Author's Note: I didn't plan on updating early, but since I managed to write three chapters of this story, I figured why not update? So here is an early release to You Again, and there will be a chapter on Monday as well. Thanks for reading everyone and a very big special thanks to Miss Mugiwara for your beautiful reviews to this story so far! Until next time.

The secret is to make sure your family comes before anything else, because no matter what you do you've got to come home.

-Barry Gibb

WELCOME HOME

Fourteen hours on a plane was too long for anyone to be stuck in a chair. He had a crick in his neck, his legs were stiff, and his back hurt. Thankfully, he was able to sleep on the ride around the world, but it wasn't very comfortable. If anything, Midorima felt just as exhausted as he had when he left New York. He moved through the throngs of people as they made their way to different terminals and the bathrooms and front entrance. Midorima turned his phone back on as he moved through the airport, going straight to baggage claim. His duffle bag hung off of one shoulder as he trotted down some stairs.

When he reached the main floor of the airport, Midorima spotted the baggage carousels. He apologized as he squeezed through people and made it to the front of the crowd. Right as he arrived the machine belts started moving and the suitcases from his flight came rolling out. As he stood there with his arms crossed over his chest he spotted his suitcase coming around. Midorima was relieved it didn't get lost or misplaced like one of his bags had when he went to New York for the first time. Thankfully, it was only a suitcase of clothes, but it still sucked to lose half his wardrobe.

Midorima grabbed his bag when it reached him and pulled it from the carousel. When he put it on the ground, he pulled up the handle and turned around. He made his way out of the airport, but stopped when he spotted his mom walking in. While he hadn't expected to cry, he felt tears pricking his eyes. Five years, that's how many years had come by since he had seen his mother in person. He let go of his suitcase and dropped his duffle bag onto the ground.

"Oh my…Shintaro!" His mother ran over to him and threw her arms around him, getting up on her toes just to get around his shoulders and neck. Midorima laughed lightly as a few tears fell down his face as he wrapped his arms around his mother. Not once did Midorima think that he would be this moved by seeing his mother again. She hadn't changed much at all. Her age showed a little more, but otherwise her smile, her hugs, and her kisses were the same as when he was there all those years ago.

Hotaru, his mother, sobbed into her son's chest and she pulled away. She cupped his face in her hands and Midorima smiled at her. Shaking her head, his mother pulled him back in for another hug and cried more and more. It was a very emotional reuniting and Midorima could only imagine what his father and sister would do once they saw him. Hotaru pulled away again after a few more seconds and laughed as she brushed her tears away from her eyes.

"Look at you! I missed you so much!" Hotaru said as she grabbed her son yanking him into another hug. Midorima laughed and hugged his mother, rubbing her back as they stood in the middle of the lobby. "I'm so glad your home," she whispered into his ear.

"I missed you too, mom," Shintaro replied as he pulled away and kissed her cheek. He wiped away her tears and grabbed his duffle bag and suitcase. "Let's go see dad and Maya," Shintaro suggested as he wrapped his free arm around his mother's shoulder.

"Maya is going to be so happy to see you," Hotaru assured him as she put her arm around his waist. "You have to tell me everything about New York on the way home," his mother told him, and Midorima nodded and smiled at her.

"Five years is a lot to catch up on," Midorima replied with a small laugh.

"Honey," Hotaru stopped him when they reached the parking garage. Her son looked at her and stopped walking. "Kazu-kun is going to be at the wedding, I just wanted you to be aware. And I didn't tell you sooner because I didn't want you to change your mind."

Midorima was silent and he wasn't really sure what he felt. When he first decided to come he was sure that he'd probably run into the man he walked out on. Of course, he thought it would only be a fifty percent chance. To discover he was going to be attending Maya's wedding was essentially the universe saying 'screw you for destroying the man you were so madly in love with'. He opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it suddenly. His green eyes locked with his mother's chocolate brown ones. She gave him a sympathetic smile and placed her hand on his own, squeezing it in a comforting manner.

"It'll be okay, Shintaro. He's okay now," Hotaru assured him, but Midorima wasn't so sure he would be okay once he saw him. As it was, Midorima didn't even know what he was going to do if he saw Takao again. "I don't know what happened between you two, but I know you and I know him." She smiled at her son and rubbed his arm gently.

"I don't even know what to say to him," Midorima said to his mother.

"Start with 'how have you been' and go from there," his mother replied and nodded towards the car.

"I don't think that will be sufficient," Midorima mumbled as he pushed his glasses up.

"Nothing you say will be, but it's somewhere to start," Hotaru explained as she unlocked the car and opened up the back seat door. Midorima nodded stiffly and put his duffle bag inside followed by his suitcase. "It's been five years and you haven't spoken to each other, just start fresh." She closed the car door and pulled her son into one more quick hug. When she pulled away from him she kissed his cheek and gestured for him to get in on the passenger side.

Hotaru started driving, heading out of the parking garage and straight back to the house. She explained that his sister was getting her nails done, so they would have time to get his things unpacked. She gushed about different ways to surprise his sister, but Midorima tuned out after a few minutes. He subconsciously nodded his head and smiled and laughed a little every now and then. His mind was elsewhere though; he couldn't seem to shake the information his mother had given him. Midorima didn't really know if he would not have come if he knew Takao would be there at the wedding. At the end of the day, it was a very special day for his little sister, so he probably still would have come. But he felt so anxious thinking about seeing Takao again after five years.

Midorima hadn't seen what Takao looked like since the day he left. He strictly told his parents and sister that he didn't want to know about him. It wasn't because he was that cold and bitter, but because he thought it would make him depressed. As a doctor, Midorima had enough stressful emotions while tending to patients. What Midorima really thought though was that if they told him about Takao he'd leave everything and return to him. Deep down though, Midorima didn't feel like he deserved Takao not after what he did.

Japan looked the same as it had when he left. The winter weather wasn't as terrible as New York. It was cold, but not nearly as cold as New York had been. There wasn't much snow to be seen, but the skies were overcast so there was always a chance. Midorima sighed softly and ran his fingers through his green that hadn't changed at all since he left. In fact, aside from being a little more built Midorima looked the same as when he graduated from high school.

"Kazu-kun works at Shutoku now, he's a teacher and the coach of the basketball team," Hotaru mentioned as they drove passed the school. Midorima's eyes widened in surprise, he never pinned Takao to be the teaching type. He always pictured Takao being a radio talk show host, since he always loved to talk. It became even worse when Kise came along and started hanging out with him. Takao and Kise would gossip all day long about anything and everything.

It made Midorima smile thinking about the many times he'd walk into their apartment to find Kise and Takao sitting at their table babbling about something. In the past it used to annoy Midorima, but after having lived alone in New York in a tiny apartment, he realized the value of having company over to liven up and warm the home. Sometimes Midorima felt like such a hermit, doing nothing aside from working and sleeping. About ninety percent of his time was spent at the hospital and the other ten percent was in his apartment. He hardly had time to meet anyone new aside from his own patients and occasionally a new nurse.

Most of the people at the hospital liked Midorima. He was very precise and to the point and always-caught things they missed. In his third year of working at the hospital he was given two interns to guide. Surprisingly enough, those two were now his only friends in New York. Friends that actually invited him places and came over to his place from time to time. The first three years though, Midorima only went to the hospital and his apartment. Not that he minded at the time, he spent most of his time trying to get in on surgeries. There was one person he was friends with back then, but unfortunately he moved to another hospital that was in Chicago where his mother was. She was very sick with cancer and he wanted to be with her. He asked Midorima to come with him, but Midorima didn't want to leave not after everything he'd accomplished in New York.

"Here we are, home sweet home," Hotaru said as she pulled the car into a small driveway outside of Midorima's childhood home. They lived in a nice residential neighborhood where they actually had a front and backyard. It wasn't too far outside the city, but far enough to not hear sirens going off all night. The house was still the same misty grey color with the charcoal black accents. It was a simple two-story home with a beautiful garden, which his mother often tended too.

"Hasn't changed at all," Midorima said with a smile as he climbed out of the car. He leaned against the roof of the car and admired the house for a bit. Many memories started flooding his mind. So much happened inside that house as well as the neighborhood itself. In the center of the residential community there was a small park, which was where he learned how to play basketball. There was also a community swimming pool, which he learned to swim in and taught his sister to swim in. Inside his old home he remembered the scents of delicious foods, the laughter at dinner every night, and the squeaking of the stairs when he and his little sister would slide down them on pillows.

"We've done our best to keep it the home you and your sister know it to be," Hotaru explained as she looked to her son. "Just in case you ever want to come home, which you always can." She smiled at him, and Midorima nodded his head knowingly as he closed the car door and went into the back seat to get his things.

"This was the house that built me," Midorima said as he started walking up the small path to the front door. "I didn't think I missed it this much, but maybe it's just the memories I miss."

"You know, sometimes home isn't always a place," Hotaru mused as she opened the front door to the house. "Sometimes home is actually a person."

"What are you hinting at?" Midorima asked with a raised brow as he walked inside. He quickly took off his shoes and moved his suitcase and duffle bag aside. The fresh smell of linen filled his nose just like it did when he lived with his parents. A small smile came to his face as he saw everything where it had always been. The lumpy old dark blue coach, the fuzzy beige rug and the rustic looking coffee table, and even the old rosewood entertainment unit was still the same.

"Well look at you," Midorima's father, Tadashi, laughed as he walked in from the kitchen. "You've become a man," his father said with a smile as he walked over to his son and wrapped his arms around him.

"It's good to see you, dad," Midorima said honestly as he hugged his father back. The man laughed lightly and clapped Midorima on the back, holding him tight as he buried his face in his son's shoulder. When Midorima realized his father was silently crying, he closed his eyes and rubbed his dad's back. "I missed you," he whispered.

His father sniffled a little bit and said, "I missed you too, Shintaro." When the older man pulled away, he wiped away the few tears he shed and smiled at his eldest child. "Thank you for coming home," Tadashi said to his son, clapping him on the shoulder before pulling him in for one more hug. "You look great, Shintaro."

"Thanks, dad," Midorima said with a small smile.

"Your sister is going to be here in about fifteen minutes, so you better hurry and get your stuff upstairs," Hotaru said, patting Midorima's belongings. "We'll have to surprise her good."

"Okay, how did you want to do this?" Midorima asked as he gathered up his things, preparing to ascend the stairs.

"In the kitchen, just stay up there and I'll get her into the kitchen. Once we have her, I'll send your father up to get you. I want to record this," Hotaru gushed as she clapped her hands together and wandered over to the kitchen to prepare some lunch. It was almost 11:30, so she was sure her daughter would like something to eat since she didn't get the chance to eat breakfast. "Hurry, hurry," his mother waved Midorima towards the stairs and he nodded before walking up the stairs to his old bedroom.

When he got to the top, Midorima smiled as he stared at his bedroom door. Even though he hadn't opened it or gone in yet, he knew that everything was just as he left it. Taking in a deep breath, Midorima pushed the door open and walked inside. He shook his head as his eyes looked at everything in his room. For the most part the room was pretty barren aside from a few posters on the walls and a couple of books on his old bookshelf. He walked over to his bookshelf where he saw a photo frame laying face down on the top shelf.

Midorima swallowed hard as he grabbed the frame and picked it up. As he turned it over, the green haired teen sighed softly and looked at the photo in the frame. He licked his lips and smiled weakly at the smiling faces of him and Takao from their first year in college. It was taken the day they were leaving to move into the dorms together. At that time they had been dating for almost a year at that point. He rubbed his finger over the glass and put the frame back down. Midorima wondered how much Takao had changed since he left.

"I'm home! Look mom!" Maya called out as she walked into the house. Midorima quickly closed his door quietly in case she ran up stairs first. "In two days I'm going to be getting married!" Maya squealed with excitement and Midorima rolled his eyes. His sister was very different from him; she loved being in the spotlight. When she learned how to tie her shoes as a kid, every time she put them on and tied them everyone in the whole house had to clap.

"Hey come down now, quietly," his father said, poking his head into the room.

"Okay," Midorima replied with a single nod as he turned around to look at his father. He walked out of the room, and his father put a finger to his lips as he quietly went down the stairs. Midorima waited until his father reached the end of the stairs before following him down. He could already hear his mother and little sister gushing over her nails and how beautiful she was going to look. When he got to the bottom of the stairs, his father waved for him to follow.

Maya was standing in the middle of the kitchen with her back to them. Midorima smiled and shook his head she had grown so tall. He quietly stepped into the kitchen behind her as his father walked around and placed hand on her shoulder, welcoming her back. Maya turned around slightly and smiled at her dad, but noticed something out of the corner of her eye.

"Who's—Shin-chan!" Maya screamed in shock and ran towards him, throwing her arms around his neck. Midorima laughed as his sister latched onto him, burying her face into his shoulder. She started to cry and Midorima hugged her tight, picking her up off the ground. Maya sobbed as her brother rubbed her back and kept his hold on her. He glanced to his mother and father, who were both wiping away tears at their children's reunion. "I thought…what are you doing here?" Maya asked as she pulled away wiping away her tears.

"Well we wanted to surprise you," Midorima explained with a smile as he brushed his sister's hair from her face. Maya shook her head and pulled her brother into another warm embrace. "It's good to see you, Maya, you look beautiful." He rubbed her back and held her close.

"Thank you, thank you," Maya cried. "Thank you for coming home," she whispered to him and Midorima smiled.

"You're welcome," he said softly and kissed the top of her head. "It's good to be back."