The house is quiet. Andre is napping, the girls are down after something of a rough night, Sofia is out grocery shopping, and Alicia and Ricardo are curled up together on the couch, resting with their phones in hand, idly scrolling through their social media accounts. It's the most relaxed they've been in what feels like a long time, Alicia humming under her breath as she loses interest in her timeline and putting her phone aside. She peers idly at Ricardo's phone, eyes fluttering lazily as she drifts in and out.

During one of this in times, she finds Ricardo staring absently at a GIF of a women's match, and when she looks closer, she realizes it's Saraya on AEW the week prior. She shifts a little, biting back a chuckle when Ricardo jumps and quickly swipes away from the GIF. Alicia gives him a minute until the hitch in his breath eases and he relaxes underneath her.

When she thinks enough time has passed, Alicia rests her hand on Ricardo's arm and squeezes lightly. "Do you ever miss her?" she murmurs.

Ricardo coughs. "Wha- what'd you just say?"

Alicia shifts, aware that he probably heard her fine. "I asked if you ever miss Saraya," she repeats herself. "And don't feel guilty if you do, I'd be a little surprised if the answer is no."

He frowns and looks down at their hands. "I... think I miss what could've been more, you know? And I don't just mean with Saraya. When I lost her, I lost Alberto too, because it felt like the biggest betrayal by two people who were the most important to me at the time. And yeah, we're on somewhat more friendlier terms now than we were then, but things will never be the same way again." He sighs. "Those are years that, you know, I'll never get back, thinking about how instead of just Sofia, Alberto would be an uncle to my kids too, and all that I lost because of it. All that they lost because of it. He would've spoiled them so ridiculously." Ricardo laughs, shaking his head with a sigh. "I guess the proper answer would be I miss how things were back in those days, before they hurt me so thoroughly." He sighs. "I've never been the same man I was back in those days. What they did changed me, and in ways that I'm still not really proud of."

Alicia exhales, tracing his fingers with hers before sitting up and rolling over to press close to him, staring intently into his eyes. "Well, if it helps at all, I like the man you are right now. Because you are the father of my children, the love of my life, and I don't know what I'd do without you just the way you are."

Ricardo searches her face for a long, quiet moment, before exhaling softly. "Yeah," he says quietly. "That does help, I have to admit. Thank you."

Alicia smiles at him, framing his face with her hands. "I adore you," she tells him, leaning in to kiss him. "I love you so much."

He smiles a little, stroking her hair out of her eyes. "I love you too," Ricardo sighs, drawing her back in for another kiss. It's not an easy topic for him to reflect on, but something about this moment, here in her arms, their children asleep down the hall, makes it easier for him to face, to try to sort through his feelings on. In the end, that heartbreak, those difficult years, are in the past, and this, here, now, with Alicia, with Sofia, with Andre and the twins, are his present, his future.

It's hard to feel too much yearning for the past with so many obvious hints of just how good his current reality is.