Epilogue

Tintin studied her image in the mirror, applying just a slight hint of lipstick to finish her make up. She critically appraised herself – smart skirt suit, check. Clean, ironed blouse, check. Smart shoes with functional heels, check. Hair in a tidy bun, check. Satchel ready to go, check. Everything was ready in fact, but that didn't help to stop her stomach somersaulting. She had been offered a chance to study an Engineering PHD with the advanced robotics department at MIT in Boston following the successful conference in Casablanca. Today she was due to be interviewed by the head of department, Professor Maria Kruger, and she was desperate to succeed.

There was a knock at the hotel room door. Tintin opened it tentatively, to reveal a man in a courier's uniform holding a large square box. "Delivery for Miss Tintin Kyrano?"

"Yes, that is me." The man held out the box and a tablet for Tintin to sign. Confused, she shut the door again and studied the box in her hands. It was about thirty centimetres in length on each side and at first look she didn't know what it was made of. She gave it a quick shake, then nearly dropped it when a hologram appeared floating above it.

"Hi Tintin," the little hologram of Brains started, waving shyly at Tintin's shocked face. "I-I know how much you wanted m-me to be there today, and I'm very sorry t-that I'm not. So I've made something to h-help you feel b-better."

Just hearing his message brought a smile to Tintin's face, but the next second the cube suddenly burst open to reveal two mechanical arms that wrapped around her and gave her a tight hug. Initially startled, Tintin relaxed into the hug as the holographic Brains carried on talking. "You will be a-amazing today and they are bound to offer you a place. G-good luck, Tintin."

The small hologram disappeared, and the next minute the arms folded themselves back into the box and it was a silent cube again. Tintin smiled indulgently as she put the box gently on a table.

"That was..."

"Bloody mental?" Annie interrupted, holding a steaming mug out for Tintin from the doorway that joined their two hotel rooms. Tintin took it happily, pleased that Annie liked tea as much as Tintin herself did.

"I was going to say incredibly sweet." This brought a laugh from Annie.

"I don't know why no one noticed before now that you two were meant for each other!" Tintin just grinned shyly as she picked up her bag.

"What do you think?"

"I think you look very professional. Now go knock them dead."

"I'm not sure that will give quite the impression I'm after." Tintin laughed nervously, smoothing the front of her jacket.

Annie walked over and put her hands on Tintin's shoulders. "Tintin, you will be amazing. Now go and persuade some boring university people to accept you onto their course."

"Yes, of course." Tintin nodded firmly. "Although..."

She broke free from Annie's hands, ran over to the cube and received another hug whilst listening again to Brains' message of support. When it had finished, she straightened up and smiled at Annie. "I'm ready now. MIT isn't going to know what hit it."

"That's the spirit," Annie encouraged, and the two women left the hotel room together.

A/N – Well here it is, the epilogue! Just a short story to satisfy the plot bunny that hit me. I didn't realise when I started how much I enjoy Brains and Tintin together, but it just seemed to work for me. Next I'm going to be finishing off the edit of Unexpected Encounter before starting on the sequel to both stories – so if you haven't yet, you may want to go back and read UE as both stories so far are going to play into the sequel. There will be a pause because I'm going to try to refrain from posting any chapters until I have a few written, but I've always found it very hard not to put the work out there to see what you think, so we'll see. Until then, good reading!

Disclaimer – Thunderbirds still sadly do not belong to me.