He thought it hurt when he first saw her, but that laugh and those tears are a slug to the gut, knocking the breath right out of him all over again. He's gone so long aching for her, longing to hear her voice or see her sweet face, even before the world ended. He spent every day in that prison cell with a knife in his chest, twisting and twisting at the thought of her. The pain never stopped, only grew larger as the years went on. An apocalypse couldn't even make him stop aching for her. The weight of it all pins him in place, so when she comes forward all he can do is open his arms and take her into them. He closes his arms around her when she pushes into his chest, crushing her against him, holding her too tight. He buries his face in her bright hair, his nose pressing to her scalp, breathing in the smell of her the same way he has ever since she was an infant in his arms. To him, she still smells the same, even though she's all grown up now and they're so many years and miles and heartbreaks away from that trailer in Montgomery. His tears fall hard, darting down his cheeks and soaking into her hair as he holds her.
"You always been the best thing I ever saw," he murmurs, his voice as waterlogged as his eyes. He doesn't let her go, doesn't even think he ever will, but he can't help starting to ask questions. "How long have you been here?" How long has she been in his city, right under his nose? How long has he been hunting for her while she sat at the Capitol, just out of his reach?