A Light in the Darkness: Hotaru's quirk didn't always come easy to her, controlling energy can be overwhelming, but she is determined to be the best hero she can possibly be despite all the circumstances she has against her. OCx?

Author's Note: I am on a roll with this fic; I am just so inspired! I am a little worried that my updating will slow down as Thanksgiving Break is almost over because I am a teacher and that takes up a lot of my time. However, writing this has been so therapeutic in this stressful time that I hope to keep this up. Hopefully I'll have an update every Saturday or Sunday. Might be before then, but guaranteed to be at least one of those days. Anyway, enjoy this chapter!

PS: Flashbacks, memories or thoughts are in italics.

Rating: Rated M for language and future themes and scenes.

Word Count: 1,389

Chapter Four: Childhood Memories and Acceptance Letters

"Let's see, you have your wallets?" Hotaru dug through her yellow backpack and pulled out her pink, star-shaped wallet, a cartoon patch of All Might in the middle. Two other small figures, one blond and the other green-haired, also pulled out similar wallets that had some form of the Pro Hero on them as well. The three older women, a blond-spikey haired woman with a large grin, a smaller, rather plump woman with long dark green hair and a somewhat worried face, and a black haired woman with golden eyes smiled down at the three children smiling eagerly up at them. "Water bottles?" The children nodded, eager to be on their way and prove they all could complete their "mission."

"Hotaru, you're the oldest, so make sure you watch out for all of them, okay?" The black haired woman reminded the white haired child who grinned up at her with her wild curls flying everywhere.

"Hey! She's only older by a week!" The blond haired boy barked, red eyes narrowing as he huffed when his mother, the blond woman, snickered and rubbed at his head to calm him down, "I'll be the one to protect us all!"

"Yeah!" Hotaru agreed, "We'll each protect each other! Right, Izuku-kun?" The green haired child was blushing as he nodded as his friends.

"I'm not sure about this Mitsuki…" Izuku's mother Inko muttered to the more outspoken adult in the group.

"Relax Inko, they will all be together! They're old enough to run some simple errands for us!" The blond woman laughed, ruffling her son's hair even more, getting amusement from the look being thrown at her by him.

"She's right Inko-san, they are just going around the corner" The black hair woman tried to reassure the woman, "Ichika was the same age as they are now and she did just fine." Hotaru blinked up at the black haired woman as she turned towards her, growing confused when her face started to blur out, "Isn't that right, Taru-chin?"

"Hotaru, what's wrong?"

"Hotaru-" Izuku mumbled as the white haired child began to reach for her mother who was slowly disappearing, turning into dust before her eyes, a weird grin on the older woman's face. "Ho-"

"Hotaru!" A significantly older Hotaru, ten years older to be exact, shot up from sleeping on the pull-out mattress from their sofa, long, wildly curly white hair flying everywhere. "You alright Hotaru?" She rubbed at her sleep filled eyes as she located the person talking to her - it was her older sister Ichika who was currently dressed in her waitress uniform and holding a cup of coffee with a concerned look on her face. "Nightmare?" She questioned softly.

Hotaru shook her head, getting quickly out of the bed and folding the bed back into the couch. "Just a memory," Hotaru muttered, slipping past her sister and making her way towards their small bathroom. "Are you just getting in?"

"Yep!" Ichika chimed cheerfully behind the door as she waited for her sister to do her morning ritual and come out. She decided she wasn't going to question the younger girl on what memory she revisited in her dreams, it probably wasn't a good one based on the way she had been tossing and turning. It was several minutes before the bathroom door opened and her younger sister emerged looking more awake with her hair now braided as it usually was and the sleep washed from her face. "Breakfast? I brought some fresh bagels from the restaurant."

"I'm going to go check the mail first," Hotaru nodded, eager to once more check the mail to see if she had received anything about the entrance exam from UA first. Ichika smiled at her sister in response.

"It's already on the table-" She sung, taking a sip of her coffee, "There was an envelope with your name on it, looked pretty big too-" She laughed as her sister shot past her, the taller teen being very graceful in her scramble for the mail and not knocking the older woman down.

Hotaru quickly located the letter she was talking about at the small, two-seater table. It was large with the UA crest in the corner and her name and address in the middle. Her hands shook as she picked it up, she could vaguely hear and feel her sister come to look around her shoulder as she opened the letter. She pulled out a thick packet of papers and was about to start reading through it when a small silver disk fell out onto the table from within them. Hotaru blinked at it in confusion, going to pick it up; however before she could do so, the small disk came to life and projected a holographic image on the wall of the kitchen.

"Hello lucky listener!" Hotaru jumped, not expecting the image to appear nor for the voice hero Present Mic to suddenly be screaming at her. "Hotaru Tanimori, you passed!" Ichika screamed behind her, starting to jump in her excitement while Hotaru just stared in amazement at the video playing before her. Present Mic smirked into the video camera, "You passed the written exam, though your math scores were absolutely horrible. However, your practical portion more than made up for that. Let's see if you can do the math for this," He pointed both of his hands to a screen next to him that lit up with scores from others that had taken the exam. "You got 44 villain points, not bad! And if you're wondering how that equals to 76 points," Hotaru watched as he pointed at her through the screen, his yellow glasses slipping down enough for him to stare at her with striking green eyes, "We were looking for more than just who can beat up all the baddies, we also rewarded rescue points. Being a hero is more than just knocking heads together, ya dig!" Hotaru slowly sunk into her chair at the table in disbelief. "You came in second place at 76 points! Welcome to UA listener! This is your hero academy!"

Hotaru just continued to stare at the wall as the recording shut off, only breaking out of her shock when her sister started shaking her shoulders in excitement. "You got in! You even got second place!" Ichika squealed, so excited and proud for her sister. "You're going to UA!"

"I'm...going to UA" Hotaru almost couldn't believe it, despite the recording and the acceptance paperwork, was this actually happening? "I'm going to be a hero…"

Ichika hugged her sister from behind, her shoulders shaking as she placed her face atop of her sister's head, tears coming to her eyes. This was everything her younger sister had ever wanted and despite the harsh life both had led since their father's passing when Hotaru was 7 and her 17, and Ichika not always able to provide her with all of her wishes, the younger girl didn't let anything hold her back from accomplishing her goal. Even with all the outbursts and accidents her quirk had caused, Ichika never gave up on the white haired girl and never allowed the girl to give up on herself as well. "I am so proud of you Hotaru," Ichika told sister, her arms tightening around her sister even further as the younger girl raised her own arms to grip those around her. "Papa would be as well."

"I'm going to be a hero just like All Might and Lou-" Hotaru was cut off, both her and her sister jumping at the sudden loud knocking at their door.

"Hotaru-chan! I got in! I got in!" Hotaru dashed from her sisters arms, a wide grin coming to her face as she scrambled towards the front door where she could hear her best friend bumbling behind. "I'm going to be a hero!"

"Izuku-kun!" Hotaru cheered, flinging the door open and attacking the boy in a hug, tears falling from her eyes in happiness though not nearly as powerful as her friends were as they shot up towards the ceiling in his burst of emotions. The boy couldn't even blush this time at having the taller girl attached to him, he was too overcome with happiness and just wanted to share this moment with her "Me too! We're going to UA! We're going to become pro-heroes!"

Author's Note 2: I know, I KNOW. This chapter isn't very long and I honestly thought about going into their first day at UA, but I really don't like doing random scene breaks like that mid chapter and it deserves its own chapter, as it is going to be much longer one. It will be out tomorrow...I just need to edit it. After this chapter and the next, like I mentioned before, updates are going to be slower as my career takes priority.

Anyway, what did you think? I know All Might is supposed to be the one to send them their acceptance videos, but I just don't think that it makes much sense. Why wouldn't the reporters already be storming the gates the first day if it was common knowledge that he was going to be teaching? I can't imagine the kids OR their parents wouldn't want to brag that their kid will be taught by the number one hero. And plus, his form only lasts so long, why waste it on recording videos? And plus...Present Mic sending hers is important...for reasons that will be revealed later on, but if anyone caught the hint I gave this chapter. Anyway, please review and let me know how I did. I am so excited about this story!