#jaydeemz

"Oliver?" he whispers at first, disbelieving. But then stronger, a shout, as he tears forward. "Oliver?!"

He abandons his pack but keeps his gun. If there is even one living bandit around here, Connor is going to destroy them. He's going to tear them piece from piece until there isn't even enough left to -

He stops at the edge of the crater. There's charred earth and rubble. Ash.

Connor falls to his knees. He should have said it. He should have told Oliver how he felt. Happiness doesn't linger. Love is impossible.

But he had felt both with Oliver.

"Connor?"

Connor readies his gun and turns, snapping up to his heels. The gun hits the dirt when he sees Oliver stepping out from an abandoned house across the street.

He means to say Oliver's name - to shout it - but he's having trouble finding his voice. Only his legs work, forcing him forward. He runs again, fast and sure.

Oliver, arms open, catches him halfway.

They're in the middle of a cracked and broken street. The houses are dilapidated. The outpost is a simmering hole in the ground.

But Oliver's in Connor's arms. He's alive. And everything is perfect.

Because he'll burst if he waits even a second more to say it, Connor whispers, "I love you."

Oliver smiles. "I love you, too."

They don't let go for a long time.

In the morning, they leave the abandoned town and head west.

"There's a city," Oliver tells him, relaying the information he'd collected from other survivors on the radio. "The grass grows. They have crops. People are rebuilding. There's police and sunshine and homes."

Connor thinks, home is where you are. Instead of saying it, he squeezes Oliver's hand.

"That's where the others went," Oliver explains. "We burned the outpost to keep the scavengers away."

"You stayed? Why?"

In reply, Oliver kisses him.

Connor pulls him close and keeps him there for a while. I'll never leave you behind again.

It takes a few months, but they make it to the city. It's everything Oliver had heard.

The world's rebuilding. It's starting here.