OH MAN THIS IS IT. THE END.

"Sorry guys, hang on a minute!" Yamato called out, interrupting his bandmates to check his buzzing phone. Takeru had insisted that he practice with his band after school today, despite the fact that he would probably be getting discharged very shortly. Yamato had grumbled, but his little brother claimed that he always seemed happier after practicing and how could Yamato say no to that?

The young man felt his chest tighten in anticipation. He had a new text from his mom. It either said that everything was great, and Takeru was coming home, or that something had happened and they were keeping him another day or two. Both options made his heart pound. Yamato sucked in a deep breath and opened the message. Akio, his drummer, peered over his shoulder and let out a jubilant cheer, slapping him on the back. The rest of the band joined him in a rowdy, sloppy group hug.

"Congratulations, man!"

Yamato was unfazed by the jostling and back-slapping. He had a message to send.

Takeru could not explain the happiness, the comfort, the absolute joy at being allowed to wear his own clothes again. His mom had been thoughtful enough to bring some of his favorite shirts and had let him pick out what he wanted to wear. She hadn't brought any hats though… He sighed and gazed downwards.

Natsuko smiled curiously at her son, sitting on the edge of the neatly made hospital bed.

"What's that look for, honey?"

Takeru slowly looked up at his mother. His eyebrows scrunched in puzzlement.

"I haven't worn shoes in almost five days. My feet feel weird."

His mother let out a short burst of laughter and shook her head. She was just relieved he hadn't made a comment about the new sneakers. Natsuko suppressed a shudder, recalling the quick conversation she had with his nurse about much of his clothing being "too damaged or stained" to return to him.

"Everything okay, Mum?" Takeru had caught a glimpse of her discomfort.

Natsuko hitched a smile back on her face. "Yeah, sweetheart. Just a cold chill. Its pretty brisk outside today. Do you want help with a sweatshirt?"

The boy stared calculatingly at his cast for a moment before nodding.

"I'll take it if it fits over this thing."

"It should," Nurse Hana walked in the door with a wheelchair. She parked it next to the bed and walked over to her charge, taking the sweatshirt Natsuko offered her. "I am very practiced at this."

Takeru chuckled as she assisted him, ignoring the lingering soreness of his joints.

"Do they teach that in nurse school? Wrestling Kids in Casts 101?" He asked, his voice muffled by the thick fabric.

Hana didn't bat an eye at the sassy comment.

"Absolutely. It was right after Getting Stubborn Children to Eat More Than the Hospital Jello class."

Takeru popped his head out of the shirt, studiously not looking at his mother.

"Takeru! The food couldn't have been that bad," Natsuko blustered, hands on her hips.

Her son grimaced at her from under his nurse's arm as she fussed with his sleeve.

"I plead the fifth."

"I thought Dad and Onii-chan were going to meet us at the hospital?" The child of hope asked, his voice full of confusion. He kept his eyes trained on the car in front of them. Looking out the side window was making his stomach churn. His eyes were still the smallest bit sore, and looking at anything that was bright or moving quickly gave him an instant, dull, throbbing headache. Just catching sight of the computer screen for a second at the hospital while they were filing his discharge paperwork had made his eyes water briefly. They had taken a whole packet with them about things he could do and things he couldn't. Also, the date he had to go back to get his cast and pins removed. Not exactly things to look forward to.

"Mom?"

His mother twitched slightly in the driver's seat.

"Sorry, Takeru. What did you say?"

"What happened to Dad and Onii-chan meeting us at the hospital?"

His mother hesitated just long enough for the blond boy to get suspicious.

"Oh, they thought you would want something to eat. So they decided to pick up dinner and meet us at home instead. Sorry, I forgot to tell you."

Takeru pursed his lips. That seemed likely. He was indeed quite hungry.

"Okay…"

Silence filled the car for a little while. Natsuko seemed to be chewing her lip a lot, and Takeru could not figure out if it was because she was worried about something, or she wanted to say something, but was holding back. Goodness knows she did both often enough. The soon to be thirteen-year-old turned his gaze to the bag in his lap and could not help but smile. Rifling through it with his good hand, he tugged out the trucker hat and carefully put it on.

His mother glanced at him for a moment and did a double take.

"Oh, for heaven's sake, honey. Must you wear that one? I can't understand why Mimi got you all those bizarre things."

Takeru sent her a satisfied grin.

"My head felt naked and I like this one. And Mimi was just being silly, someone must have told her my old hat didn't fit anymore."

His mother turned her now startled gaze to the streets. Takeru strained to hear what she was saying, but his mother was muttering something too far under her breath for him to understand. A resigned look overcame her face after a minute or two and she became quiet. It hurt too much to stare at her any longer, so Takeru gave up and faced front again.

Takeru sagged slightly against his mom while she fished the apartment keys out of her pocket. It was absurd that he was used to running for hours for basketball, and suddenly a walk down the hallway left him tired and slightly lightheaded. They hadn't even used the stairs.

Natsuko took in an oddly bracing breath and muttered, "Here we go." Which confused her son quite a bit until she opened the door.

A cacophony of "Welcome home!"'s and "Surprise!"s bombarded them.

Takeru held onto the doorframe and blinked in shock. It appeared that all the chosen children, plus a few friends from his basketball team, and even Yamato's friend Akio, had congregated in his living room. It only took a moment for him to process that yes, they were all here to welcome him home from the hospital. His heart nearly burst, and he was overwhelmed with love for all these wonderful people in his life. He looked to his mom in amazement.

"Don't look at me, your brother did this," She shrugged, but her smile told him more.

Pushing himself off the door, the flabbergasted boy found his brother in the crowd of people and made a bee-line for him. Yamato laughed, catching him in a hug. Takeru flopped against his chest limply.

"Now now, it wasn't all me. Hikari got at least half of this organized," He shot the blushing girl a wink across the room. Takeru turned his head and managed a soft thank you in her direction. Hikari grinned sheepishly back.

"Dude! Are you hungry? Miyako's store sent us food!" Daisuke exclaimed. The room full of people chuckled at his exuberance and began milling about, chatting and eating. "Come sit down, I'll grab us some Takoyaki!" The goggle boy grabbed Takeru by the arm much more gently than usual and guided him to the couch before running toward the kitchen.

Yamato sat on the arm of the couch and waited patiently for their friends to finish their greetings. When it was a little quieter, he pulled a box seemingly out of nowhere and handed it to his brother.

"It's a little something from Mom and Dad. Thought it might keep you entertained until you can head back to school."

The paper wrappings went flying and two books dropped into the chosen child's lap. One was a favorite novel of his, but with the text much larger than normal. Takeru beamed at the idea of being able to read something without hurting his eyes. The other was a basketball playbook.

"I know you can't read that one for a little while, but you're going to be benched for most of the semester. Plenty of time to read up on some new plays, huh?" Hiroaki leaned over the back of the couch.

The smile Takeru sent his parents could have lit up the whole room.

"Aaaaaand… These are from everybody else," Hikari dropped a large bag at his feet.

Takeru tugged the tissue paper away, and gasped, reverently pulling out some of the contents. The bag was full of the most outlandish hats he had ever seen. Each one had a small tag and a name attached, so he knew who each one was from. The excited boy reached up and took off his trucker hat to replace it with a huge, rainbow, Dr. Seuss style tophat.

Slowly he turned, finally facing his mom with a shit eating grin. In a rather maniacal tone, he whispered to her.

"This one's even better."

A million thank you's to everyone who read and reviewed! I can't believe I did it. This whole thing literally started from just the silly image of Takeru with the newspaper in the hospital bed. And he was originally going to be wearing those slinky, googly eye glasses and scaring his mom.

This story took a lot of research. I looked up the buslines to make sure of where the accident would happen, of which Tokyo hospital he would be sent to, of plane times and typical Hong Kong layovers. Most of the medical talk is accurate, as I researched typical head injury and brain-eye damages and symptoms. Finding out that most of the symptoms of eye strain resemble that of a migraine was actually fantastic. I know what that feels like, so the hair gripping, hot eye pain Takeru was in was terrifyingly easy to write.

My friend works in a children's hospital and gave me tons of great insight onto how they speak to, and treat the young patients. All that goofiness is indeed allowed and encouraged. The psychologist is usually referred to as a resident social worker, but I wanted to scare Yamato.

I may to one more chapter of Strobe. I felt bad that I was never able to include Ken's reaction to nearly losing someone else to a car crash. I don't know if I can write him very well, but I might give it a shot.

Again, thank you to everyone who read. I really appreciate it.