Prologue~

~~oOo~~

"B't, Ah didn't mean t' cause ma brother's death!" a tall, good looking Swedish man wails in a last attempt to save himself.

"But how could you not?" the angel, Arthur, retorts in a completely enraged tone. "You destroyed his business, married his wife…" he lists, gesturing his sleeping wife who looks to be about six months pregnant, "…and you made sure his son was enlisted in the army so he wouldn't have an heir!"

Mr. Oxenstierna, clearly defeated, slumps his shoulders and falls to his knees, awaiting his punishment.

Arthur, who is furious with this man for everything he did to cause his brother's death just so he could inherit the family fortune, decides not to bestow any forgiveness upon him. "Your wife will die in childbirth, and you will lose the mansion and be sent to live alone," he decrees.

"No!" the man cries, at the brink of tears.

"And your son will be born with an absolutely terrifying appearance which will make it near impossible for him to find love."

"Please! Don' take th's out on ma son!" he begs, looking up at the angel with pained eyes.

"Alright," Arthur hastily agrees, and revises his plan, only because his innocent son has done nothing. "He will not look like a monster, but he will seem very unapproachable to others." The English angel pauses for a moment before adding, "If your son can find love by the age of twenty five, you and your wife will be allowed eternal life together in heaven."
Even though his punishment is still terrible and silent sobs wrack his body, they seem somewhat happy at the same time. Mr. Oxenstierna cries for a while like that, before he looks up to see Arthur gone. He wipes his eyes and makes his way back to bed with his sleeping wife and wraps his arms around her protectively, regretting his entire life.

~~oOo~~

"But, Tino, you can't!" cries Eduard.

Tino sighs and replies tiredly, "Eduard, I've already told you, I want to do this!"

"But you can learn here!" the Estonian offers as his last resort to get his friend to stay.

"I've learned everything I can from the books here, and if I work for him, I can learn from his extensive private library," The Finn says as though he's repeated it many times, although he probably has.

Eduard sighs, knowing that he already lost the fight before it even began. The Estonian man sighs and pulls Tino into one last hug before letting him go, trying to hide the tears in his eyes.

Tino just smiles at him reassuringly as if to say, 'I'll be fine.' He then proceeds to pick up his two suitcases and starts down the walkway from Eduard's small house, turning at the end to place one suitcase on the ground and wave to his old friend.

Eduard smiles and waves in return, before going back inside to hope that nothing bad happens to his good friend.

~~oOo~~

Tino gulps and hesitantly reaches his hand up toward the heavy iron door knocker of the large castle-like stone mansion. After a moment of indecision, he finally sucks in his breath and pulls the handle back and drops it on the door with a loud bang the traditional three times.

The door creaks open to reveal a man who's about as tall as himself, and with a similar tone of blonde hair.

"A-Ah, hello!" Tino stammers, not sure of how to start off their impending conversation.

"Hello," the man replies with a slight smirk as he leans lightly against the open door.

"U-Um, my name is Tino Vainamoinen, and I'm here to fill the personal assistant job!" he announces nervously, already wondering what he has gotten himself into.

"I think I'll just call you Tino,' he says, and it happens too quickly to be sure, but Tino is almost sure he winks at him. "My name's Lukas. Come on, I'll show you around," he offers as he starts to walk away, gesturing for Tino to follow.

"So, Tino, why exactly do you want to work here?" Lukas inquires as he leads him down the hallway.

"Well, honestly, I want to get a better education, and I guess I just wanted to do something different than stay in a small village my whole life."

"Well, not too much has happened recently around here, so Mathias and I are glad to have someone new here," he replies.

"Lukas!" someone calls from the kitchen, which Tino assumed to be Mathias.

Before he comes over to talk to them, Lukas says to Tino, "he's the cook, even though he's not the best."

"Then why is that his job?" Tino asks with confusion in his voice.

"I honestly don't trust him cleaning an expensive house like this… he'd probably break everything," he snickers, then adds, "Besides, I usually end up making the food anyway."

"Lukas!" Mathias calls again loudly. He comes up to the Norwegian and hugs him tightly from behind.

"Get off," Lukas commands him as though he's done it many times before, which by the looks of it, he probably has.

"Nope!" the Dane replies, nuzzling Lukas's blonde hair, which is also a similar color to his own.

"Mathias, I have to show Tino around the house," he sighs. "So get. The hell. Off me."

"Fine, fine," he says, giving him a mock sigh. "But you're being punished severely for this tonight," he announces with a wink before stalking off to make lunch.

Lukas shudders (in excitement or disgust, we will never know), then turns to Tino, who is blushing wildly, not sure how to deal with this situation. "Oh, sorry about that. Sadly, that excuse for a man is my… 'lover', I guess you would say."

"I heard that!" the Dane calls from the kitchen.

"Good! You were supposed to!"

To change this subject, which is making Tino feel very awkward, he asks quickly, "So, where will I be staying?"

With an amused smirk, the Norwegian man looks at Tino from the corner of his eye and says, "Well, you haven't got the job yet, have you?"

~~oOo~~

"Now, he may look a little... scary at first, but Mr. Oxenstierna wouldn't hurt a fly. …Well, he wouldn't hurt you. Whatever, just don't be scared, I mean, he's only twenty four," Lukas explains as they stand near the door to his office, just out of earshot.

Tino, more nervous than before, nods to Lukas and gulps before pushing open the heavy wooden double doors, and is temporarily blinded by the light pouring through the wide windows in the office room.

Along the back wall of the room is an elaborate wooden fireplace which is stained a dark brown. On the walls to Tino's right and left are shelves totally filled with books that take up the whole wall which almost makes Tino faint from excitement. And at the center of the room is a huge, aged, mahogany desk sits proudly, and a padded leather chair is placed behind it, which is occupied by one of the scariest people the Finn has ever seen.

"A-Ah, hello!" Tino exclaims nervously while hesitantly walking toward the desk. "M-My name is Tino Vainamoinen, and I'm here to fill the personal assistant position!"

The man responds with seemingly almost no consideration. "Ja. Ya c'n h've i'." he responds simply with a deep voice which is heavily laced with a Swedish accent.

"R-Really? Ah, thank you so much, Mr. Oxenstierna!" Tino says joyfully, thanking the man exuberantly. This was so much better than he could ever hope for!

"C'll me B'rwald," he instructs, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly as if he was trying to smile but couldn't.

"Okay… Berwald," he replies, testing the name out on his tongue. Berwald seems satisfied with this and nods simply.

As Lukas leads him out of the office to show him his living quarters, he waits until they're out of earshot to whisper, "Wow, he must really like you!"
"Really? It didn't seem like he did at all," Tino wonders, seeming totally confused by Lukas's comment.

Lukas laughs as he seemingly does not know much about Berwald. "I've known him for years and he still won't let me call him anything but Mr. Oxenstierna."

Tino also looks confused at this, and Lukas continues to laugh, clearly seeing something that Tino doesn't. He decides to just shake it off, and when the two of them stop at a room with a closed door, he asks, "Is this going to be my room?"

"Yes, it is," he replies matter-of-factly. Lukas proceeds to open the door to reveal a large bed with four posts and a canopy, accompanied by a tall dresser, a vanity with a mirror, a desk for work, and a small nightstand.

"Wow! This is beautiful!" Tino exclaims, shocked at the grandeur of the room. Honestly, the room is about how big the small cottage he shared with Eduard was. Suddenly he remembers about how long he'll be away from Eduard, and remorse fills him. In a more quiet tone he asks, "When will I receive my paperwork?"

"I'll drop it off tomorrow morning," the Norwegian replies before adding, "Goodnight, Tino."

"Goodnight Lukas!" Tino replies happily, having seemingly forgotten about Eduard for the time being.

Tino finds his suitcases already on his bed, so he changes into his pajamas and hops into the bed, trying to warm up the blankets with his body heat. Eventually he falls asleep, proud of his accomplishments today.

~~oOo~~

Suddenly, Tino wakes up in the middle of the night, shivering uncontrollably. Unsure of what to do, he gets up and leaves his room, attempting to find the kitchen so he can make himself something hot to warm him up. This plan fails, however, so he attempts to make his way back, but in the near-complete darkness, it's proving to be totally impossible as he continues on down the endless hallways. Finally he opens a door to see if there's an empty bed he can try to fall asleep in.

But to his complete and utter shock, this room is not empty. In fact, it's quite the opposite.

He squeaks when he realizes that it's his new employer and begins fumbling for the doorknob to run out of the room.

The Swedish man yawns and reaches for his glasses on the nightstand and puts them on, but even then it's hard to see him. "Tino?" he asks as the moon breaks through the clouds and sheds minimal light into the room through the window.

"Mr. Oxenstierna?" he asks meekly.

"B'rwald," he corrects him. "Why are ya up?"

"U-um, it was cold out, and I wanted to make something hot to keep me warm..." he stutters nervously.

Berwald just nods and reaches for Tino's hand. Once he's grasped his smaller hand in his own larger one, he gently pulls Tino onto his bed.

Tino is too stunned to fully understand the situation until Berwald takes off his glasses and reaches over Tino and places them on the nightstand, then wraps his arm around him.

"'re ya w'rm now?" the Swede asks in his deep voice.

Tino is now extremely nervous, not to mention confused. "Y-yeah," he responds quietly, noticing that the addition of Berwald's body heat did, in fact, make him much warmer.

"Okej. G'night."

"G-Good night… Berwald."

Tino falls asleep quite promptly as sleeping with him is very warm, and surprisingly quite comforting. Berwald, however, takes a bit longer to fall asleep, because for some reason, he can't stop thinking about the way Tino's hand fit perfectly into his, and the way his much smaller body did the same.

~~oOo~~

Tino yawns as the sunlight pouring through the window rouses him and attempts to sit up, but is stopped by the arm of a still sleeping Berwald. For a moment he has no idea what's going on and why he's here, sleeping with his boss nonetheless. But suddenly the memories of last night rush back to him. He sighs in relief gently pushes his employer's arm off of him, and checking to make sure he's still asleep, places a brief kiss on his cheek and leaves, quietly shutting the door behind him.

Unfortunately for Tino, Berwald had just woken up at the exact moment he had kissed his cheek, and as he watched Tino leave, his cheeks became dusted pink and his heartbeat picked up slightly.

Tino, now able to see where he's going in the daylight, makes it back to his room quickly.

When he opens the door, he sees a clean stack of paperwork on his wooden desk and sighs slightly, having to remind himself that he'll get to finally educate himself and get a job far away here.

He changes quickly into his usual clothing, and sits down at his desk to tackle the paperwork, which turns out to be dealing with finances. He works diligently for about two hours, only motivated by the books waiting for him in his boss's office, and even in the whole library.

"Morning!" Mathias calls, opening Tino's door. "Brought you breakfast."

"Thanks!" Tino exclaims, taking the plate from him to reveal something that looks Danish, but it could be Norwegian. Either way, it looks delicious, so he tries it, and it turns out to be really good.

"So, I heard you slept with the boss," Mathias snickers, his usual smirk intensified.

"N-No!" Tino exclaims, embarrassed by the way he phrased it. "I mean, yes, but we didn't do anything. I just got cold, and I went to look for the kitchen, and next thing I knew, he just pulled me into his bed!"

"Hm, who would have thought good old Ber' would actually fall for someone," he says, a faint genuine smile overlapping his amused smirk.

"P-Please, he didn't 'fall for me'," Tino protests. "I was just cold, and he was just being a good person."

"Okay, whatever you say," he answers sarcastically. "Well as fun as this was, I'm going to go find Lukas," he announces, smiling in a way that makes Tino sure that he's completely in love with the Norwegian.

This arouses a smile on his own face, and he finishes the paperwork quickly, all the while thinking about how nice it would be to find something like that for himself. Finally he finishes, so he neatly stacks the papers and picks them up carefully, being careful not to drop the heavy pile.

He slowly makes his way to Berwald's office, and pushes the wooden door open slowly. When he notices that the office is unoccupied, he walks in more confidently and gingerly places the pile on his desk, then begins to leave, but not before he notices his huge array of books. He cautiously inches toward them, and takes one off the shelf his eyes gleaming in excitement.

"Tino?" a deep, smooth voice asks from the doorway.

"Ahh!" Tino screams in a bit more of a girly way than he would have liked and dropped the book, creating a soft thud from the impact on the carpeted floor. "S-Sorry! I dropped off my papers, and I kind of got distracted," he explains nervously.

"'S okej," he responds simply and sits down at his desk, glancing up at Tino as he runs out of the office, clearly relieved.

"You know you only have a year left, right?" he hears a voice ask.

The Swede turns to his right to see Arthur, leaning against the mahogany desk.

"Ja, Ah know," he says, getting annoyed with the angel's visits, which have become more frequent lately.

"I don't think you realize how short that is," the British angel reminds him.

He sighs, becoming exasperated and repeats his previous reply, "Ja, Ah know."

"That boy…" Arthur mentions, gesturing toward the door where Tino just exited. "…you like him, don't you?"

"Ah don' know," he replies noncommittally, when in fact, he does. He remembers walking through town and seeing a younger Tino shopping with a friend. Berwald was smitten that day, and decided that he would make the Finn his wife.

"Yes, you do."

"Ja, Ah guess," he agrees, realizing that he really can't hide it from anyone, much less an angel who is probably reading his thoughts right now.

"This isn't going to be easy, Berwald. I can already tell that he's very skittish about being around you," Arthur grumbles, also becoming exhausted with trying to get Berwald to be friendlier toward the boy. He sure as bloody hell hadn't planned on him being a half mute when he picked the age limit for finding love.

Berwald sighs, as he's also aware of this fact. "Ah know… Ah just don' want ta scare 'im."

"Bloody hell, Berwald! Just be friendly! I'll check on you again in a month," he announces, to Berwald's chagrin. The Swedish man sighs and stands up, stretching his sore muscles. He hoped it wouldn't be as hard to get the Finnish man to love him back as Arthur said. After all, he had received a kiss on the cheek. He kept trying to convince himself it was more than just gratitude that had instigated that notion, but he was failing. Would he be able to save his parents? But more than that, would he be able to woo the boy he had watched and fallen for two and a half years?

~~oOo~~

A/N: Hello there! I've really wanted to do a SuFin fanfic for a while; they're one of my favorite pairings!
This story is based off a fairytale, digital bottle of nutella to anyone who can guess which one!
Haha I'm seriously loving Arthur as the angel XDD

Anyway, I know it's a bit weird to have Denmark as one of Sweden's staff since it's usually the other way around, but I needed to do it to fit the plot. (Wow, I actually have a plot? That's a first.)

I know most people make the epilogue a separate chapter, but it drives me nuts when people do that and then Chapter 1 is actually Chapter 2, and it's just maddening. MADNESS I TELL YOU! (No, Sparta XD) Haha nah, it's not that big of a deal, it doesn't affect my love for a story, I just don't want it on one of mine. Okie, well after I post this, I'll be working on Chapter 6 of Falling… got any plot suggestions for that one?
Kay, Love ya!

-Alison