AUTHOR'S NOTE

For my Russian readers: GMoriell has translated this storyinto Russian. If you would like to check it out, you can find the link on my profile page.

~o~

Little Alfred lay wide-awake in his bed.

The small boy was supposed to be asleep, after having Arthur tuck him in and read him that one story about the Ugly Duckling. But instead of dreaming about superheroes and candy land, the boy's head was buzzing with thoughts of another kind.

As his heart thumped excitedly in his chest, his vivid blues flickering in the darkness of the room, Alfred's little hand was clutched around his pillow. More importantly, around what was hidden underneath his pillow.

Alfred had finally lost his last baby tooth. And this time, he was determined to meet the Tooth Fairy.

He had tried doing so many times before, but every night again he had fallen asleep before getting a glimpse at the magical creature his caretaker kept telling him about. This year would be different. This year he would succeed.

A blizzard was raging outside. Alfred involuntarily shuddered and slid deeper under the covers, hugging them close to his body. He hoped Tooth would come soon. It was already past 2 AM, and he knew Arthur would be pissed if he found him still awake. Or not pissed, because that was a bad word—Alfred wasn't even supposed to know about it.

A howling noise made him freeze. He blinked a total amount of three times, before rapidly pulling the pillow over his head. He prayed with all his heart that staying up this late hadn't provoked any ghosts or angry spirits.

Was it just him, or did his window creak?

Before the boy could steal a glance, he heard a loud thud, followed by a series of curses. Trembling even harder, his high-pitched voice spouted the most heroic warning ever.

"Please don't eat me Mr. Ghost! I promise I will go to sleep! I promise!"

The cursing immediately stopped. Alfred listened in dread, craning his ears to try and pick up any sign that the ghost was ready to attack.

"Are you still awake, little one?"

"I am soooooooorryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!" the sunny blond wailed, not wanting to die yet. He vowed that if he were to survive the night he would never tease Mattie again, always eat his veggies (even when they were burnt to a crisp), and that he wouldn't try feeding his homework to the dog again.

A low chuckle penetrated the shield over his head. Then the blankets were abruptly ripped from his tiny hands.

Alfred rolled onto his back and was about to let out a scream, when an enormous hand covered his mouth.

"Hush, please do not make a lot of noise. We do not want to alarm your parents, da?"

His baby blue eyes frantically stared up at the giant towering over him.

The body just kept going on, as if it would never end. His chest was broad and muscles showed clearly under a black pullover. A white scarf dangled from his shoulders, protecting his neck from the arctic weather outside. With the starlight behind him, his ashen blond hair shone silvery and mysterious, bangs fallen in front of his eyes.

And those eyes. Alfred had never seen anyone with such weird eyes before. They were some sort of light purple, a glowing lavender which somehow reminded of the moon, of winter and frozen tundra.

His lips curled up, unveiling two rows of perfect snow white teeth.

"Privet, Alfred. I came to collect your tooth."

At that moment, the boy passed out.

~o~

When Alfred regained consciousness, he could hear the intruder speak with a hushed voice into his cell phone.

"—has already been ten minutes." … "No Arthur, I swear I did not beat him," he huffed with an irritated growl. "Even I would not beat children." Without a good reason.

Alfred slowly blinked, observing the stranger sitting by his windowpane. Now that the first reaction of panic had been subdued, he began growing suspicious.

Who was he? What was he doing here? And how did he know Alfred's name?

The boy paled when a thought struck him. What if he wants to hurt me?

He considered trying to slip away to his parent's room now that the weirdo was distracted, but a new thought instantly replaced the old.

Matthew. He had to protect his brother at all cost. He was the hero after all!

He swallowed heavily. This man sure was tall… How was he to get rid of him? He definitely wasn't strong enough to keep such a ginormous man at bay, but he didn't want to wake up Arthur (the Englishman could be quite grumpy when woken from his beauty sleep).

Then the kid remembered another thing the intruder had said. Something about his tooth. With one swift movement he lifted up his pillow.

Gone.

"—understand now what Gilbert always had to go through…ah, wait! He is awake! I will call you back later, Arthur." The tall man put his phone away and smiled happily at Alfred.

The boy stared back with as much intensity as he could put into his glare. Then he pointed an accusing finger at the stranger. "You stole my tooth!"

The man lightly tilted his head, smile twitching into a smirk. He carefully raised an eyebrow. "I did no such thing. You see Alfred, I am only doing my job."

"And that! How do you know my name? Arthur says I'm not supposed to let weirdoes in my room! Stranger-danger and stuff!"

The intruder chuckled. Alfred didn't see what was so funny about this. "A stranger, you say? Oh, how rude of me, my apologies. I suppose I should introduce myself, dorogoy moy." The giant rose from his seat and made a small bow. "My name is Ivan, but I am currently working as the Tooth Fairy."

Alfred's eyes grew big. He openly gaped at this Ivan-fellow, not caring that he was being extraordinarily disrespectful.

He thought back about all the times Arthur would tell him and Matthew about the Tooth Fairy. She was supposed to be a nice lady, always kind and with a sugar sweet smile, big rainbow-coloured wings on her back to help her fly from house to house. This dude did not fit the picture.

Alfred crossed his arms. "You're not the Tooth Fairy."

Ivan's smile widened ever-so-slightly. "Oh? Would you care to explain why you are having such misconceptions?"

Alfred had no idea what 'misconceptions' were, but he did as told anyway. "First of all, you're a guy!"

Ivan chuckled, but gestured for him to continue.

"You also don't have wings, and you're creepy!"

Ivan closed his eyes, smile reaching its maximum level. "And why do you think that, dearest boy?"

"Because you have scary eyes!"

The Tooth Fairy-imposter slowly re-opened his eyes at this, tilting his head to the other side. His lower lip stuck out in something akin to a pout. "Do you really think my eyes are scary?"

Alfred started when Ivan almost looked like he was going to cry. The boy hadn't meant to upset this visitor, unwanted or not. He was still an adult, and Alfred had no idea what to do when adults cried.

So the boy quickly got out of bed and ran over to the giant, carefully placing a hand on his knee.

"I'm sorry mister, please don't cry! I didn't mean it!" His own voice was wavering with distress, cheeks a shameful pink.

Fake-Tooth instantly lit up like the Fourth of July. "Apologies accepted, little one!"

Alfred blushed when seeing the other's genuine delight. Now that he was standing so close to Ivan, he found purple eyes to be a lot less scary. He even dared say they were sorta pretty.

"As to your previous confusion," the ashen blond continued merrily. "I suppose you are partially correct. I am not the real Tooth Fairy." He put a finger to his thin lips when Alfred made to protest. "Me and Tooth had some sort of…disagreement. Let us keep it at that."

His eyes trailed off for a moment, smile becoming eerie. Alfred squirmed around uncomfortably, not really knowing what to think of this sudden change in behaviour. Those amethysts quickly snapped back to him, however.

"Arthur thought I needed to apologise. I told him to go fu… You know what little one, I shall leave that part of the story out." He grinned sheepishly before finishing his story. "After some discussion with him and dearest Gilbert, we all figured out that somebody needed to replace Tooth for today. And since I had nothing better to do…that task was bestowed upon me." He shrugged carelessly, but his smile did tighten for a fraction of a second.

Then he laid a hand on top of Alfred's head. "Now little one, I think I should continue on my round. I still have a lot of houses to visit, and I only came to pick up your tooth." He patted a slightly bulging chest pocket.

As he made to stand though, Alfred desperately captured his wrist. Ivan was temporarily stunned by the force with which those tiny hands pulled him down to eye-level.

"You can't go! What about my present?"

Ivan raised one smooth-lined eyebrow. "Present?"

Alfred nodded eagerly. "Yeah! You know, you're supposed to give me money? As a reward for growing up or something?"

Time seemed to slow down as the giant went wide-eyed with shock. A full minute went by.

Alfred growing worried. "Hello? Mister Ivan, are you all right?"

"…I have to go."

The man shot up so fast it sent Alfred tumbling to the ground. He hastily searched his pockets before pulling out some bank-notes and throwing them at the stunned boy.

"Here you go, take this. I am sorry little one, but I have to run now."

And with that he hoisted himself onto the windowpane and jumped out into the night, spouting beautiful profanities in a foreign language under his breath. Ivan was sure to pay a certain Prussian a visit later on for not telling him about this particular part of the job.

Alfred stared at the window long after his sudden visitor disappeared, still a little dazed by all that had happened. Then he looked down at the notes and picked one up. It was a currency he didn't recognize, so he had no idea how much the ashen blond had left him.

Shrugging, he simply staggered back to his bed, overcome by the urge to sleep. He figured it might as well all be a dream, induced by an overload of Pepsi before bedtime. Certainly the Tooth Fairy would never let anyone that odd fill in for her, would she?

Whether the visitor's story was true or not, Arthur was surely met by a huge surprise when he found a pile of Russian Rubbles in his charge's bedroom later that night.

~o~

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Yeah, Arthur works with the Tooth Fairy in his free time. Good thing Alfred and Matthew are deep sleepers so they never heard him leave. And after this, he's going to have a talk with Ivan about giving his charge foreign money. And yeah, Gilbert's in the business as well.

Words:

Da: Yes
Privet: Hi
Dorogoy moy: My dear/darling