Being in a relationship taught you things, for better or for worse. For example, Tintin learned from Haddock several creative insults and curses. He taught Tintin other things too, like how to spit "like a man," and how to make a mean clam chowder from scratch. The old sea dog was the one to teach his young lover how to kiss like you really meant it (and everything that followed). Most importantly, the redhead learned by the captain's example that despite your past, you can still excel and do great things.
But one of the best things that Captain Haddock had ever taught Tintin was how to let loose every now and then.
It wasn't that Tintin's parents had really sheltered him as a child, and it wasn't like he was born with no concept of the word "fun." However, his lack of childhood companions-not to mention his after-school activities as a Catholic Boy Scout, and later, his job-kept him from having what people his age would have considered "fun." Wild, sometimes; lively, definitely, but not really fun. True, he did enjoy his job, and the rewards it reaped, but it was mostly stressful and time-consuming, not giving him much room in his schedule to just kick back or enjoy himself.
He still remembered that night well.
Tintin was at his desk, his fingers delicately striking the keys of his typewriter as he put the finishing touches of his latest report. He heard a light knock at the door.
"Come in," he said without looking away from his work. Haddock casually strolled into the study, standing behind the redhead with his hand on his shoulder.
"How's your latest masterpiece coming, m'boy?" The captain greeted.
"Almost finished," Tintin replied, taking a second to look up at his lover, grinning.
"How's about we take a break for a second? I've got a surprise for you." Haddock grinned back cheekily, taking Tintin by the hand, prompting him to stand.
"A…surprise? What kind of surprise?" The redhead allowed himself to be led out of the study and down to the foyer. Haddock handed him his coat.
"We're going out tonight," Haddock replied vaguely, opening the door.
Tintin raised an eyebrow, looking back at the clock. "Archibald Haddock, it's midnight. The only thing open at this hour is the little convenience store downtown, and all they've got are those instant burritos that made you sick for a week."
"Oh believe me," Haddock reassured, the two of them walking to his car. "This is better than convenience store burritos. Much better."
Tintin sat down in shotgun, buckling himself in with an air of skepticism.
"Oh!" Haddock said before starting the car. Reaching into the glove box, he pulled out a blindfold. "Put this on, first."
"You've got to be kidding me."
"There's no use callin' it a surprise if you know what it is."
The redhead sighed. "If you say so." After tying the blindfold over his eyes, Tintin turned his head to Haddock's direction. "Alright, it's on."
Haddock pulled out of the driveway and onto their destination. The two men continued their journey in companionable silence-Tintin would have liked to talk, but it felt odd trying to start a conversation with someone when you couldn't see them. Meanwhile his thoughts were consumed with guesses as to where his captain was taking him. He's not much of a club kind of person, so that's out, he thought. And we've already established that it's not the convenience store…is he taking me to a park? Are we going camping? Oh, but then he probably would have packed…
After a reasonable span of time later, Tintin felt the car stop, being parked on an uneven terrain.
"Alright, blindfold off, friend," he heard Haddock speak.
Tintin pulled the blindfold off and over his head. His eyes adjusting to the dark, he saw that they were parked in a forested area. The car faced a pond, the water's surface glowing in the moonlight.
The redhead became confused. "It's beautiful scenery, but I don't think I quite understand. Why exactly did we come here?"
The captain unbuckled himself and stepped out of the car. Without warning he began to strip down to his birthday suit.
By now, seeing his boyfriend naked wasn't something that shocked Tintin, but…in the woods? What was going on?
"Um…why are you taking off your clothes here?"
"Well, I don't want them to get wet," Haddock explained nonchalantly, walking towards the pond.
Finally Tintin realized it. "W-wait!" He chased after Haddock. He passed a rusty-looking "No trespassing" sign. "Are we even allowed to be here?"
"Probably not," the captain answered with an unwavering grin. "But nobody's out here to stop us."
"Captain Archibald Haddock, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were encouraging me to break the law!"
The captain was already chest-deep in the pond-it was deeper than it looked!-splashing water over his hair.
"It's only breaking the law if you get caught," Haddock hummed, now floating on his back. "And don't give me slack about breaking the law! You've grand-theft-auto'd more vehicles on your little escapades than I can count on my fingers!"
Well, crumbs, the old sea dog had him there.
Tintin let out another sigh. "Alright, I'm coming in," he said, slipping out of his coat. "But if we do get caught, you have to pay our bail!"
"Fine, fine! Now come in here before I have to come back there and grab ya!"
With that, Tintin faced away from the pond and reluctantly began to shed off his clothes. It felt odd, standing in a forest while completely naked. Though it was now spring, the air was still a little bit chilly, and Tintin could feel the breeze on his skin.
Meanwhile, Haddock had paddled quietly closer and closer to Tintin, while staying in the water. The captain reached his arm back and swept it quickly across the water, splashing Tintin from behind, causing the reporter to yelp as the water hit his backside. Great snakes, it was cold!
Tintin whipped around to face his attacker. Haddock grinned deviously back at him, showing no remorse. The redhead responded quickly by sprinting into the pond, catching up to the captain and tackling him into the water with a loud splash.
You little cheek! Tintin's expression to the captain seemed to say. But even so, Tintin found himself smiling, in good spirits, despite himself. They drifted under the water for a few seconds, holding each other close. Tintin could see his captain looking down at him, smiling back.
The two lovebirds surfaced, greedily gulping at the air. "Pretty fun, for a criminal offense, eh?" Captain Haddock asked, bemused.
Tintin smirked back, pushing wet hair out of his face. The water wasn't as cold as before once his body got used to it. And he had to admit, there was a certain adrenaline rush that came with skinny-dipping on private property after dark.
"So," Tintin finally said, lightly kicking his feet to keep himself afloat. "How exactly did you come to find this place, anyway?"
"Just an old spot my friends and I found in our wilder days," Haddock began, thoughtful. "We came here every Spring Break. The area used to belong to this really old, stuffy guy who didn't like us very much. But of course, we were dumb college kids, so we really didn't care, even if we did get caught-I think one time he even chased us out with a shotgun, if you'd believe it!" The captain paused for a second to chuckle at the memory.
"Today I was thinking about it and I thought maybe I'd bring you here. That's to say," his voice grew tender, "You've been working your butt off with that last report all cooped up in the house, and even good little reporters like you need some let-loose time every now and again."
Tintin smiled gratefully at his captain. Wrapping his arms around the older man's neck, he hoisted himself up and gave him a kiss.
"Thanks," he said after they broke the kiss, still hugging Haddock. "I'm glad to have someone thinking about me."
"Don't mention it."
Haddock's eyes drifted away from Tintin's when something behind the lad sparked his interest.
"Thundering typhoons…" the captain murmured, walking out of the water as if in a trance. He stopped at a skyscraper-high tree with a rope hanging from one of the branches. His eyes lit up with nostalgia.
"I haven't seen this in ages!" he said grinning, holding the old rope in his hands. "I'd thought my old chums and I had wore this thing out swinging on it."
By now, Tintin was already out of the water and standing beside Haddock, eyeing the rope. "It looks rather worn for ware, though," he commented. "Are you sure it's safe?"
"Only one way to find out!" And before Tintin could stop him, Haddock had gotten a running start, rope gripped tightly in both hands. When he approached the water's edge, he jumped out, swinging above the pond for a brief second before letting go of the rope landing ass-first in the water.
This display of childish whimsy coming from the captain amused his young partner, causing him to snicker to himself. Deciding not to let Haddock have all of the fun, Tintin grabbed the rope tightly, took a step or two back to get better distance, and ran at light speed to the edge of the pond. He almost forgot to let go of the rope when he was hovering over his destination, and hit the water's surface a bit clumsily with a small "ah!" sound.
Tintin's head shot out of the water, spitting the pond water that he'd taken in when he was underwater. He looked at Haddock, whom he could tell was trying not to laugh at Tintin's sloppy execution of the rope swing. What a thrill to come of such a simple thing! he thought, full of giddy excitement.
"Not bad," Haddock said, keeping his cheeky grin. "For a beginner, anyway."
"Oh, shut up!" Tintin laughed, splashing at the older man. He realized then that Haddock had been right: he had needed this, to have time for himself to relax and have fun. People before him had often told Tintin how much he needed it, too; but Captain Haddock had been the first to actually give it to him.
The two lovers spent at least another hour in that old pond-swimming, splashing each other, jumping off of the rope swing, racing each other to the edge of the pond and back again-playing like schoolchildren, and enjoying every minute of it.
Tintin looked down at his fingers. "If this keeps up we'll turn into a bunch of prunes!" he joked, flexing his wrinkly fingertips.
"Well, we can't have that, can we?" Haddock grinned back, looking at his own fingers. The captain scooped the redhead out of the water and carried him to shore to fetch their discarded clothes Tintin shivered as the late night breeze picked up on his soaked skin. He decided he was too tired from swimming to put his clothes back on, and covered up his body with his coat. Luckily it was long enough to cover him up. He turned his head to catch Haddock staring.
"Is something wrong?" Tintin asked.
"No, it's just," Haddock answered, his arms crossed, shaking his head. He smiled. "Seeing you in that coat, it takes me back to when we first met."
Tintin smiled back bashfully, remembering the details of that night like the back of his hand. "Gosh, that was so long ago. We've certainly changed a lot since then," he replied.
His beloved approached him, strong arms wrapped around Tintin, whose back was pressed against the car. His smile became more devious. "Heh. We have, haven't we?"
With one hand-the other was still wrapped around Tintin's waist, which he used to pull the redhead even closer to him-Haddock pulled back the collar of Tintin's coat, exposing the fair skin of his neck and chest. Tintin found difficulty in holding in his giggles from the older man tickling him with his beard as he laid kisses along his collar bone.
Tintin laid his hand at the back of Haddock's head, chuckling. "Whoa there, tiger. Give me a chance to wear this coat, I just put it on!" He teased through his lover's ministrations.
Before Haddock had a chance to give a witty rebuttal, the two heard a far off voice shouting at them-
"Hey! What're you kids doin' here! No trespassin' on m'property!"
"Blistering barnacles!" Haddock hissed, reluctantly letting go of Tintin and scrambling to get his clothes. "I thought that old coot was pushing up daisies by now!"
Tintin quickly jumped into his seat, buckling himself in record time. "Well, come on, then!" he called. Haddock jumped in beside him, digging around in his pockets for the keys until finally finding them. He jammed one into the ignition and the car hummed to life. The two both felt their hearts stop when they heard a gunshot in the distance.
"Hurry!" Tintin yelped when he heard another shot ring out.
Like a professional racecar driver, Haddock shot out of the woods in reverse and back onto the main road at god speed. Now safely on the highway home, they gave some time to catch their breath and let their adrenaline go down. Looking at each other, they both began to laugh.
"Do you think-he knew it was me?" the captain asked between chortles.
"I didn't see him, so I think it's safe to assume he didn't see us either." Tintin broke into titters again and covered his face with his hands, pausing for a moment in an attempt to regain his composure. "Oh my god! I seriously thought he was going to kill us!"
"Oh? And here I thought you were used to this kind of thing," Haddock teased.
"Well normally, I'm expecting it when it happens! But this…gosh, I've never done this kind of thing before," the boy sighed contentedly. "That was absolutely exhilarating!"
"Really gets your blood pumpin', eh?"
"It sure did," Tintin shook his head, sighing for the umpteenth time that night. He looked thoughtfully at the driver. "Thank you."
"No problem," the captain grinned. "Hey, are you hungry? I think that convenience store is still open…"
The captain taught Tintin a lot of important things in the time they spent together. But this had to be the most special lesson he had to learn.