The Embers

To name a Hero

Nymeria was only two days into this paperwork and she was already so over it. Her only reprieve from it has been the brief moments of light exercise to start getting her back in working order, and school.

But it was Friday and the internships started tomorrow for her classmates. Meaning no school or actual internships for her. She was not looking forward to being stuck in an endless loop of files and forms and signatures.

At least this short break would give her more time to spend with Izuku. She has missed him in the craziness of school and work, and he was growing and changing every day it seemed.

She's brought out of her thoughts as Sho sits down in his desk behind her, thunking his head on the table and mumbling a barely intelligible "Morning."

She huffed a laugh and dug around in her bag, setting a can of cold brew on his desk when she found it, and poking his head lightly to get him to notice it. With a nod of his head and a slight smile, he grabbed it and drank the whole thing in a few gulps.

Even though she's only been at school for two full days, the two of them have quickly bonded over their tired and quiet personalities and collective lack of sleep. Aizawa quickly learned that everyone else in their friend group was constantly loud and energetic, and she had an uncanny ability to get them to tone it down when necessary, resulting in him tending to gravitate towards her more often than not. The constant supply of coffee she seemed to have on hand also might have influenced him, but she wasn't going to judge. There was a reason she kept a bulk supply of the liquid of life after all.

Besides, it really wasn't hard corralling the more outgoing friends in their group. Afterall, containing them was a lot easier than containing an energetic Izuku and Katski, the latter already having quite the.. Strong.. Personality for a three year old.

She's again brought out of her thoughts by Zashi and Ro entering the room and giving their standard loud and enthusiastic greetings. Ro differs by tacking on a flirty tone and a wink at the end. Nymeria is reminded that she does not want him and Kenzo to meet, or Gods forbid, Kenzo, Oboro, and Nemuri all meet. It could only end in a lawsuit being filed, she's sure.

They chat casually about mundane things, Zashi and Ro leading most of the conversation as has become the norm, until Nedzu enters and calls the class to order. Once everyone was in their seats and attentive, he makes an announcement that has Nymeria pulling her phone out and rapidly shooting a message to Kenzo.

"Today you will be deciding your hero names. Please think on this carefully. Write them down and turn them in by the end of homeroom."

Baby Mamas: Hey! We are about to pick hero names. You still down for the ones we talked about??

Uber Man: Yeah totally! I think we pick ours later today so that's perf

Baby Mamas: Okay sweet. Don't get caught on your phone. Shitzeku is anal about the weirdest things.

When she got no response she figured he was back to paying attention so as to not get into trouble. She quickly wrote out her half of the name that Kenzo and her had decided on.

The commission wanted them to go with something siding on cute and public friendly in case they decided to put them in daylight heroics. The nice thing though, was that once they turned them in at school, they wouldn't be able to be changed without more work than it was worth.

Looking up, she realized she had been caught up in her head again, and must've missed a conversation between her friend group judging by the amused expressions that Zashi and Ro were shooting Sho, who was returning to his seat from turning his in.

Oh well, she's sure she would hear about it later.

Standing up and heading to Nedzu's desk with her paper, she handed it over to him, a small smirk in place. Nedzu quickly looked over what she wrote before looking at her, giving a smile just on the side of feral. Giving a glance past her to the class behind her, he made eye contact and began quietly speaking in Spanish.

"You are sure that this is the name you want to use?"

Nodding, she replied.

"I'm sure. My friend and I have thought long and hard about our names. This was our decision."

Nedzu gave a quiet chuckle and nodded, waving her back to her desk as he input her name into his computer.

Sitting back at her seat, she met the confused and curious looks of her three friends. Ro was the one to voice the question.

"Were... were you just speaking spanish with Nedzu?"

Nymeria's lips quirked as she nodded. Noting the slightly shocked looks on her friends faces, she sighed.

"I like languages. My memory makes it easy for me to learn and remember things, and when I got through most basic school subjects, I started picking up a few."

Zashi flailed his arms.

"I mean, I'm fluent in English, but that's because I have family who live in America and we talk a lot. How many languages do you know?!"

Nymeria hummed and tapped her desk, supporting her chin on her other hand.

"Well, I'm fluent in Japanese, obviously. I'm also fluent in English, Spanish, French, ASL, and JSL. I'm working on some Russian and Italian in my free time, but starting school has made it a slow process."

Nymeria glanced at each boy, giving a quiet chuckle at their shocked faces. Well, Zashi and Ro had shocked faces, Sho just had slightly widened eyes which was more emotion than he usually allowed to show. Ro shook himself out of his shock first, giving a grin and changing the subject.

"So! What did everyone choose for their hero names? I'll go first! I picked Loud Cloud!"

Nymeria gave a small smile and glanced at Zashi.

"Yo! I like that! I went with Present Mic. I think it will be a cool name for when I work as a daylight hero, ya dig?!"

Sho spoke up before the two other boys could begin excitedly talking about their future lives as heroes.

"I didn't really think about or care what my hero name is. I plan on going underground anyways. I just put 'Eraserhead' like Zashi said." At the incredulous looks from the rest of the group, he gave a shrug before rubbing at his face. "Like I said, I really don't care what it is."

Nymeria hid a chuckle behind her hand as the other two freely laughed.

"Dude! I didn't think you would actually go for it! Man, I could've come up with something WAY better had I known."

Zashi continued laughing after his declaration, smacking Ro's arm as they both laughed harder at Sho's eyeroll before he buried his face into his arms on his desk. After another few moments of laughter, they all turned expectant eyes to Nymeria. She sighed before shifting in her seat.

"I went with Bia. Bia was the Greek goddess of force and power." She gave a small shrug before continuing. "I figured it fits my quirk pretty well, plus it's short and easy to remember. I'm aiming for twilight or full underground heroics, so I don't really want anything flashy or more publicly appealing."

As the two loud boys began to chatter about how much they liked it, pulling out their phones to look up which ancient gods matched their quirk best, Nymeria turned slightly and made eye contact with Aizawa. He gave a small quirk of his lips and laid his head back down. She mimicked him, trying to get some rest before the homeroom ended.

Later that evening, once home from school and having worked on paperwork with Kenzo for a few hours, they would both laugh as Cabe grinned at them, telling them he liked their hero names- Bia, after a Greek goddess force, power, might, bodily strength and compulsion, and Janus, after a Roman god of the beginnings and the ends, presiding over every entrance and departure. Stating that it fit their quirks and personalities well, and the fact that it wasn't what the commission had in mind for them was a bonus.

Nymeria went to bed that night feeling proud of herself and Kenzo for coming such a long way from the former captive child soldiers they once were.