"Daddy! Mom!"
A five-year-old girl with freckles and curly red hair came bounding up to her parents, holding up something small and white, with blood dripping from it. When she opened her mouth, they could see a gap in her bottom row of teeth.
"I lost a tooth!" she squealed, grinning from ear to ear.
Robin and Regina exchanged a glance, before he knelt down and wrapped her up in a hug.
"Olivia, sweetheart, that's wonderful."
"Do you think the tooth fairy will come tonight?" Olivia asked.
"The …" Robin looked from his daughter to Regina in confusion. "I'm sorry, what?"
"I'm sure she will," said Regina. "The tooth fairy always visits little girls who take good care of their teeth."
"What exactly is the tooth fairy?" Robin asked when they were alone. "Why would fairies need teeth? Aside from their own, I mean."
Regina laughed and patted his arm.
"They don't," she explained. "It's just something kids in this world believe, like Santa Claus. They put the tooth under their pillow, and the 'tooth fairy' replaces it with money while the kid is asleep. I have all of Henry's baby teeth saved. You didn't do that with Roland?"
Robin shook his head. "No. I've never heard of it before. But he still has a couple of baby teeth left. I may have no choice, if he finds out we're paying Olivia for her lost teeth."
With a smile, Regina dug in her purse and pulled out a one dollar bill.
"Do you want to do it, or shall I?"
That night, after Olivia was tucked into bed, Robin crept up the stairs and positioned himself just outside of her room. With the careful skill of a practiced thief, he turned the doorknob slowly and nudged the door open, careful not to let it creak. He smiled as he saw his daughter, curled up under her blankets and snoring softly. He padded softly across the room. Now for the tricky part. But no trickier than picking a man's pocket or stealing the gold out the back of a carriage. He gently lifted the pillow up and felt for the tooth beneath it, careful not to disturb his sleeping daughter. There – his hand brushed against something hard! He took the tooth between his fingers and left the dollar bill in its place. Then, after brushing a stray curl out of the sleeping child's face, he turned to leave the room, a silly grin on his face.
Mission accomplished!
"Did she wake up?"
Robin shook his head as he sat down beside Regina on the couch.
"What, you think the legendary thief can't steal a tooth from under his own daughter's pillow?"
"If she ever does wake up, just tell her you've made yourself look like someone she knows because you don't want to scare her," said Regina. "It worked with Henry. Then again, he figured out the truth a few months later, so I'm not sure how well it worked."
"Yes, but Henry didn't know what real fairies are like," Robin pointed out. "Olivia does. I'm surprised she believes in this at all."
Regina shrugged. "Plenty of kids in this world believe in the tooth fairy, even if they don't normally believe in fairies."
"And you don't think it's dangerous? Impersonating a fairy?"
"Oh, it's not as if you're running around in a pair of wings and a pink tutu," said Regina, snorting at the mental image. "Besides, the tooth fairy doesn't exist. You were right: fairies don't have any reason to want kids' teeth. If they did, we'd have stories about the tooth fairy back home, too."
Robin nodded, his cheeks still burning red at the idea of wearing a tutu and wings.
"I wonder if she is real somewhere, though," Regina continued.
"How do you mean?" asked Robin.
"Well, in this world, they think we're fictional. And Oz, Neverland, Wonderland … all those realms are fictional. But they really exist. Maybe there's a world somewhere where fairies do take kids' teeth, and the stories of it bled over to this world somehow, just like all the others."
Robin groaned.
"What was that for?" asked Regina.
"Well, now I'm just imagining a tooth-stealing fairy showing up in Storybrooke, claiming to be part of your family, and most likely trying to destroy the town. Isn't that what happens around here when someone who wasn't supposed to exist turns up?"
They both laughed at that.
"Let's hope it's just a story, then," said Regina. "No point in giving our little girl nightmares."