Mike felt his grin growing, eyes crinkling at the corners; he couldn't help a small, surprised noise of happiness at her words. Always like this. Kori always managed it somehow, even in their worst moments; he still remembered the first time he'd seen her again after so many years, and how even with the pained look in her eyes everything in him lit up like Independence Day.
Tonight she was saying some serious things.
Hard things. I thought I deserved losing you.
Mike wet his lip half-nervously, shaking his head. "Baby," he started. "Aww, darlin'."
It was all he could manage to draw a hand up along the side of her face, lean down the short inches to rest his forehead against hers. "You all I ever wanted. Everythin' I ever could want. I love you the same as I ever loved you. Maybe more."
The end of the world had a way of intensifying: sharpened the good, the bad, the in-between.