Summary: The first night back home after a harrowing adventure to the moon.
It was one thing to look up at the stars and another to be up in the stratosphere with them. For a sailor like Haddock, who had the fortune (or misfortune, if you asked him) of experiencing both, he very much preferred keeping his feet on the ground. After months on a secret military base and then in a rocket ship cabin, breathing in real, fresh air again was practically a blessing Haddock no longer took lightly.
He breathed deeply, a blissful smile on his face as he lounged in a hammock he had set up between two trees in the yard. It was quiet, the birds having gone to bed once the sun had set.
"Room for two more?"
Haddock opened his eyes to find Tintin holding Snowy in his arms. "More like one and a quarter." He scooted to the side and steadied the hammock with his foot on the ground.
Tintin clambered in, nestling his head against the captain's shoulder.
Snowy, whose front leg was still in a cast, laid his head down on Tintin's chest and closed his eyes.
Rocking the hammock gently with his foot, Haddock stared up at the night sky, remembering similar nights at sea where he would fall asleep to the swaying of a freighter. During every launch sequence aboard the rocket, they had passed out after being shaken like beans in a tin can; not exactly a good night's sleep when hurtling through the cosmos, especially with the looming threat of suffocating from the lack of oxygen. Thinking about the close call they had made the twinkling stars above suddenly look less inviting. "Would you really want to go back up there?" he asked.
"Mm…no."
"Why's that?"
Tintin raised his hands towards the sky, gesturing to the wide expanse of night. "There's so much to experience here on earth, so much to see and do." He smiled as he lowered his hands. "I don't need to reach for the stars again anytime soon."
Haddock pursed his lips in thought. "Would you go if Calculus asked you to?"
"…I suppose. Someone's got to look after him. Would you?"
"Well, someone's got to look after you, so…" He laughed half heartedly as he gave the lad a one-arm hug, "To hell and high water."
Tintin was quiet for a moment. He sat up as much as he could without waking Snowy, propping up on one elbow. "You don't have to, you know," he said, looking Haddock in the eyes with a solemn expression.
"I know," the captain retorted, reaching up and ruffling Tintin's hair. Tintin tried to duck out of the way, and Haddock felt the scar on the side of his head where the bullet had nearly grazed his skull. The levity in his tone died down. "…I know."
He remembered how his heart dropped when he learned that Tintin had been shot outside the moon base, how his blood ran cold waiting outside the operating room. They hadn't let him see the boy until the doctors were done, and the wait for Tintin to wake up was unbearable. Haddock never said it aloud, but those hours of watching the lad, who had laid as still as the dead with his head wrapped in bandages, scared him more than staring into the eyes of death itself.
But that was in the past now, and they were back home, safe and sound. Tintin was well and alive, looking up at him with eyes filled with a spark that never seemed to wane as he laid beside him.
Holding him close, Haddock breathed a contented sigh. "But it's not like you ever had to ask."
Author's Note: Ahoy! Long time no see! A quick little update while there's a lull in schoolwork. These two chapters have been sitting in my docs collecting dust for months and I felt it was time to put them in the sun. Updates for this fic are going to be sporadic, since any future chapters are basically whatever comes to mind. School's tough right now, among other things, but I hope you're hanging in there! May we cross paths again soon on another adventure!
