"Papa, look," Andre calls, distracting Ricardo from the contracts he's perusing for 3 Legacies.
"Hmm?" he asks, looking up to find his son standing before him in a crisp white shirt and black pants, a backpack hanging off of his little arms. "Oh." He chuckles, getting up from the table and kneeling down by his son, adjusting the collar of his shirt. "New school clothes, huh? What do you think?"
"They're stiff," he says, squirming under his father's touch.
Ricardo laughs. "Yeah. That's unfortunately the way of formal clothing, Andre. You'll get used to it though." He leans in and kisses Andre on the forehead. "Do you like your backpack, at least?"
"Yes," Andre says, eyes wide as he adjusts the straps. "It carries so much stuff, do you want to see?"
"Sure," Ricardo says with a smile, sitting back and watching as Andre sets out the backpack between them and starts to pull out pencils and papers, some markers and other random things Alicia thought perhaps he could use while at kindergarten. "You're growing up so quickly."
Andre blinks, confused. "Papa?"
Ricardo huffs out a laugh and scoops up Andre, hugging him tightly. "Not too quickly, alright?" he mumbles into Andre's dark hair. "I like you this age."
Andre blinks. "I... I'll try?"
Ricardo smiles and hugs him for a few moments longer before settling him back down in front of his backpack. "Better re-organize all of that before your mama sees," he says, helping here and there to scoop everything back up and put it back in its place in the backpack.
"Thanks, papa," Andre says once he has the backpack successfully zipped back up.
Ricardo glances over his shoulder at the waiting documents on the table and hums, standing back up. "What do you say we get you into more comfortable clothes and go get some ice cream?" he asks, thinking about how much things will change once Andre is at school for a half day.
"Yes," Andre says, eyes wide as he takes Ricardo's outstretched hand. "Can I have two scoops?"
Ricardo smiles down at him. "Sure," he concedes after making Andre wait for his answer. "Let's do it."
"Yay!" Andre says as they walk together towards his bedroom to change.