Delay, after delay, after delay. Ricardo buries his face in his hands and exhales slowly. "Well," he mumbles. "I'm so sorry, Foxy, I don't know when we'll be leaving at this rate," he tells Alicia. "COVID has made everything very complicated."

She reaches out for him, strokes her hand solidly up and down his back with a consoling smile. "Hey, look at it this way, we still get to spend the holidays with our friends. That's a good thing. Andre's first Christmas surrounded by love and people who adore him. We'll figure the Egypt thing out, for now... let's try to enjoy this, alright?"

Ricardo sighs, taking deep breaths in, exhaling them slowly out until some of the tension in his shoulders fade away. "Alright," he murmurs, allowing her to draw him back into bed, kisses and touches helping to relax him the rest of the way.

She hums and straddles him, hair tickling his jaw as she presses biting kisses into his throat, lower. "I love you," she informs him with a soft chuckle, fingers warm and deft against his skin. "I love our family, no matter where we're at- the States, Egypt, anywhere in between. As long as we're together, that's all that really matters to me."

"I..." He sighs, swallows. "I feel the same." He smiles down at her as she rests her head on his hip bone and looks up at him lovingly. "I can't wait to spend another holiday with you, Alicia."

Her eyes soften and she kisses his hip before shifting, pressing soft kisses down his thigh, biting here and there, listening with a grin to his responding gasps and hisses, continuing on until finally he gasps and reaches out for her with a low moan, "Alicia, please."

She hums and immediately stops teasing him, gliding back up his body until she can kiss him on the lips again, tangling her fingers in his hair and breathing in deeply as he touches her, hands warm on her hips, guiding her, supporting her. "You're the best thing that ever happened to me, Ricardo Rodriguez," she whispers to him, watching as his eyes flutter, lips parting in awe. "I'm the luckiest woman in the whole damn world."

-x

Christmas with the Mizanins is a madhouse. It doesn't help when news of Mike and Maryse renewing their vows on Raw begins to spread after an announcement on Twitter. Then everyone's attention shifts to Mike and Maryse, AJ looking more than a little lost as Maryse brushes it off with one of her sarcastic laughs, keeping her focus on her little girls, on Heath as he teases their daughters about Santa and how many cookies one man could require after such a busy, active night like his.

Alicia immediately zeroes in on AJ and they go somewhere to talk while Mike watches on after them, a struggle of a look on his face. The look of someone fighting against guilt and discomfort to remain calm. Ricardo takes Alicia's lead and heads over to him, observing how Morrison is busy with Taya, the two of them looking ridiculously bright and cute in bright green hoodies and pants featuring The Grinch. "Hey, Mike, everything alright?" he asks.

"Oh," Mike says, looking over at him in surprise. "Um, yeah. Just... you know, wish WWE had given me more advance notice before announcing Raw. I would've liked to have talked to AJ about it. You know."

Ricardo nods, well aware of WWE's inability to consider others in their plans. "Yeah, I do. I'm sorry, Mike. Hope everything will be alright."

"I'm sure it will be," Mike says, clapping a hand on Ricardo's shoulder. "Always has in the past. In the meanwhile, though, why don't you help distract me by telling me all about what's going on with your trip back to Egypt?"

So Ricardo tells his entire tale of woe, Mike nodding diligent along as he recites step by step the latest failure to get where he needs to be, and by the end of it, he sighs. "I'm getting text messages from students wishing I was back already, and it's just... I hate it. I wish I could do more, but I'm stuck at the whims of the airlines, so who the hell knows if I'll ever get there again."

"Sounds very frustrating," Mike agrees. "But I'll be honest, man. As much as I wish you could be where you wanted to right now, I'm really, really happy you're here with us for the holidays. The more the merrier, you know," he grins, which only dampens a little when Heath walks by, quirking an eyebrow at him in a way that he only ever does when he wants to talk. "Well, I guess it's time for me to face the rest of the music regarding this. I'll catch up with you later, Ricardo."

"See you, Mike," he calls after the speed walking man trying to catch up with Heath in the groups of people scattered around the living room, shaking his head with a slow smile. "Never a dull moment," he mumbles.

He wouldn't have it any other way.