Do you know what it's like to be dehydrated? So much that you can feel your skin cracking off? Insatiable thirst, nights spent hovering over the bathroom toilet, heart beating so fast you could hear it, ever so slowly driving you to the bridge of insanity. I can't remember a day that I didn't go through this immense discomfort. My driving force draining away, quite literally, leaving an empty vessel behind. Quirks can be tricky, difficult to understand, even more so to control. Mine happens to be 'Water.' Manipulation of water by controlling its temperature, but only when it is from my own body. Overusing my quirk can lead to severe dehydration.

Growing up, my childhood was very different from other kids my age. Vastly different from even my own siblings. That is, with the exception of my twin brother, Shouto Todoroki. My other half as I kindly remember him. As a child, I was neglected by my father, Endeavor. Who only ever glanced my way when he found it convenient. It often seemed like I was only important to him when he needed me to get my brother ahead. He would often force my twin and I to spar against each other, a method he used to test his skills. I usually lost those fights because my brother's quirk was stronger than mine. Which is to be expected when Shouto received non-stop intense training, while you only got a fraction of the attention. Not that you envied him. However it didn't exempt you from missing many meals. Even at that tender age you knew what he was doing was, dare I say it; abuse. He often forced me to overuse my quirk, resulting in painful, dry, and aching sore throats. It's an issue I still struggle with as of now, years later. A child's early years are meant to be filled with laughter and playful memories, not those of endless tears, bruised knees, and sleepless nights. As my quirk grew stronger so did my resentment.

He is a "hero", but he cannot even save his own family from falling apart. Wait, scratch that, he was the one who broke it in the first place. It was never whole to begin with, it was created on unstable ground. He's the number two hero, so everyone just assumes that makes him an amazing person. The media have seen his temper in person, but they just sweep everything under the rug. Do they even wonder the reason as to why my mother needed to recover? What she must recover from? He only wants recognition, to become number one. He can't seem to understand that helping others; your own family; is more important than fame. We should have been his priority, not a byproduct of it. Not something expendable to meet his needs.

* line here *

Steam rises from the floor, my brother's candy-cane hair sticking to his forehead from sweat. We made eye contact for a second. He then released some ice from his right hand, I brought its temperature up and it dripped down onto the floor. Water, in a perfect state for me to use, I moved it to surround his feet and froze it, encasing them in a solid crystal of ice. This didn't make much of an impact on him, he just melted it with his fire, leaving me to scramble for another route to success. I could only draw the liquid around his wrists, my father staring at me with an everlasting glare. "He's expecting me to win this time. I don't want to hurt him though. The only way I could win is by possibly boiling the water around his wrists, but I can't." I feel my father's eyes, my heart heavy as I realize I only have one choice. I heat the water, my eyes watering against my wishes. My tears being drawn to the floating mass around my twin's hands, his own tears mixing in. He screams, and that does it, my quirk willed away. My father's facial flames flaring up while his arms were folding in annoyance.

"His quirk is too strong, how does father expect me to win? Why does he even try with me? He doesn't with my other siblings, they're only "failures" to him. I'm not even allowed to talk to them anymore. I wish that I was seen as a "failure" as well, just so I could live a semi-normal life. So I could interact with my other siblings, especially Touya. I know I shouldn't favor one sibling over another but he was always my favorite. Of course, if I wasn't here I wouldn't be able to talk to my own twin, so it's for the best. I just don't know if he'd be okay by himself, we rely on each other so much."

"Enough fooling around! I expect one or both of you to surpass All Might!" My brother sobs because of what I had done, it begins to chip away my mentality. I shook off the fear of my father and rushed to my sibling, throwing my arms around his sides, chilling the priorly burning water around him. We both shook, my father mercifully leaving us alone, turning off the lights and closing the door.

We stayed in the training room for what felt like hours before I could finally wipe his and my own last tears. We walked down the cold, dark halls to our mother's room and she noticed our tear-stained cheeks. The three of us cling to each other, waterworks starting up again. That's how we fell asleep that night.