Ricardo feels like he can breathe a little easier once the weekend is over. Not only does Paige and Alberto fly out to return to the States, but he packs the last of his things to head home as well. He works at not thinking about how it'll feel to regularly be in the same state as Alberto and Paige yet again, aware that doing so will also bring him closer to Sofia and Alicia once more. Also one plus with Florida is that it's much larger than the halls of the WAW arena, and he'll have less chance to run into them.
After a lengthy wait at the airport, he finally boards the plane to the States and pushes his luggage into the overhead compartment, jerking when a girl across from him squeals. He moves for his earphones quickly, not wanting to risk hearing more of that when he's tired and stressed out anyway. The flight is 16 hours long and he tries to sleep through it, succeeding for a bit here and there, even when his seatmate, a much too friendly woman with very curious questions, shifts and elbows him, or tries to talk through his music. Once she finally dozes off, lulled by the little bottles of alcohol that the flight attendant had so kindly given to her, Ricardo relaxes and leans back, dozing off as well.
When he awakens again, his head is hurting- from a mix of turbulence, the music blaring into his ears, and jetlag, he thinks. But they're officially back in America now and it's time for him to get onto his connecting flight that will take him the rest of the way to Florida. He exhales, realizing that he has the row to himself once he boards the second plane, stretching out and smiling to himself. Things are gonna be ok, he tells himself.
When the second plane finally lands in Florida and he and the other travelers depart, he finds his luggage on the conveyor belt and drags them outside, stretching his arms out and breathing in the warm air. After weeks and weeks of being trapped in England's mainly grey, wet weather, he's happy to stand and absorb the sun for a few minutes before walking towards where his car's been parked the last few weeks and drives out of the parking garage, aiming it towards his apartment with Alicia.
The cats and puppies are still with Christina and Alicia is touring with WWE, so the house is quiet. Empty. He closes his eyes and crawls into bed, too exhausted and bone weary to even care about the quiet homecoming. Although jetlag usually works together with his insomnia to keep him from sleeping, he passes out almost as soon as his head hits his pillow.
He's still asleep when Alicia returns home early the next morning, the door shutting quietly behind her as she tiptoes through the apartment, aware he's there because of the car in the parking lot. She pushes his bedroom door open and peeks in at him before grinning, sending a quick text to her sister. When Christina arrives twenty minutes later, Alicia greets her with a hug and helps her cart the pet carriers into the house, letting the cats out first so they can have their roam of the apartment before releasing the dogs, watching with a laugh as they desperately bound out and bark, sniffing at each other, at Alicia, at Christina. "Hello, boys," she greets Zero and Zeus, kissing them and letting them go.
They bound towards Ricardo's room and she chuckles, seeing Christina to the door. "Thank you so much, sis. I'll call you later."
As soon as she's gone, Alicia leans against the door and exhales before walking down the hall to look in on Ricardo again. The dogs, now moderately calmer, are sprawled out on the foot of the bed, staring up at her as Ricardo sleeps on peacefully. She sighs, sore and missing him, and climbs into bed next to him, gripping his arm and wrapping it around her body. He makes a soft little murmuring noise and hugs her tighter, Alicia smiling against his neck as she yawns, giving into her own exhaustion.
When she wakes up again, he's awake and staring back at her, his lips twitching up into a grin when he realizes she's up. "Hey, Alicia."
"Hi," she yawns, wiping the sleep matter out of her eyes. "Welcome home." She grips his hands and sighs. "I missed you."
He squeezes back and lightly kisses her. "I missed you too."
They lay there for awhile and just listen to each other breathing, the dogs and cats making muffled noises around the apartment. "So," Alicia sighs, "I want to hear everything going on in England but I bought you something, since I regret not being home to properly greet you. It's not much, but just a little something."
Ricardo gets up and follows her into the kitchen, running his fingers through his hair as she finds a bag on the counter and sets it out in front of him, smiling at him while he unties it. "A cupcake," he chuckles, pulling it out and looking up at her with a smile.
"Well, I have a match this weekend, and I know neither of us really want to mess up and gorge ourselves on cake right now, so I figured smaller would be better. We can cut it in half and share it."
Ricardo chuckles. "That works." He gets up and finds a knife, handing it to her so she can cut while he tells her about his months in England. She listens while cutting, at times pausing to focus on his story. As soon as he's done talking, she sits there for a few minutes, licking the black and purple icing off of her fingers before standing up and cupping his face.
"I'm glad you're home," she breathes against his lips, kissing him.
"Of course," he teases her, eyes fluttering. "You need someone here to give you a massage after you wrestle Nia Jax on Sunday."
Alicia exhales. "Why wait? You could at least practice your skills right now," she murmurs, wiping some icing off of his lips with her fingers. "What do you say?"
His eyes trails up and down her body before he nods. "Alright, we can try that," he agrees, grinning as she grips his hands and pulls him up, dragging him back towards the bedroom.