Tintin and Rosa In Between'quals'

Break In and Napping

Tintin rubbed his eyes tiredly as he looked out his window into the midday sky. The sun illuminated his office as he finished up that week's article. He stretched his back on his chair before he turned back and began clicking away on his typewriter.

Snowy was snoring away by the fire as Tintin looked at him with jealousy. He gazed at the clock. '9 o'clock' it read. He had been up all night trying to finish an article for the newspaper. He sighed and continued writing as an odd creaking noise was heard from outside his window. He turned and looked outside but saw nothing. 'Must've just been the flat settling again' he thought to himself. 'Now, what's the best was to use 'flamboyant' in a sentence.'

The odd creaking was heard again but Tintin no longer paid any mind to it. He continued thinking before Snowy hopped up from his spot and began growling at the window. The hairs on the back of Tintin's neck stood up as he reached across his desk and grabbed his fire poker. He had been kidnapped too many to know exactly what was going to happen. The creaking continued.

Tintin reared back the iron fire poker as he prepared to hit the intruder. His adrenaline pulsed through his entire body.

"Hey, kid! How are ya?!" Rosa asked loudly as she jerked her head through the window. Tintin yelled in alarm swung the fire poker. "Son of a whore!" She yelled as she ducked and almost fell back from the window.

Tintin dropped his weapon as soon as he realized and grabbed Rosa's shirt collar so she wouldn't fall off the side of the apartment complex. "Are you ok?! What are you doing here?!" He yelled with agitation as he backed up.

Rosa crawled in through the window and fell unceremoniously onto her back with a thud. "You had a ladder going straight to your window. Why would I use the stairs?" She joked with a cough and rubbed her back.

"That's a lattice, not a ladder. And why are you at my apartment?" His tone became slightly angrier.

"Oh. Haddock was having a poker game with some buddies and I wanted to see if you wanted to join us. And sorry for scaring you. I didn't realize you be so... uppity." Snowy hopped onto Rosa's lap. "What are you doing, anyway?"

Tintin paused in astonishment as he tried to calm himself. He took a sharp inhale. "I'm stuck on another article. These deadlines never get easier. I've been up all night." Tintin said as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Sorry, kid. Anything I can do?"

"Not particularly. I appreciate it, though."

"Consider it payback for technically committing a felony and breaking into your apartment. You know... again. So what's it about?"

"Economic regulations between differentiating countries and their inflation of currency," Tintin said sternly as he collected himself from the scare.

Rosa widened her eyes and snarled slightly with confusion. "I know what some of those words mean."

Tintin groaned and went back to his chair with a slump. "It might be best if you went back to Marlinspike. I'm stumped and I need to concentrate."

"Wow. I've never seen you stumped before. You're Tintin, you're the person who flew a plane with just the knowledge off of an interview and a two-minute look at the manual. One article can't stump you!" Rosa said as she stood up and put her hands on her hips.

Tintin chuckled as he yawned.

Rosa looked at the ground for a moment and looked up puzzled. "I don't know about economics or any of that stuff. What about gambling?"

"What?"

"Gambling. You know, betting on someone else to have something specific that benefits you. I feel like that's close to whatever you were talking about. Want to consider a poker game a field trip?"