"Daddy! Papa!" Ryleigh ran into the kitchen jumping up and down with excitement. Her long light brown hair bounced as she flailed.
"What?" Adam chuckled sitting at the kitchen table watching his six-year-old daughter come unglued.
"What is it sweetheart?" Kris turned to look at Ryleigh. He was spoon feeding eight-month-old Avery her lunch of mashed potatoes and peas.
"It happened! It finally happened!"
"What happened?" Adam asked.
Ryleigh stepped closer to her Papa and opened her closed fist to him to reveal something small and white on her palm. "I lost my first tooth!"
"Yay!" Adam said clapping his hands together. "Congratulations, baby girl!"
Ryleigh beamed a smile at her Papa. One of her front teeth was missing.
"Did you see, Daddy, did you see?" Ryleigh ran to the other side of the table to show Kris.
"Yes, I saw! Good for you, princess!" Kris put down the spoon he was feeding Avery with to open his arms to hug Ryleigh.
"Look, Avery, lookie!" Ryleigh held her tooth out to show her eight-month-old sister who sat looking confused and disinterested.
Kris chuckled. "Why don't you go upstairs and put your tooth under your pillow? Remember the story Papa and I told you about the tooth fairy?"
"She gives you money for your teeth right?" Ryleigh asked.
"Yep!" Kris said.
"And she comes at night?"
"Yeah."
"Has anyone ever seen her?"
"Well, no, I don't think so. She comes while you're sleeping."
"I wanna see her!"
Kris turned to look at Adam and they shared a look. Adam tried to stifle his laughter. Kris mouthed 'shut up' to him before turning back to Ryleigh.
"Well, she only comes when you are asleep, otherwise she won't come," Kris lifted his hand to tuck a strand of Ryleigh's hair behind her ear.
"I'm going to stay up and try to catch her!" Ryleigh rubbed her little hands together evilly. She was very proud of her plan.
Adam snorted a laugh. Kris closed his eyes holding in a chuckle.
"Well, sweetie, as I said, she won't come if you're awake."
"How will she know if I'm awake if I have my eyes closed and just look like I'm sleeping but I'm not, I'm really awake, how will she know?"
"Her wand," Adam chimed in, "her wand has special powers to tell if you are really asleep or not, and if you aren't then she won't come into your room and you miss the chance at your money."
Kris turned to look at his husband to mouth the words 'thank you'.
"Oh," Ryleigh said and stood for a few seconds to ponder what Adam just told her. "Okay! So I'll just go put my tooth under my pillow now! Thanks, Papa for warning me, I would hate to miss out on that money!"
"Anytime, sweetie," Adam smiled at his daughter before she skipped off toward the stairs.
Once they were sure Ryleigh was out of ear shot, Kris turned to face Adam. "Nice, very nice. Good save. I have to admit, I'm a little frightened on how well you lie, but in this circumstance it came in handy." Kris smirked at Adam.
Adam chuckled. "You're too cute. I have to admit it was pretty funny watching you drown in our six-year-old's arguments though."
"Meany," Kris stuck his tongue out at Adam.
"Hey now, I saved your butt!" Adam pointed at Kris. "I could have just let you fail but I didn't."
"No," Kris said, "You just didn't want our six-year-old to miss out on the innocent fun of thinking the tooth-fairy is real. Which I find very sweet." Kris leaned in to kiss Adam a peck on the lips.
"Oh and by the way," Adam said when they parted from their kiss, "not it."
"Not it? What?" Kris' eyebrows drew together in confusion.
"You're going to make such a great tooth-fairy," Adam smirked.
"Oh come on! You know how light of a sleeper she is!"
"Which is exactly why you're it!" Adam chuckled.
"You are just mean," Kris smiled at his husband.
Adam smiled at Kris before looking over at Avery who sat in her high chair staring daggers through Kris' back with her little arms crossed, angry she was no longer being fed.
"You might want to tend to that one," Adam chuckled pointing Avery's direction, "She looks like she is about to throw the mashed potatoes at your head."