(A/N: This story wasn't intended as slash, but I guess if you ship Tintin/Haddock it works too.)
The first time Captain Haddock wondered about Tintin's past was a few weeks after Tintin had moved in to Marlinspike Hall. Christmas was around the corner, and the Captain was confused as to why Tintin hadn't done anything about it. Surely, he thought, the boy would visit his family during these times of joy.
"Tintin," he asked one morning, "don't you have any family? I mean, you've never talked about them." Tintin put down the newspaper he had been reading and bit his lip while looking down at his lap. Captain Haddock wondered if this was a touchy subject for him.
"I've got Snowy." Tintin responded. At the sound of his name, Snowy walked up to Tintin and licked his hand fondly. Tintin's answer didn't satisfy the Captain. "I'm an orphan." Tintin said at last. He swiftly picked up the newspaper again and started reading it to signify that he didn't want to talk about family matters. And Captain Haddock didn't press him.
The second time was a few months later when Captain Haddock found a crumpled-up newspaper article that Tintin had thrown away in the trash. This was extremely odd behavior; Tintin kept every article he read. Every article except for this one. Curious, Captain Haddock opened up the scrap of paper to find that it was a scientific study about the effects of child abuse.
"Captain!" Tintin suddenly called from the living room. "The movie starts at 5 and it's already 4:45!"
"Coming!" Captain Haddock yelled in reply as he ran out of the room, the mysterious article temporarily forgotten.
The third time was when Captain Haddock decided that he simply could not let Tintin avoid the question forever. They were eating breakfast when Captain Haddock, being a klutz, spilled scalding hot coffee all over Tintin. Tintin didn't react much even though it burned his skin and left an unsightly brown stain on his yellow shirt. He merely blushed with embarrassment at the Captain's apologetic antics and assured his friend that yes, he was fine.
"I'll get Nestor to wash your shirt." Captain Haddock said. Before Tintin could stop him, the Captain took off it off. Tintin immediately crossed his arms over his chest in an attempt to cover his bare body, but Captain Haddock already saw. "Where did you get those scars?"
"Wh-what scars?" Tintin squeaked in fear.
"I'm not blind, you know, because I can clearly see dozens of scars all over your body!" Captain Haddock said with concern.
"Motorcycle accident." Tintin said quickly. "Give me back my shirt!"
"No, it's dirty! Plus, you never told me you were in an accident." Captain Haddock said, silently noting how pale the scars were. He wondered how old Tintin had been when he got them.
"It was a long time ago, okay! Just leave me alone!" Tintin said as he ran to his room and slammed the door. It was this comment that confirmed that Tintin was hiding something. Giving false information to a criminal was one thing. Tintin snapping at Captain Haddock for showing concern was something entirely different.
Captain Haddock walked to Tintin's room and tried opening the door. Locked. "Tintin?" Captain Haddock asked as he knocked on the door. There was no response, but Captain Haddock could barely hear the sound of... crying? "Tintin, are you okay?" Tintin did not open the door. Captain Haddock was alone with his thoughts.
Uneventful hours passed by, and Tintin still did not leave his room. It was nighttime when Captain Haddock finally had enough. "TINTIN!" he yelled as he stomped to his room. "OPEN THE DOOR!" There was only silence behind it.
Captain Haddock was about to bust it down when Tintin opened it. His puffy eyes were red and he sniffled slightly. He was wearing pajamas. "What is it?"
Captain Haddock entered the room and slammed the door shut, blocking the exit. "I'm not leaving until you tell me how you really got those scars."
"I told you. Motorcycle accident."
"Blistering barnacles, you and I both know that it wasn't a motorcycle accident!"
"Why can't you just drop the subject!" Tintin said with annoyance.
"Because I care about you and I want to know who hurt you!" Captain Haddock yelled in reply. Tintin fell silent as a variety of emotions flashed across his face.
"You're not going to get any answers from me." Tintin said finally. "Good night." he said as he climbed into the bed.
"I'm still not leaving until you answer my question." Captain Haddock said as he grabbed a chair and sat down on it.
"You're going to have a very long night then." Tintin replied as he shut the window and turned off the lights.
Captain Haddock jolted awake to the sound of Tintin yelling "LET ME GO! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY!" as he thrashed about on the bed. Snowy barked as he tried to wake up his master. Captain Haddock turned on the lights.
"Tintin! Tintin wake up!" Captain Haddock yelled as he shook him.
"LET ME GO!" he shrieked as he suddenly shoved Captain Haddock to the floor. Tintin opened his eyes. "Ca-captain?" he whispered. "Oh Captain, I'm so sorry-"
"Blistering barnacles, you had a nightmare, there's nothing to be sorry about-"
Tintin suddenly wrapped his arms around the Captain's neck in a tight embrace. Captain Haddock could feel drops of water run down his back as Tintin cried. "Shh, it's okay." he said as he rubbed Tintin's back. Tintin broke the embrace as he sat on the bed and wiped his eyes. Snowy licked Tintin's face and curled up on his lap. "Do you want to talk about it?" Captain Haddock asked.
Before Tintin could stop himself, the words spilled out. "Father was alive again and he started yelling at me and then he was hurting me and I couldn't do anything and-"
"Woah there, lad, maybe you should start from the beginning." Tintin looked at the Captain uncomprehendingly. "You've never told me about your childhood."
"There was nothing special about it." Tintin said through clenched teeth.
"Really? Because what you've said about your father suggests otherwise."
"I don't want to talk about it! Leave me alone! Get out of my room!" Tintin yelled.
"As I've told you before, I'm not leaving until you tell me how you got these scars. Why do you get so defensive whenever the subjects of family and childhood come up? Don't you trust me?"
"OF COURSE I DON'T!" Tintin screamed. "IF THERE'S ONE THING MY FATHER TAUGHT ME IT'S THAT YOU CAN'T TRUST ANYONE! I TRUSTED MY FRIENDS AND NONE OF THEM CARED ABOUT ME!"
Both of them fell silent as Tintin's words rang in their ears. "Tintin," Captain Haddock said finally, "you can trust me. I would never stop caring about you, you know that."
"That's what my friends said, but if they really cared they would have noticed how my father treated me and done something about it!"
"Well I've noticed and I'm trying to do something about it! But I can't because you're not telling me anything!"
NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOU, TINTIN!
"Tintin, what have I done to make me lose your trust?"
YOU'VE RUINED MY LIFE!
"Is it because I broke my promise and started drinking again?"
IT'S BECAUSE OF YOU THAT I'M A FUCKING ALCOHOLIC!
"Tintin, please don't shut me out like this!"
I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR PROBLEMS! YOU'RE SUCH A SELFISH BRAT, LEECHING OFF OF MY MONEY AND TIME! WHY DON'T YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE AND LET ME FORGET ABOUT YOUR GODDAMNED EXISTENCE! OR BETTER YET, WHY DON'T YOU JUST KILL YOURSELF! EVERYONE'S LIVES WOULD BE BETTER WITHOUT YOU!
"I'm sorry I cried..." Tintin mumbled.
"What are you talking about? You don't need to apologize for that. Everyone cries once in a while."
Tintin shook his head. "It's a sign of weakness..."
"What? Wait a minute, did your father tell you that?" Tintin nodded ever so slightly. "Tintin, that's not true. It's good to cry; it shows that you're human. I think you need to tell someone about your childhood; it's no good holding it all up inside." Tintin shook his head. "Well it's either the psychiatrist or me." Tintin looked down at his lap and breathed deeply.
"My mother died giving birth to me." Tintin said finally. "I think that was the real reason why Father... acted that way. He always told me that they never meant to have me. It was because of me that he lost his wife." Captain Haddock felt anger rise up inside of him, but he kept it down for Tintin's sake. "I saw their wedding photo." Tintin continued. "They looked so... happy. In fact I never saw Father smile in my life. He was either mad or sad or drunk." Captain Haddock didn't like where this was going.
As Tintin talked, he felt his confidence grow stronger. "When Father started drinking, it wasn't that bad. He would just fall asleep, and he couldn't yell at me or starve me or ground me for no good reason. But then," Tintin shuddered, "he got used to the alcohol. The first time it happened, I was five. He was drunk as usual, and he was yelling at me for killing Mother like always. But instead of falling asleep, he just got angrier and angrier until he lost it." Tintin swallowed. "He g-grabbed me and took the whiskey bottles and b-beat me with them." Tintin buried his face in his hands as Captain Haddock patted his shoulder, not really knowing what to say. Tintin continued. "I-it hurt so much but he t-told me that I couldn't tell anyone or else he would do w-worse things."
"Of course, my pre-school teacher noticed how my whole body was covered in cuts and bruises, so she reported my father to the police. But my father was one of the richest people in the town, so he bribed the police into not arresting him. After that, he was a little more careful in how he treated me, but he still beat me up every once in a while. I was really skinny growing up, because I often went to bed hungry. I also got beat up at school a lot because I was smarter than the rest of the kids."
"And then one day," Tintin smiled, "they were passing out flyers for the local Boy Scouts Troup. I practically begged my father to let me join them, and he did because he would see me less and that I might get lost in the woods one day." Tintin paused. "It was the only thing we ever agreed on. I was in the troop for years until I finally got the Crown Scout badge." Tintin looked at Captain Haddock's confused expression and explained, "It's the highest ranking you can get as a Boy Scout. I was so happy, I thought that Father would finally be proud of me..." Tintin's smile disappeared. "...but he was drunk when I got home. He accused me of stealing the badge and he threw it in the fire. He also beat me and that was the end of my Boy Scout days." Tintin stopped talking as he remembered his bitter disappointment that day.
"I ran away one day, and I decided to become a reporter so that I could help other people and take my mind off of my father. And the rest you already know."
Captain Haddock finally found words to say. "What happened to your father? You said you were an orphan."
"He got drunk one day and fell down the stairs. He snapped his neck." Tintin replied.
"That bashi-bazouk got what he deserved." Captain Haddock hissed. "Treating someone like that. I have the urge to bring him back from the dead and give him a piece of my mind! That centipede! Ectoplasm!"
"Don't talk like that." Tintin mumbled.
"Tintin, you can't be justifying his actions!"
"He did take care of me."
Captain Haddock scoffed. "You call that caring?"
"I killed his wife!"
"That was not your fault! You were a newborn baby!"
"But still! If I never existed, then my mother would still be alive!" Tintin yelled, tears streaming down his face. "Maybe my father was right! Maybe no one cares about me! I leeched off of his time and money, and the world would be a better place without me!" Tintin stood up (Snowy fell off his lap with an indignant bark) and made for the door, but Captain Haddock grabbed his shoulders and sat him back down on the bed.
"Listen to me, Tintin." Tintin tearfully nodded. "What your father did was wrong. Under no circumstances, even if you were a bad kid, were your father's actions right in any way. And how could you say that the world would be better off without you? If you never existed, the lies of the Soviet Union would never have been exposed! If you never existed, gangsters would still control Chicago! If you never existed, Chang would be dead and the drug cartel would still exist! If you didn't exist, Borduria would have overthrown King Muskar XII! If you didn't exist, where would I be? I would still be on the Karaboudjan, a lonely drunkard! The world would be a different place without you!"
"But I'm such a hypocrite! I help arrest people who commit crimes, but I'm a murderer myself!"
"Tintin, I already told you, your mother's death was not your fault-"
"I let Alonso and Ramon drown..." Tintin said.
"You almost died yourself! Plus it was their fault they fell in the sea."
"I KILLED MY FATHER!" Tintin yelled, his breathing was ragged. Captain Haddock's eyes widened. Tintin mentally hit himself for revealing his secret; how could Captain Haddock be his friend now?
"How?" Captain Haddock finally asked.
Tintin paused. "When I was 13, he lost his job. I think his boss fired him because he was drunk all the time. He got really, really mad, he was the angriest I had ever seen him be. He locked me in the attic."
Captain Haddock's face paled when he remembered how many scars were on Tintin's body. "What exactly did he do?"
Tintin looked uncomfortable. "You don't need to know that!"
"Of course I need to know this, Tintin! Trust me, you'll feel better if you just let it out."
Tintin shook his head, but finally he sighed and said, "He... he didn't give me any food or water. I was so hungry and thirsty, and I was so cold. It was pitch-black and sometimes I could feel spiders crawling on me." Tintin shuddered at the memory. "I don't know how long I was in there; I couldn't even tell if it was night or day. Finally he opened the door. I thought he was going to let me out or at least give me some food and water. But he didn't." Tintin stopped and buried his face in his hands. "I can't do this..."
"Of course you can lad. You've already said this much. Why not finish the whole story?"
"He held a steaming pot of water and asked me, 'Are you cold?' I nodded. Then he poured it all over me..." Tintin winced at the memory.
Captain Haddock looked furious. "So that's why you didn't react when I spilled coffee on you."
Tintin nodded. "I was crying and Father got angry because he thought that I was showing weakness. So he started slamming me against the wall. My left arm was never really the same..." Tintin said. "Then he got tired of hurting me, so he just left me there. I was covered in blisters and splinters and bruises, and I... I wanted to die..." Tintin said as tears streamed down his face. He wiped his eyes and continued. "Later he came back and said that he was disappointed that I hadn't died yet. He started throwing my books at me, but then he said that he would do what he should have done when I was born..." Tintin let out some shuddering gasps. "He pulled out a knife and I... I panicked, Captain! I just shoved him, I didn't mean for him to fall down the stairs, I just wanted him to stop hurting me, and now he's dead and it's all my fault..." Tintin burst into tears. "I'm a murderer..."
Captain Haddock hugged Tintin. "You're not a murderer, Tintin. It was self-defense, you didn't intend to hurt him."
Tintin never had someone hug him when he was sad. His father never cared so he always cried alone. He realized how safe he felt in the Captain's arms and was comforted. "I... I guess so..." Tintin replied. He sniffed. "You know, I actually feel better now that I've told someone." It was true, Tintin felt like a large burden had been lifted off of him.
"I never got along with my mother." Captain Haddock admitted. "My parents were divorced, and she would yell at me if I ever did anything remotely similar to my father. Of course, this was a problem when I started looking a lot like him. She never saw me for who I was, she just saw my father in me."
"We both missed out on a lot of childhood, didn't we?" Tintin asked.
"Yeah. Yeah we did."
But they would make up for it together, that was certain.
FINE