Chapter Three

Tintin awoke with a start. Three weeks since Captain was presumed dead. He's been dreaming less and less, and when he did, it was always about Archie.

Where was that gun when he needed it?

He wanted done with this. Everything hurt so much. He tried to deny it several times that Archie was dead and lost forever. But he knew now. He knew he had to let it go and join his lover in heaven.

He dragged himself out of bed and tore apart his room, looking for his gun and some bullets. He threw everything out of his closet, tossing thing out of boxes and the drawers in his room, trying to make no noise, knowing that Chang, Nestor, and Bianca were watching him closely.

He tried to reach a box on the top shelf of his closet, standing on his tip toes. He slipped, and the box came tumbling down on top of his head. Everything went black

Chang was the first to hear the noise, running out of the bathroom down the hall, shaking the water from his hands. "Tintin! Tintin! Are you all right?!" He shouted, running to the collapsed figure on the floor, box pinning his chest to the floor, some of the contents scattered over his legs. Chang pulled all the books and photo albums off of Tintin, but he couldn't pull the box off of him for some reason. "Nestor! Neesssttoorr!" Chang screamed at the top of his lungs, hearing the thundering footsteps of the butler.

"Yes Mister Cha- oh my." Nestor ran over to help Chang pull the box off of Tintin. It was extremely heavy. Chang peeked into the box once it was off of Tintin. While Nestor tended to Tintin, Chang looked through the box. Photo albums, old books, and a bunch of souvenirs from the various countries Tintin had gone to and told him about.

A lot of them were of Tintin and Captain. In the pictures, the two were slowly getting closer and closer together, and at one point in America, pressed together, arms around each other, kissing, with the background of the statue of Liberty. He hadn't known about the two's close relationship. It was probably meant to be that way, that no one else knew. Chang wasn't even sure Nestor knew.

"Nestor." Chang piped up after they put Tintin back in bed and left his room. Nestor glanced at Chang. "Did you know about Tintin and Captain Haddock's relationship?" Nestor nodded and cleared his throat. "I'm one person that knows. It seems like I'm no longer the only one, however. They have been together ever since they came back from their Moon trip." Chang looked incredulous. "For that long?! Wow. No wonder Tintin is so upset." Nestor nodded, "We need to be extremely careful, though. Should we leave Master Tintin alone for too long, he will likely end up killing someone." Chang nodded nervously.

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Tintin waited until he knew Chang and Nestor were down the hall to resume looking for his gun. Chang had found the box of pictures and such from places he and Archie had gone. The younger Asian boy now knew about their relationship. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Tintin wrestled open a locked drawer and found what he was looking for. His pistol, and even better, it was loaded already. Tintin stripped himself of his pajamas and changed into the clothes he used to wear every day when he was with Archie. Tintin sighed, pulled the safety, and pressed the barrel of the gun to his stomach, wanting to feel the pain as he bled to death.

He whimpered and began to squeeze the trigger.