since the blond had yet to get his and it would probable annoy him since he was rather competitive.

Izuku headed to bed that day wondering what tomorrow was going to bring.

When Izuku woke up the next day, he felt something wasn’t quite right. As he got up he realized that whatever happened yesterday, wasn’t happening today. It was like he had reset his senses to their previous state before they were enhanced. Confused by this new development, Izuku quickly wrote up his new findings and got prepared for the new day.

Throughout the day, Izuku didn’t feel any different and felt like he normally did. He went about his day as he normally did. This went on for several days, where nothing changed. Izuku was disheartened by this, now believing that this may have been a one time thing. It wasn’t too bad by the end of the week though.

Bakugou got his quirk during school on Friday. He could create explosions in his hands. Everyone was praising him, telling him he could be an amazing hero when he’s older. Izuku was especially impressed thinking up all kinds of ideas about how his quirk worked and what it could do. Later that night, Izuku pulled another all-nighter writing up everything he could conceive of for Bakugou’s quirk.

It wasn’t until the sun was high in the morning and Inko coming in to check on him around 10:30 that he realized that, not only did he stayed up all night and still didn’t feel tired, but that his enhanced senses had come back as well.

With a new burst in energy in learning that his enhanced senses came back, Izuku immediately began to experiment with his new senses and writing everything he could about them in his note book. He spent the whole day testing and writing, coming to the conclusion that his enhancements seem to only occur when he goes without sleep, as the only other time it happened, he had stayed awake all night the first time. Nothing else of any real note was found, only that he was able to confirm that all of his five senses were increased. Izuku also wanted to test what would happen if he were to stay awake another night. Would his senses increase further? Only time would tell.

However unlike the previous two times, Izuku wasn’t sure how he was going to pass the time. Sure the last time he did it, he was writing up quirk analysis and he was so absorbed in it, he didn’t even notice the time flying by. This time however he didn’t have anything to write about. He couldn’t do anything that caused any noise otherwise it would wake his mom up she would start to worry about him and Izuku didn’t want her stressing over stuff like that, so the TV and the computer were a no go. Thankfully, Izuku had a pretty decent collection of books. A mix between comics and kids stories, many he hasn’t read or finished yet. By the time it time for Izuku to go to bed, he was prepared.

When he was sure his mom was asleep, Izuku slow crept out of bed and went to his book case and took about 4 or 5 books of varying size and thickness. For the next 10 or so hours, Izuku read through the books and had even gotten more to read during the night. By the time Inko came in to check on Izuku, he had finished reading well over half the books that were in the case. Izuku, thinking that his mom might ask questions if she saw him awake early on a weekend day, pretended to be asleep when he heard her shuffling around outside his room. So when she walked in all she saw was her sleeping baby boy.

As soon as she left Izuku began to test if there was anything different. The answer to that question was yes. Although not as noticeable as the first night of going without sleep, there was an increase in his senses after the second. For the rest of the day, just like yesterday, Izuku tested his abilities finding that the results he got only slightly increased. After performing the tests, Izuku asked his mom if they could go to the local library or bookstore. Inko easily said yes and off they went. They came from their little excursions to the local shops and library with a decent mountain of books, ranging from heroes and bedtime stories, with a book or two about quirks and their related subjects. Izuku was planning on making a few more all-nighters before telling his mom and Kacchan about his quirk, wanting to make sure he knew everything he could before telling them.

Over the next few days Izuku began to notice a steady increase in his senses. He also was able to confirm that every time he went to sleep he would reset his quirk back to zero.

He began to notice he was finally starting to feel somewhat tired after two weeks of not sleeping. He was beginning to notice slight discolouration under his eyes as well but nothing too noticeable at least, so Inko wouldn’t worry. He was still as energetic as ever, if only slightly less. Another amazing discovery was that his base strength, speed and agility, were increasing as well. This was discovered mainly through playing games with Bakugou and the other kids at the park, where Izuku would normally lose in some games like races and arm wrestling, he was slowly beginning to win some of them. This would always annoy Kacchan as he had always won these types of games.

He also discovered in the worst way possible that, not only were his five mains senses increased, but his ability to feel pain was also increased. This was discovered during recess, (a few months after Izuku’s first discovery about his quirk,) while playing with Kacchan and his friends. Bakugou was being praised for his quirk, which had quickly become the norm at school. However during a game, Bakugou had gotten mad about something and was being rougher than he usually was with Izuku and he set his quirk off, right beside Izuku’s shoulder.

The pain was immediate and intense in a way Izuku had never experienced before. In the next moment Izuku had let out a loud scream. He started to tear up at the pain he was in. This had never happened before when Bakugou set his quirk off near him. Sure it would sting a bit, but never this intensely before. Through the pain of it all, Izuku realized that it was because of his quirk. He had gone almost a month without sleep, the longest he had ever gone without it before.

Bakugou was momentarily shocked by what had happened but quickly hid his shock with a frown.

“What the hell Deku?” he snarled at Izuku. “I’ve set my quirk off around you before and you never cried about it. When did you become such a wimp on top of being a Deku?”

Izuku bit his lip to try and stop crying out loud, holding what looked like a light reddening of skin on his shoulder, but felt like a second degree burn. A teacher soon came over and almost just as quickly dismissed Izuku’s pain as him just over reacting. Izuku says nothing for the rest of the day and all the other kids ignore him. Including Bakugou, who looks at him every now and then for the rest of the day with an angry glare on his face.

That night Izuku decided he should get some much needed sleep after writing up his new discovery.

After that event Izuku decided to only go without sleep for a week or so, in order to prevent any more accidents from happening.

**********

About a week or so before Izuku’s birthday, and having gone without sleep for almost a week. He decides to tell his mom about his quirk, leaving out the part about the increased sense of pain, knowing that if his mom knew about that part, she wouldn’t let him keep testing and training it.

Inko was absolutely proud that Izuku finally got his quirk, but was a little worried that in order to use it, he had to go without sleep. Not that she really noticed that he was tired as of late as he seemed to be just as energetic as usual. She took him to a quirk specialist later that day, just be sure that there was nothing else to worry about and if Izuku might have any medical problems because of it in the future.

While at the doctors, Izuku finally learned that his quirk worked like some types of insomnia and other sleeping disorders. Learning also that if he wasn’t careful with it and until further testing was done to show how his quirk would affect his brain, it could cause him quite a bit of trouble later in his life. After the visit Izuku and his mom visited the local library so that Izuku could check out a books on different sleeping disorders, so he could better learn about his quirk. They had katsudon for dinner that night.

The next day Izuku told Kacchan about his quirk. He was saddened when Kacchan told him that his quirk was useless and that he would be a dead weight to heroes if he ever went to sleep, stating that if he had to fight the next day, he was as good as quirkless in a fight and probably die.

Although he was upset with what Kacchan said, he didn’t let it bother him. If he had to learn to fight without a quirk, then he would do it. He was going to save people with a smile and become a great hero, just like All Might.

Later on that week, just before his birthday, Izuku decided to call his quirk Insomniac.

Chapter Text

Announcement!

Hello my fellow Ao3 users.

This is Cathanode speaking to you after god knows how long (a year and a half, if we’re going to be specific.)

I owe you all an explanation, and an apology to basically letting you all hang waiting for an update that was never coming.

Essentially what happened was I got lazy, and just never bothered writing.

When I initially started writing INSOMNIAC and The Collector, I was basically on a fanfic high, were I had been reading so much stuff on Ao3 I got it into my head that I should write all these wonderful ideas I have in my head without putting any real thought into what I was actually getting myself into.

After the initial first chapter release, I came down from the high and I didn’t know where the hell the stories where going. I had ideas but nothing concrete.

I’ve kind of got back into it again, but this time I’m actually going to put more actual (thought-out-a-plan) work into this. I’m probably going to overhaul the initial chapters, haven’t decided as of yet but I’ll think of something. I want a beginning, middle and an end to the stories I’m going to be writing, none of this, “I’ll keep writing idea’s without any definite ending in sight with an indefinite hiatus to boot”, cause if that’s the case I don’t think I’ll ever finish it or just drop it, leaving you all wanting more went I don’t want to give it. I feel like a jerk because of it. Which is why I’m posting this to being with, so I can both become more active and follow set goals, finish them on time (cause I procrastinate way too much), and help ease the responsibility induced guilt I feel that I owe you all an explanation, and you deserve more. Especially after all the positive comments and kudos I’ve gotten from you all.

When I got those initial comments and kudos, I felt a form of joy/gratitude I didn’t know I needed. You have no idea how happy I was when I got those. I was very nervous the first time I published online and I didn’t think anyone would actually like what I wrote enough to leave a comment or a kudos or hell, subscribe for more! It was a confidence boost I didn’t know I needed. And leaving you all without hearing a think from me for so long I felt guilty and kept pushing it off.

Wow I rambled quite a bit there, so in summary:

I’m sorry for the indefinite hiatus
I’m going to really try and work on these stories properly and possibly overhaul them.
I want to return the joy and positivity you guys gave me for reading, commenting and all the kudos you gave me, on my stories.
I have a lot more ideas I’d like to write, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

If you managed to get through this long-ass ramble of an apology, thank you.
Cathanode.