Heyo!
THANK YOU FOR ALL THE REVIEWS SO FAR AND LATER ON. You guys are the best, and I also hope that everyone has a Happy New Year! Or at least survive it.
Note: I have not re-written this chapter yet. So if you are a bit confused at parts (such as when Tintin suddenly carries Winter back to his apartment; it's because there was a man who was about to kidnap her and used chloroform) I'm sorry! I will update this chapter somewhere around this week.
Now, on with the story!
Tintin painfully carried the unconscious stranger back to his apartment, ignoring the searing pain crawling in his arm. He carefully placed her on the bed and pulled his blanket over her as the sullen night came with the freezing cold. Tintin, as clever as he was, took out a first-aid kit and carefully took care of his wound. He used the medical tweezers to pull out the metal bullet while muffling his grunts of pain and washed it clean. The terrier wined at his feet, clearly worried about his owner, and Tintin smiled and patted his head.
"Don't worry, Snowy. I'm alright; see, look! Good as new." Tintin exclaimed, flexing his muscles. But of course, it was still painful to do so, and he bit his bottom lip to try to hide the pain.
Snowy yapped in delight and ran to the girl just as she woke up.
Winter felt dizzy; when she opened her eyes, all she saw were stars and a bundle of white and curly fur. She blinked a few more times in attempt to receive her full vision, and saw the same dog that she ran into just a while ago, nuzzling its nose into her face. Winter giggled and raised a weak hand to maneuver herself upwards, carrying the dog in the other.
She tried recollected her memories, which resulted in another headache.
Tintin heard rustling and soft melodic laughing, and quickly turned around. The girl was scratching Snowy's ears and whispering something he couldn't quite make out. He hesitantly spoke up, as he realized he was alone… with a girl.
"Emm… Etes-vous d'accord?"
Winter instantly snapped her head up, causing a pelting pain down her spine. She yelped, and rubbed her back while staring at the boy.
"Huh?" She said, dumbfounded. He stared at her back, not moving a single muscle.
"Parlez-vous français?" Tintin said, reluctantly taking a step closer.
Winter looked at him with alarm, figuring out who this familiar boy was; Tintin. She had seen him on commercials of the movie 'Secret of the Unicorn' back in her time; but it was computer-animated. Now he was, well… real-looking. She always thought the movie was a bit childish at the first look. So she never watched it, despite all of the praises of how amazing and exciting it was.
Tintin furrowed his eyebrows. 'Now what language does she speak? She certainly doesn't speak French…' He thought. Trying to find the best solution, he quickly glanced at her once more and observed her features.
'A bit Asian looking, with the pale skin and such…' He thought as a matter-of-factly. But she didn't have the slanted and small eyes like his close friend Chang did. He gave it a try.
"Nàme nǐ shuō zhōngguó huà ma?" He said, hope glistening in his eyes.
Winter stared; clearly noticing how anticipated he looked. She shook her head, and cleared her throat.
"Um… I can speak English." She whispered. She noticed her voice was hoarse: she was in need of water.
As an imaginary light bulb flashed over his head, he clapped his hands, and opened his mouth in an 'O'.
"Ah! Knew that… So, are you feeling well, miss? Do you need a glass of water?" Tintin said, adding a smile.
"Yes, please." She said, looking at his back while he was fetching the cup. "Thank you for saving me earlier. I owe you one."
He paused for a moment, as if soaking in the stranger's appreciation.
"Oh no, it's alright. If my dog Milou didn't run away earlier, you would have been in that truck by now. You should thank him…" Tintin said, tilting the pitcher on the glass. "The name's Tintin. Pleasure to meet you."
He stiffly whipped around, put the cup on the desk next to the bed, and held out his hand. She shook it, and gratefully reached the cup of water.
"Um, my name is Winter. Winter Rose Brimnings, to be exact."
The room became awkwardly silent, with the only sounds of sipping water echoing and hurdling around the room. In attempt to loosen up the atmosphere, Winter spoke.
"Ahem… Oh, I forgot to thank Snowy! Wait, you called him Milou… Thank you very much, Milou! You're such a good boy! …Um, girl or boy, Tintin?" She asked, embarrassed, cuddling the small terrier. Winter looked up at Tintin, who was intently staring at his golden watch that bound his wrist. "Erm… Are you with me right now, Tintin?"
He converted his eyes to Winter's and whipped his arms behind his back, causing the most magnificent pain anyone could ever imagine. He cried out a quiet 'Oh, mon dieu!' and grasped his arm.
"Did you hurt your arm, Tintin?" She said, craning her neck to see what had happened.
"It's fine, I just need to bind it…" He mumbled, striding across the room to grab a white roll of cloth. He unrolled it, and attempted to use one hand to wrap the wound that started to bleed again. That strategy failed horribly though, as the roll dropped from his hand and ran to her side. Winter laughed uncontrollably, jumped out of bed, and carried the stowaway back to the rightful owner.
"Hold out your arm. I'll do it."
Tintin looked at Winter in horror. She sighed, and grabbed his arm.
"I've never done this in my life. Tell me if it hurts."
The injury was horrible; blood was literally pouring from it, and it was probably very deep. She looked back up at Tintin, who was a head taller than her.
"Are you sure you don't need to go to the hospital or something? It's pretty serious." She said, cautiously touching the edges of the wound. He flinched and let out a little 'hiss' as he grabbed his arm from a clearly obvious pain. "Yup. I think you need to go to a hospital."
"I'm fine! I could take it… And the hospital is just a waste of money. They just clean it and wrap it, and then 'walaa!', they take your months' worth of salary." He said, while nudging his arm for her to wrap it.
She shrugged her shoulders, and bound his arm tightly but carefully as he suddenly remembered. He reached into his pants pocket, and pulled out a scrap of paper.
"When the kidnapper fled, he left this behind. We need to decipher it." He said, giving it to Winter as she finished off with a knot. She reached to grab it, and read the contents while a crescent descended onto her eyebrows.
The Anachronism
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"What the hell is this…?" Winter whispered, scratching her head. "But it looks kind of familiar."
She suddenly snapped her head to Tintin, and he eyed her curiously.
"Do you know how to solve this?" He asked.
"Er… no. But what do you mean 'we' have to decipher it? I need to figure out a way to go home-" She abruptly stopped in mid-sentence and snapped her fingers in the air.
"Dude, you need to help me travel home. I don't even know what the fuck had happened! I caught a cold, and then I was lying in bed until it was weirdly quiet… So I went out and walked around to have a look, and then everyone was suddenly wearing 1950's clothing! And then that dipshit man had to come over and ruin my already ruined day and try to kidnap-"
She was cut off midsentence by Tintin grabbing her shoulders.
"Just tell me what you think happened to you." He said under a low voice. "Calm down."
Her worried expression changed to a frown, and slowly changed her view of Tintin down to her shoes. She gulped nervously, and spit the truth out.
"I… I think I went back through time."
"I think this is fitting! You going through time, a person trying to kidnap you, this isn't all just a coincidence… C'mon, we need to go. Milou, up! Up! Allons, Milou!"
He swiped on his cream-colored coat and held the door for Winter.
"Where are we going?" She asked. "And can I borrow one of your sweaters? My clothes got dirty."
He looked at her from top to bottom, and nodded in approval. "Yes, you could. And I think we should get you a skirt, too. Girls don't wear pants often, and especially tight ones, at that. We need to hurry!"
She gave him a smile and a curved eyebrow, and rushed to the closet. She realized that she hadn't told him about how he was popular in her time. Not just in theatres, but also on the internet. Facebook, Tumblr… almost everyone was talking about it. Now she thought about it, she agreed with the others that his features were alright. Eyes the color of blue snow and rosy cheeks both complimented each other. His height was a little shorter than average, but she wondered about his body build.
'He must be delicate and thin…' She thought, letting out a snort as she was slipping on an oversized light-blue sweater. Of course, she was careful and checked Tintin if he was wearing the same, but he wore a yellow polo shirt and a tie.
"Okay, I'm done. Where are we going again?" Winter said, walking out the entrance. Milou pawed at her feet, and she picked up the small dog. "You haven't told me if Milou was a male or female yet, you know."
He closed the door behind them, took out a key from his coat pocket, and locked the door.
"He's a male. And we're going to my friend's house. He's Captain Haddock, and he lives at Marlinspike Hall. But first, we need to get a proper skirt for you. I know a girl named Betty that knows all about fashion! She's the librarian, so we'll go get her."
She gave him a glance and an 'mm-hmm', freed Milou, and carefully stepped down the stairs. She saw the sunlight pouring in, and instantly realized that this was the place she stayed at before she plunged through time.
As she touched the brass doorknob, an unknown feeling crossed her mind. It wasn't a bad feeling though. She felt that the second she opened the door and stepped out, she would have a whole new exciting adventure just hungrily waiting for her. A smirk crept onto her face, and she turned around.
Tintin was still on the stairs trying to capture the escaped terrier, and noticed Winter. He saw the smirk, and couldn't help but smirk back.
"Hurry up Tintin! You're so slow."
Did you guys like it? Tell me what you think! And the next chapter will be longer than this one. I promise. YOU GUYS, in the next chapter, I think you'll know what Betty's reaction of a girl with Tintin is. And, Captain Haddock comes in! Yay! But, of course, there will be many other original characters too.
PLEASE REVIEW YOU GUYS! :DDDD
See you in chapter three!