The Embers

Paperwork sucks.

Nymeria really hated hospitals.
Her loved ones knew this fact. Knew that the medical equipment, sterile setting, and smell of chemicals usually led to anxiety and panic and flashbacks. Thats why, her waking up to the sights and smells and sounds belonging to a hospital clued her in that she was in some deep shit.
Well, that, and the fact that she felt like she had been thrown out of a five story building, hit by a truck, and then used as the personal punching bag for All Might.
She made an attempt to sit up and immediately stopped, pain increasing from 'ow. That hurts.' to- 'Ow! That fucking hurts!' with the effort.
Before she could begin to work herself into a real panic and start screaming for someone, anyone, to come update her on Kenzo and tell her what had happened after she passed out, the door to her room opened. She watched Ama, in her work scrubs and looking incredibly tired, enter the room followed by an equally tired looking Cabe.
"Hey hun, glad to see you up. How are you feeling?" As her aunt spoke, she ran a hand though already ruffled short hair. Nymeria blinked a few times, watching them come to a stop at the side of her bed.
"How's Kenzo?"
Ama sighed, narrowing her eyes and putting her hands on her hips.
"You know, if I didn't understand that waking up here after passing out in the field in a stressful situation would be making you anxious, I would be tearing into you about actually answering questions about your own health before worrying about anyone else's. But I understand, so I'm going to be nice and tell you that Kenzo is fine. He's sleeping off some light healing, will be sore for a few days I'm sure, but you managed to take his injury from life-threatening to essentially a deep scratch."
Nymeria let loose the breath she had been holding and allowed her body to relax back into the bed. She narrowed her eyes as her aunt exchanged a look with Cabe.
"What? What's wrong?"
Cabe let a long sigh out before clearing his throat.
"To repeat your Aunt's question, how are you feeling?"
"Like shit. Probably the worst I've felt in years. My whole body hurts and I could probably sleep for three days and still not feel rested. Thank the Gods we were set to go home early so I actually can."
At another look exchanged between them Nymeria clenched her jaw.
"Why do you keep looking at each other like that? What's wrong? What aren't you telling me?!"
Nymeria knew she was starting to work herself up and that she should calm down, but the longer they went without answering her, the more her anxiety built.
Her eyes snapped to her aunt when she sighed and sat on the edge of the bed.
"Nothing is really wrong, Nymeria. Sorry if we are freaking you out. Kenzo is fine, obviously Cabe is too.. It's just... You were asleep for five days. You pushed your quirk way past what we've seen before, and it really messed you up. You were transferred back here to Musutafu yesterday once your body was stable enough for the travel."
Nymeria's eyes widened as her aunt spoke, looking to Cabe as he picked up where she left off.
"Your quirk was exhausted after you shielded us, very successfully I might add. But when you healed Kenzo, you pushed past your body's natural safety shut-off barriers, and used up whatever reserve of energy you had to heal him, instead of yourself. I had to give you two of your emergency fuel injections just to get your body to stop shutting down. You were still bleeding internally by the time we got you to the local hospital, and had to have an additional injection. Your fever only broke two days ago, and it's likely that you won't be fully healed for another week or so."
Cabe let out another sigh, running a hand over his face.
"We also don't know how pushing your quirk so hard is going to affect it. The full healing on someone else you managed as well as the output amount you had when shielding us is classified as a quirk awakening. You already technically had a medically induced quirk awakening when you were in All for One's custody. We never stopped to think about what would happen if you had one naturally, or even if you could have one."
Nymeria opened her mouth to reply, but didn't know what to say. She was relieved to have been able to protect them from the explosion, and even more so to have been able to heal Kenzo, but she already struggled at times with her quirk. If she couldn't control it anymore, or if it was weaker now, how was she supposed to protect her loved ones? She was going to ask what she was supposed to do now, when her aunt distracted her.
"Your hair is pretty cool though!"
She looked at Ama's small smile and furrowed her brows.
"My hair?"
Cabe helped prop her up in bed as her aunt hopped up and went to the attached bathroom, returning a moment later with a handheld mirror and handing it to her. Looking into the mirror she caught sight of her hair. It was an absolute mess, the curls that usually fell to the small of her back when down were tangled and knotted around her shoulder blades. As she reached the hand not attached to an IV up to touch it, she caught sight of a flash of light color. Turning her head slightly, she saw that a large streak of hair somewhere near the back of her head was a stark white in contrast to her normally black color.
"What the hell?!"
"Hey, it's not too bad! I think it gives you an edgy vibe!"
She looked at her aunt, raising her eyebrows and scoffing.
"I overused my quirk and an entire chunk of my hair suddenly turned white, and you think it looks edgy?!"
Ama nodded with a smirk on her face.
"Matches your personality well I think!"
The room was silent for a few beats before being broken to all three people in the room bursting into laughter. After a few moments of laughing, they fell silent and the mood in the room turned more serious.
"I'm glad you're awake and alright though. Everyone has been so worried, and the only thing keeping Kenzo in his room to finish healing instead of pacing around yours, has been Gran and Chiyo frequently hovering and giving him disapproving glares. Well, that and Nedzu arriving this morning to distract him."
"Nedzu met him in person?! Nedzu came here during a school day?! What about class?" Realizing what that meant, Nymeria gave a groan and buried her face in her hands.
"I'm two days late to returning to school, and haven't replied to the group chat. I'm screwed when I go back to school."
The adults chuckled, but before either could speak up the door slid open, Kenzo walking in with Nedzu sitting on his shoulder, smug looks on both their faces. Nymeria groaned.
"Whatever you two have planned so far, I want no knowledge of. Give me plausible deniability please."
Nudzu slid off Kenzo's shoulder as he leaned down and engulfed her in a firm but gentle hug, holding her closely and murmuring in her ear. "Thank you NyNy. Thank you for healing me, but if you ever scare me like that again, I swear I'll kill you myself."
Nymeria chuckled at his words, giving him a firm squeeze at the undercurrent of raw emotion she could hear under his playful words.
"Of course, I'm so damn glad you're okay ZoZo."
With a final squeeze, he pulled back, settling at her hip while Nedzu got Nymeria's attention by gently patting her knee.
"I'm pleased to see you awake and recovering Nymeria. When I got the news saying that you were transferred to your Aunt's hospital here I felt an overwhelming need to come see you for myself." He chuckled before continuing. "I'm afraid my abrupt departure from this morning may cause some potential increased intrigue with your friends though, as the staff member who informed me of your transfer did so in front of the class without censoring her words. She has been thoroughly reprimanded for her lack of tact in the matter."
Nymeria groaned and rubbed her face, looking up after a minute and taking a deep breath.
"So what's the cover story? I'm assuming you had one created before even leaving the school?"
Nedzu smiled. "Of course I did! You told your friends you were helping to take care of a relative, correct?" At her nod, he continued.
"The explosion aftermath was picked up and broadcasted by news stations. There was a 24 hour convenience store around the corner that was held up by a small-time villain about two hours afterwards that also got news coverage. While the warehouse had been reported as empty at the time of the explosion with no injuries or known cause, it was reported that unnamed civilians suffered unknown injuries, and the lesser villain was stopped by a good samaritan during the other situation. I've been informed that the civilian has been offered a deal; complete silence and a signed NDA on the matter, in return for not being charged with vigilantism."
Cabe spoke up next, eyeing her concerned expression.
"There were no serious injuries in the store robbery. It really wasn't a big deal, but someone higher up must've realized the potential consequences of the situation as far as your cover stories, and made the call to make the situation appear more dire and dramatic than it was. This way, you can claim that you were out on a run for snacks or something, got involved in the situation, and in your stress your quirk acted up, ending with you in the hospital."
Nedzu nodded at Cabe's explanation and gave her knee another pat at her relieved sigh.
"Now, I believe you should be discharged following a final check over to be sure you are healing at an acceptable rate. You should be home by this afternoon, and back in school, should you feel up to it, by tomorrow. I will say that you are being benched from any physical heroics classes until you are cleared by Recovery Girl, but seeing as you don't have to worry about the internships beginning next week, you could just use that time to finish healing and try to figure out the adjustments to your quirk."
Nymeria sighed and nodded. "Okay that makes sense. It should be fine. And I can just make up some story about being put on paperwork-only duty during my internship due to the injuries, getting to know how the clerical side of heroics is done and all that boring stuff."
Nedzu gave a light laugh at that and Nymeria looked up to see the other adults smirking while Kenzo looked dejected.
"Not too far off from the truth so not too much of a story to make up."
Nymeria looked to Cabe at his response. He gave a low chuckle before continuing.
"You don't think this entire mission, that went sideways in the worst possible ways, wouldn't have a mountain of paperwork involved? You've been lucky to have successful ones so far, those only require basic reports to be filled out. No, this time the three of us have an excessive amount of reports and forms to fill out. It's going to take us the entire week at least. It will be great."
Nymeria felt herself wilt at Cabe's response.
"You are way too happy about this man! It's going to suck for all of us! That includes you too!"
The adults chuckled at Kenzo's exclamation while Nymeria deflated even more.

Two hours and a very thorough check up later they were back home, Nymeria having gotten her phone back and responded to the multiple influx of concerned messages from her friends, letting them know she was alright, and would explain once she was back in class the next day. She had given hugs and assurances of her wellbeing to her concerned family, gingerly moving around with a very clingy Izuku refusing to leave her arms, not that she wanted him too.
Her and Kenzo were finally settling on a couch in the living room following a quick but enjoyable meal, when Cabe entered carrying a large filing box, letting it fall to the small table in front of them with a loud bang.
"This, is about one fourth of the paperwork that needs to be completed before we can go back out in the field. Relax tonight, because after you get home from school tomorrow, you get to start completing it."
Kenzo groaned loudly, throwing his head back to rest against the couch and muttering something like "Paperwork is the real villain of this society."
Nymeria agrees, paperwork sucks.