I always forget: I don't own Tintin!
"Calm down, Captain; it's only a poor old anteater who wanted to say good morning!" Tintin laughed. The Captain looked at him, and Tintin could tell that despite his rude awakening, he knew something was up. Tintin tried to force the small, secret smile from his face, but it didn't work.
Qoya was casually–a bit too casually–re-packing her knapsack. "You were covered with ants. He was looking for breakfast!" She giggled and bit her lip. Tintin looked away, feeling positively lightheaded, and got busy packing his own knapsack. The Captain looked back and forth between them, then shook his head. "I'm going to wash up," he said.
After a good ten seconds, Tintin dared to look up. Qoya was now unpacking her entire knapsack. "Why're you doing that?"
"I accidentally packed my scarf." She giggled again. He loved her laugh. "You know. Because I only wear it every single day of my life. So of course, just now I–" she produced it from the sack– "neatly folded it and packed it away." She laughed again. "I've never folded this thing before. My hands, they just decided to, without consulting me!"
"How dare they?"
Qoya looked over her shoulder. "How long do you think he'll be gone?"
"Not long enough," Tintin said, and started towards her.
"Wait!" she cried, laughing again. "I have to pee, and I have to brush my teeth."
"There's no time!"
"Sorry," she said, shrugging. She tossed him her scarf. "You can hold this until I get back." Tintin caught the scarf and, scowling and laughing at the same time, watched her leave.
The Captain came back a few minutes later, whistling and stomping loudly through the brush as if to warn them he was coming. He seemed surprised to find Tintin alone, but said nothing out of the ordinary as they packed up camp and readied themselves for the day.
Qoya came back a few minutes later, pouting at Tintin behind the Captain's back when she saw that their opportunity to be alone had passed. Tintin pulled a face at her, then chucked the scarf back to her. She secured it around her neck, pulled on her backpack, rubbed her hands together, and said "let's go!"
.
.
.
Over the next few days, try as they might, Tintin and Qoya could not succeed in getting more than a few minutes alone together. Pesky mosquitoes, sleeping alligators, laughing monkeys–something was always there to ruin the moment before it could happen. Captain Haddock did his best to help, and even Snowy seemed to be trying to give them space. One night, the Captain outright declared, "I think I'll just… take Snowy for a walk. For a half hour, at least..." as they made camp, but he'd been gone for about thirty seconds before he gave a howl of pain; he'd walked right into a beehive.
The next day, Qoya and Tintin slowed down and drifted back as they hiked, allowing more and more space between themselves and the Captain; but, just as Tintin was reaching for Qoya's hand, she stepped in a small hole and went down.
"You better go get the Captain," she said, wincing, as Tintin removed her shoe and sock.
"Do I have to?" he whined, only half-joking. Qoya smiled, but said yes, he had to, otherwise they might get separated. Plus, the Captain had the First Aid kit. "Fine," he moped, then jogged until the Captain was within earshot and called him back.
He returned to Qoya and lifted her foot into his lap, tracing his fingers over her ankle. She gave a shiver that he didn't think had anything to do with pain, and he shot her a knowing look.
"Stop it," she barked. "This is serious. We might have to amputate."
"Oh, that's OK. Can we have some quality alone time afterwards, though?"
"This isn't quality enough for you? It's not like I can go anywhere."
"And whose fault is that?"
"Yours."
"What?!" Tintin gasped in mock outrage. "How do you figure?"
"Give me a minute, I'll let you know." Qoya tapped her chin pensively.
Tintin laughed. "It was your fault. You need to look where you're going."
"It was your fault. Before I met you, I never had a reason not to."
There was a silence. Qoya smirked and looked sidelong at Tintin, through her eyelashes.
He groaned and reached for her, then pulled back with a pained expression as the Captain and Snowy, predictably, barrelled onto the scene.
"For once it wasn't me," the Captain said as he rooted around in his knapsack for the first aid kit. "In fact, I haven't had a clumsy moment all day!"
"The night is young," said Tintin. "Don't sneeze or anything, you'll awaken a mudslide." The captain shot him a dirty look, but a smile was hidden beneath his beard.
"That was a coincidence," said Qoya. "There's no way he caused the avalanche. The noise has to be about a billion–what is the word, dec-decibels?"–Tintin gave her a small nod–"about a billion decibels to cause an avalanche."
"There, you see?" said Captain Haddock. "It was a coincidence."
"I'm not convinced," said Tintin. "That sneeze was the single loudest sound I have heard, ever." The Captain guffawed, and Qoya chuckled.
They splinted and wrapped her ankle, after which Qoya reported that she could walk on it just fine.
Then they carried on, out of the rainforest to the base of a mountain. "Up there," Qoya pointed. "In the mountains. That's where Qorikancha is."