#it could be the awesomest inside reference ever and it's not even a thing...

[songjay-ay]

The ninjago fandom doesn't utilize ninjargon enough. Like ur telling me the fandom has been around for 13 years and there's not a single fanfiction written in their alphabet !?

[secretagentspydetectiveninja]

The Misadventures of Prince Kim - chapter 55

Wow, a rare chapter in which Kim doesn’t actually do anything stupid!

Also on AO3 as always where you can read this giant ridiculous thing from the start if you have a lot of spare time

Max sat alone in his room at his desk, hunched over his homework. He had been trying to solve this question for almost an hour now, and yet his answer never matched the one in the textbook! Why? What was he doing wrong? Usually he was supposed to be good at schoolwork!

Erasing yet another wrong answer, he wondered if he should just give up and go ask someone for help with it. But no, he couldn’t do that – he was Prince Max. He had a reputation to keep up. The smart one, the one who everyone else asked for homework help, the one who was clever enough to solve any problem. That was, fundamentally, who he was as a person. For as long as he could remember, that was what he was always referred to as. The smart one. Being smart was pretty much his entire personality.

Then why was he finding his schoolwork so tough these days?

He just put his pencil down and put his head in his hands, his brain too frazzled to concentrate for any longer. This couldn’t be happening. Schoolwork had always been easy for him, right from when he was a little kid and his tutor had proudly informed his parents about how talented and amazing he was. All through his life that had just been reinforced, with constant high test results, and learning new information easily compared to other kids his age. And here at school, he had just shone.

But it wasn’t happening now. Over the past few months things had been getting tougher and tougher. Why? How could someone just stop being smart like that? It simply wasn’t logical!

There was a loud knock on his door. Judging by the volume, that must either be Kim or Alix. Looking at the clock, he could also judge that it was highly likely to be Alix – Kim was too busy preparing for the summer gala later that day, wanting to “impress Max” apparently, whereas of course Alix cared very little about the summer gala. Max pushed his homework aside and said, “Come in.”

Sure enough, it was Alix who entered, looking oddly cheerful compared to how inadequate he was feeling right now. She ran right over to him and waved her arm in front of his face.

“Maxy-Max! Look! My arm’s healed now and they took the cast off!”

He forced himself to look happy about it. “That’s excellent news.”

“Exactly. I can go rollerskating again, finally! In fact, I’m just gonna skip the stupid summer gala thing and go do that instead, it’ll be way more fun. And I won’t get into trouble for dropping any more chandeliers…”

Max was almost disappointed to hear that. The chandelier thing had been very, very entertaining, enough to actually make the spring dance fun somehow. But at least the summer gala was informal, so it wouldn’t be anywhere near as dreary. He couldn’t fully remember what it had been like last year, other than knowing he had spent most of it drinking away his woes with orange juice. This year was bound to be much better.

“So what’s up with you?” she asked, a little less hyper now. “You’re going to the summer gala, right? I just went to see Kim and he yelled at me for interrupting him when he was trying to do his hair, so you’d better go and appreciate his efforts.”

“Of course I will!”

“Are you gonna get ready too? You can’t go in those pyjamas. Well, I guess you could actually. I went to the thing in January in pyjamas.”

“I’m not going to wear my pyjamas! I was just…” He sighed. Part of him didn’t want to say anything, but it would be good to confide in someone. “I was working on a homework problem that I was finding quite tough.”

She looked surprised for a few seconds. “Really? Which one?”

“This one.” He pulled the sheet out and handed it to her.

“Ohhh, friggin’ calculus. I hate this stuff. Why are they even teaching it to us? I have no idea how this is gonna help us rule a country.”

“They are teaching us similar curriculums that our commoner peers would be learning right now,” Max said, “so that we have a roughly equal level of general knowledge. The royalty lessons we have on top of that are what makes this school any different from a normal one.”

“Huh, okay.”

“Anyway, I can’t do it. I’ve already been trying for an hour and haven’t got anywhere. It feels very… unusual.” He clenched his fists. “It may sound selfish, but I really can’t understand why I’m not finding this easy. It’s like I’ve been losing brain cells over the past few months.”

Alix sat up on the desk. “You kinda remind me of Jalil, you know.”

“Really? Why?”

“He used to find school really easy all the time and never bothered putting in any effort, ‘cause he didn’t need to. And then when he was about this age, his natural talent burned out and he actually had to start working hard to keep up.”

“Are you saying I don’t work hard?”

“I dunno, do you?”

Max was about to give a rather indignant reply, before he stopped himself and actually had a think about it. Did he work hard at school? He certainly got all his work done on time, and he easily understood new topics taught to him. But that… that wasn’t hard work, was it? That was just him being good at it without trying! He barely needed to use his brains to get the best marks in class. It all came to him naturally.

The other kids didn’t have that, or not quite to the same extent. Kim usually spent a lot longer working on his homework, getting Max to tutor him, trying to understand new concepts. He certainly worked very hard at it indeed. A lot harder than Max ever needed to. It wasn’t unusual for Kim to spend hours and hours stuck on a single question before admitting defeat and getting help with it.

Which was exactly what Max was going through right now.

He barely even revised for exams. He never asked for help. He never got questions wrong. He wasn’t used to having to work to get things right. It should always be easy!

“I never need to work hard,” he admitted. “I’m smart. Well – I thought I was…”

Was he not smart anymore? If his natural talent had finally come to an end, and he was at the same level as everyone else now – if he wasn’t the smart kid, then who was he?

“I’m not smart anymore,” he said, almost in a whisper. The concept was just so… so horrifying! It made him feel all cold and hollow inside, made his brain feel static, like he was dropping IQ points by the second.

“Of course you’re not smart, you’re dumb as hell,” Alix said. “You always have been.”

“But I used to be good at schoolwork!”

“Pfffffff, you’re logical and like thinking about stuff and you have a good memory. You’re not, like, proper smart. You don’t even know how to cook an omelette or load a washing machine.”

“Well neither do you!”

“Hey, I didn’t say I was smart either. We’re both dorks. You’re just a dork who’s good at school stuff.”

Max looked down at his textbook, disappointment weighing on him. “At least, I used to be… What do I do now?”

“Just start working hard, I guess. That’s what Jalil did. I mean, you’ve still got an edge. You grasp new concepts easily and tend to enjoy learning about new things, even going out of your way to do it, so it’s not all doom and gloom.”

“You sound a bit like a teacher…”

She rolled her eyes. “Listen, Jalil used to vent at me about this stuff for months on end, so I’m an expert at this. Trust me when I say you’re gonna be okay.”

The weight on his mind lifted ever so slightly. He did indeed trust her, and if she said it was going to be okay, then hopefully she was right. Logically speaking, if she knew a lot more about all this than he did, then it made sense to listen to her.

“Thank you,” he said, pushing a smile onto his face. “I suppose I’ll have to start working harder from now on. Especially if I want to carry on tutoring Kim…”

Wait a second – Kim! How many times had he gushed to Max about how smart Max was, and how much he admired it and loved him for it? How crushed was he going to be to realize his sweetheart wasn’t anywhere near as smart as he thought he was?

He thrust his face in his hands. “Kim loves me for being smart – what am I going to tell him?”

To his surprise, Alix just laughed. “See what I mean? You’re dumb as hell! If you really think Kim only likes you ‘cause you’re a nerd, then honestly you’ve gotta have a little more faith in yourself…”

“I’m just being realistic! He has a very strong admiration for my intellect. It’s something he mentions very often. He really seems to care about it a lot.”

“Let’s see about that, shall we?”

She flicked open the lid of her sceptre and started tapping something into it.

“Wait – are you calling him?” Max asked. “You don’t need to–”

“Too late, it’s already ringing!” She pressed the speaker button and set the sceptre on the table in between them both. Kim picked up almost immediately.

“Alix, what is your problem?! I told not to interrupt me when–”

“Your boyfriend is having a bad day and needs some support,” she said, “so I’m pretty sure your hair can wait.”

Kim’s tone changed immediately. “Oh, you should have said so before! What’s wrong?”

“Just normal existential crisis stuff, whatever. Max is right next to me – tell him why you love him.”

Kim didn’t even need to think for a second. “Oh Max, you sweetie! You’re the awesomest person ever, that’s why! You’re always so nice, and really cute, and so much fun to hang out with and talk to and – hm what else – oh yeah! It’s so cool that you’re so different from me! All rational and logical and calm, it’s really inspiring. And you’re really cute. Did I mention that already? And I love spending time with you so much, and…”

He carried on for a few more minutes at least. The whole time Max half wanted to sink right into his chair and melt away, half wanted to jump through the phone and hug him. All this kindness, all these compliments! Being the sweetheart of a person like Kim meant that he got this a lot, but it wasn’t something he could ever really get used to. It felt so special every single time.

And Kim hadn’t even mentioned Max being smart at all.

Logical, rational, yes, and even saying “you make me feel smart because you’re always teaching me stuff!” But he never outright said it.

Something stirred in his memory – the day of the Cupid Festival, when Max and Kim had got together in the first place. They had said a lot of things to each other that day, things that they hadn’t said before. And something that Kim had said suddenly stood out to him.

Please don’t think I only like you ‘cause you’re smart. I like you for a whole lot more than that.

It wasn’t something that Max had paid much attention to at the time, being too overwhelmed at Kim actually liking him back to really take anything in. But there it was. Right from the beginning, Kim had already told him what he needed to hear.

Oh, thank goodness.

“Thank you Kim, I feel a lot better now,” he said finally, really meaning it.

“Aw, I’m glad! Well do you need anything else?”

“I’ll be alright. I was simply being a bit… irrational.”

He couldn’t help but smile. Something about Kim always made him feel irrational. Usually it was a good thing. Occasionally it wasn’t, like just now – how could he honestly have considered that Kim would be disappointed if Max struggled a bit with a homework question?! – but that could always be sorted out.

“Seems like my irrational-ness has been rubbing off on you, huh?” Kim said, the flirtiness practically audible through the phone. Max grinned even more.

“The word is ‘irrationality’. But yes, I suppose it has.”

“Max, I love you a lot, you know?”

“I do know. And I love you a lot too.”

“I can’t wait to see you later!”

“Me too, I’m looking forward to it…”

“That’s enough,” Alix said, snatching the sceptre away, though she was grinning too. “If you guys are gonna be mushy then use your own phone, thanks. I’m gonna hang up now and you can carry on doing your hair for another 2 hours or whatever. Or does one of those hours involve admiring your own reflection?”

“Of course not!” Kim snapped. “I wouldn’t spend an entire hour – 10 minutes maybe, but not–”

“Whatever.” She hung up and shut the lid of the sceptre, then turned to look at Max. “You good now?”

Max nodded. “Yes. Thank you for that.”

“No problem. If I’m being honest, you and Kim are, uh… actually kind of adorable. I hope you guys have fun at the summer gala. Doing your scientific research or whatever.”

Max was aware of his face warming up – he knew perfectly well what she meant by scientific research. Usually, though, he was a little too lovestruck to think about actual science on the odd occasion Kim kissed him for more than a minute at a time.

“The summer gala is, uh, probably not the most ideal place for that,” he said quickly. “But I’m sure it’ll be fun. And I hope you enjoy rollerskating. Make sure to take care, as even with your arm out of its cast it might not be fully up to its usual capacity and–”

She poked him in the arm with the sceptre. “Whatever, nerd, do your homework.”

“You should do yours too!”

“We’ve only got a few more days of school until the holidays, who cares? Not me. But you have to work hard, okay? Don’t be a hypocrite like me.”

He grinned, taking the homework sheet and putting it back in front of him. His brain felt much readier to take on the task now. “I know perfectly well that you work very hard too, as much as you pretend not to. But I will certainly try not to be a hypocrite.”

“Good. See you later – and have fun!”

Taking her sceptre with her, she left the room. Max picked up his pencil again and looked back down at the sheet. There were no shortcuts to this, were there? He really would just have to work at it. Just like Kim did. Yes, that was a good source of inspiration – to be a hard worker, just like Kim!

Feeling much more motivated now, he put his head down and got on with it.

Max arrived at the hall of the summer gala to see Kim waiting for him already. For once he was wearing a more European style of formal clothing, and he looked just as stunning in it – and of course, his hair was done immaculately.

“Kim, you look wonderful!” Max said, running over to him and taking his hand.

“So do you!” Kim replied, leaning down to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in red before.”

Max smiled, looking down at the red robes he had decided on for today. “It’s your favourite colour, so…”

“Well it looks super awesome! Almost as good as me, I’d say…” Kim winked at him, sending flutters through his heart. “Anyway, my amazing wonderful sweetheart, are you feeling better now?”

“I am, don’t worry. It was just something a little silly. I was having trouble with the homework, and I’m so used to finding it easy that I wasn’t exactly feeling pleased with myself. But I managed it in the end, in part thanks to your encouragement.”

Kim gave his hand a squeeze. “Good work – I’m happy for you!”

“Thank you. I know now that I have to work harder from now on, just like you do. In fact, I’d like a bit of advice. These holidays I really want to intellectually challenge myself. What do you suggest I do?”

“Oh, um, what do you mean? Like, should I tell you to build a robot or something?”

A robot! That would be perfect!

“That’s exactly what I meant,” Max said, hardly able to hide the huge grin on his face that always appeared when thinking about robotics. “This summer I’ll build a robot. In fact, when I was younger I did indeed make a very simple automaton, so I could probably upgrade that one.”

“Is that the one you said you kissed once?”

Oops, he had forgotten he’d told Kim about that! It was so embarrassing to think about that he tended to keep it to himself. “Maybe…”

“That’s adorable.”

“Says the guy who has a habit of kissing pillows.”

Kim blushed bright red. “I haven’t done that in a whole, like… two weeks! I’m over it. I mean, I’ve got you now, so I don’t really need the pillows…”

“And I don’t really need the robot for that either now. But I’ll certainly have fun programming it. I kind of wish I had a computer of my own sometimes…”

“What’s a computer? Isn’t it one of those massive machine things that can do maths on its own?”

“It’s more complex than that, but essentially, yes. And when I make my robot, I will be making use of similar concepts.”

“That’s so cool,” Kim said, staring at Max with such an adoring expression that he was very tempted to engage in some scientific research right on the spot. Instead he changed the subject, deciding to save that for later when they weren’t in a hall full of people.

“So you’ll be staying at Queen Sol’s palace for the holidays, right?”

Kim nodded. “I’m gonna get to meet Princess Penny and Jagged Stone and everything. It’s gonna be awesome! You’ll be there for the wedding, won’t you?”

“Yes, I certainly will. I might bring my automaton friend along if I’ve programmed it enough by that point.”

“Nice!”

“Anyway, I should probably warn you that Jagged Stone has a pet crocodile and you will most certainly be introduced to it at some point.”

“A crocodile?” Kim’s face went white. “As a pet?”

“Nowhere near as dangerous as Alix’s pet cobra.”

“Yeah but… I mean, I’m not s-scared of crocodiles or anything, but…”

Max grinned, knowing perfectly well he was lying. “I’m sure you’ll be well acquainted with Fang by the end of the holidays.”

“Its name is FANG???”

Oh, poor terrified Kim. Max started laughing, unable to help himself. Kim had been afraid of the snake at first too, and he was perfectly fine with it now, so the crocodile was sure to end up the same way!

Hmm, the wedding was in August… would there be enough time to make a somewhat autonomous robot before then? Maybe, with a lot of hard work, it would be possible.

He made up his mind. He was going to do it.

Just outside the main hall, the setting sun barely still visible, Marinette sat stroking Plagg again. This cat just kept coming back to her, over and over again! And even weirder, it tended to always find her whenever she was thinking about Adrien in particular. It couldn’t be a coincidence. This cat was special.

“Kitty! I can’t believe you ran away again!” The cat’s owner was back, running over towards them now. “Stop annoying Princess Marinette, she’s probably got better things to be doing…”

“It’s okay, I don’t mind!” Marinette said quickly. “Really, I don’t. I promise. I love Plagg, he’s practically a friend of mine now.”

Plagg let out a little meow of affirmation.

“I’m glad to hear that,” the noble said. “Plagg really likes you. I still think you should keep him.”

That was what the noble had been saying every single time, and Marinette had constantly refused, not wanting to take a pet away from someone. But her resolve was crumbling. This poor cat… it really didn’t like its owner much. It seemed to want Marinette instead.

Or rather, it seemed to want Adrien…

“Are you sure?” she asked. “Like, really, really sure?”

“I am. I’ve had enough of this cat. I can’t stand to look at this thing for yet another long summer holiday! Just look how he looks at me!”

Sure enough, Plagg was glaring at the noble, hissing slightly, before curling back up into Marinette’s arms.

Well, she couldn’t just leave an unhappy cat with its unhappy owner, could she?

“Fine,” she said. “I’ll take Plagg home with me.”

I’ll take him to Adrien, she added silently.

“Really? Oh, thank you Your Highness! Thank you so much!” The noble crouched down and looked right in Plagg’s face. “Now you be good to Princess Marinette, okay? She’s a princess. No scratching, or biting, or clawing, or–”

Plagg took a swipe at him.

“Ugh, you little dipshit – I’m not gonna miss you at all!” He quickly covered his mouth with his hands. “Oh shoot, I’m not meant to swear around royalty, I’m so sorry–”

“It’s fine,” Marinette said, giggling a little. “Perhaps you should just get out of here before Plagg scratches you to pieces.”

“Good idea. Goodbye, Your Highness, and good luck with him!” The noble took to his heels and ran off.

Marinette picked Plagg up in her arms. He was so small and light, like a little ball of fluff. It was adorable. In fact, bringing a cat back home for Adrien to hang out with would be ideal for him. Pets were good for you, after all! Oh, she just couldn’t wait to see Adrien again. Only a few days left now.

Hang on a second… what even was the noble’s name? It occurred to her that she had never asked. Huh. Maybe Adrien would know?