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secretagentspydetectiveninja · 6 years

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The Misadventures of Prince Kim - chapter 46

I said I was gonna update this on a Sensible Weekly Basis on Sundays from now on and it’s past midnight here in the UK, therefore it is Sunday, so I can post this. I am evil and followed up the fluffiest chapter with a rather angsty one. Also a snake plays Monopoly and it doesn’t even make sense in context. Have fun!

Also on AO3 as always

The next morning, before going to class, Max opened a drawer in his room and pulled out the little heart-shaped box that he had been ignoring for a long time now. Opening it, he took out the brooch and pinned it to the front of his shirt. This brooch… he hadn’t even looked at it for a whole year now. He’d just thrown it straight into the drawer and told himself to forget about any chances with Kim ever. He could never have imagined how different things would be this year.

Looking at himself in the mirror, he couldn’t hold back a smile. Alright, so the brooch didn’t really suit him. It was light blue, sparkly, heart-shaped, and unlike anything he ever wore. But hey – this brooch was from Kim. His sweetheart.

Thinking of the word “sweetheart” made him smile even more. He buried his face in his sleeves for a few seconds to regain his composure, knowing he was acting like a total lovestruck dork. He couldn’t help it! Kim loved him, and every time he remembered it, the universe suddenly felt like a brighter place.

Right. That was enough of being an embarrassing wreck. Time for breakfast.

“MAX!” he heard Kim yelling from across the dining hall as soon as he entered it. Max barely had time to even look up at him before being rushed at and enveloped in a hug.

“Good morning, Kim,” he mumbled into the side of Kim’s shirt, hugging him back. Things still didn’t feel quite real.

“Good morning to you too, you awesome, amazing sweetheart!” Kim pulled back to take a look at him, and his eyes dropped down to the brooch. “Hey, isn’t that – that’s the–”

“The brooch you gave me last year, yes.”

“Aww, Max! That’s so sweet!” Kim took Max’s hand and pulled him over to the royalty table to sit beside him. “I’m wearing the heart-thing you got me too.”

Sure enough, the golden-red heart badge was gleaming brightly on Kim’s chest. Max felt his own heart soaring – everything had fallen into place so well, so perfectly, so much better than he had ever expected. He hadn’t thought things could possibly work out that well in real life. It felt more like a fairy tale.

He hadn’t realized that he and Kim were sitting there staring at each other until he heard Alix clearing her throat from across the table.

“Uh, good morning to you too, Max.”

Max snapped himself back into reality. He saw that Alix’s snake was entirely covered in friendship stickers. “Good morning… where did you get all those stickers from?”

She grinned, giving the snake a little stroke. “Believe it or not, I got given a friendship sticker from every single kid in our class yesterday.”

“Really?!”

“Yeah! I know, right? It’s weird. But I guess I’m just so cool that everyone wants to be my friend.”

Wow. She really had branched out a lot this year, hadn’t she? He thought back to when they had first started at this school, and she always complained about how everyone was afraid of her and how bad she was at making friends. It seemed that she had really done well for herself since then. Max was impressed.

Kim, on the other hand, was looking almost… jealous?

“You seriously got more stickers than me?” he asked, frowning.

“Well yeah, apparently.” She had a rather smug smile. “I’m so friendly these days! What can I say? Maybe I’m just a–”

“A friendship slut?”

“Um… I was gonna actually say a ‘hopeless platonic’ but you know what? ‘Friendship slut’ officially overtakes ‘no romo’ as the funniest thing you have ever said.”

Max couldn’t help giggling a little, listening to his two idiot friends being silly. Well, one of those idiot friends was his sweetheart too. That was still going to take a bit of getting used to.

“Oh, and everyone’s staring at you two,” Alix added.

Max looked around to see his classmates watching him and Kim with looks ranging from puzzled to amused. Oh right… Kim had made rather a big deal of Max’s entrance. And still had his arm around Max’s shoulder. And they were both wearing heart pins. And sitting very close together.

“Are you all jealous?” Kim said to the onlookers, pulling Max even closer with one hand and running his other hand through his perfect, beautiful hair. “I have the coolest sweetheart in the world, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.”

Hearing Kim brag about him made Max want to just melt right into his seat. Most of the classmates still looked rather surprised. At least, until quiet Prince Nathaniel spoke up.

“About time.”

Everyone turned to look at him. He blushed and quickly lowered his head, carrying on eating his breakfast.

“True, I was wondering when you two would get together!” Rose was the next one to speak. She had the biggest smile on her face. “I’m so happy for you!”

“Nice going,” Juleka said.

“I knew it would happen!” Marinette said, a somewhat sad smile on her face. Her Cupid Festival probably hadn’t been much fun, considering that Adrien was still stuck thousands of miles away. Seeing happy couples must have been heart-breaking for her.

The remaining classmates all gave their vague congratulations too, most of them seemingly not that bothered. It sounded like most of them had already been expecting Kim and Max to get together. To be fair, it had been the same way for many of the class couples so far.

The rest of the day proceeded much like breakfast had done. Kim clearly was not concentrating very much in class, secretly holding Max’s hand under the table and occasionally just ending up staring at him for long periods of time until someone distracted him. It was so ridiculous, but so very Kim, and all Max wanted to do was just ruffle his hair and give him a big hug. How could Kim always be so cute without even trying?

After dinner Max made sure to take Kim to the library so that he would actually do his homework, rather than putting it off to go do something else. To his credit, Kim focused properly and got on with his work without complaining or getting distracted.

“That was quick,” Max said once Kim had, somehow, already finished.

“I told you, you make me feel smarter!” Kim replied. “And it’s not like I wasn’t already used to doing homework with you…”

That much was true. Max felt his face heating up, as it so often did around Kim these days. “Kim, you need to give yourself more credit. It’s not me who’s making you smarter, it’s you! You’ve been working hard and it’s paying off.”

Kim rested his head on his hand and gazed at Max, his whole face just radiating pure love. “Then why do I finish homework so much quicker when I’m with you compared to the rest of the time?”

“Well… okay, you got me there. Maybe it’s the power of love.”

Eek, that was so cheesy. Max looked down at his finished work, not knowing what else to say. He felt Kim put a finger under his chin and gently lift his face back up to look at him.

“Maybe you’re right,” he said softly.

Alright, that was just… way too sweet. Max pushed Kim’s hand away. “Don’t. Or I’ll end up kissing you in the middle of this library right now.”

“Well why not?”

Oh, classic Kim. He always was such a hopeless romantic. Max leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, hoping no one nearby was watching. “There you go.”

Kim seemed to be blushing a little, though it was hard to tell with the tall shelves blocking out so much of the light. “So um, since we’re done with homework… wanna go back to my room and like, play Monopoly or something? This time I won’t mind if you win. And if Alix joins us then I won’t fight her this time, I swear. Unless she attacks first.”

“Monopoly sounds great,” Max said. “And if you win – which you won’t, because I always win – then you can get a kiss from me.”

Kim chuckled. “Well if you win then you can get a kiss from me too! How does that sound?”

“Sounds perfect!”

“And what does Alix get if she wins?”

Max had a think. “Food. We give her food.”

“Good idea. Let’s go!”

Kim quickly shovelled all his work into his bag, helped Max do the same, then grabbed his hand and ran.

Having tracked down Alix along the way, the three of them went to Kim’s room for the Monopoly game. There was a little wrapped gift lying on the table. Kim immediately rushed forwards to tear all the wrapping paper off, revealing a box of chocolates and a note.

Congratulations for yesterday!

“It doesn’t say who it’s from,” Kim said, shrugging. He turned back to face them. “Alright, whoever wins the Monopoly gets these chocolates.”

“What if my snake wins?” Alix asked, holding up the reptile in question. “He doesn’t eat chocolate.”

“Wait, is your snake playing too?!”

“Yeah. I taught him how last weekend. He’s really good.”

Kim frowned. “Uh, okay… well if he wins then he can like… go find a mouse and eat it or something. And I can just eat these mystery chocolates myself, like the mystery person intended.”

The snake knew how to play Monopoly? Max had known that queen cobras were smart, but he hadn’t realized they were quite that smart. He made a very important decision – this time he was pulling out all the stops. There was no way he could lose a game of Monopoly to a snake. He had to beat it. At all costs.

They set up the board, and the game that followed was surprising to say the least. The first person to lose was Kim, and he immediately began rooting for Max to win (probably because he wanted a kiss – though Max was definitely intending on giving him one no matter who won). The second person to lose was Alix. Somehow, the snake was still going. It used its tail to roll the dice, collect money, and push its counter along the board.

“This is ridiculous,” Max muttered, landing on yet another hotel. “I’m losing to a snake.”

The snake hissed at him and took his money. All of it.

Wait… surely that couldn’t be right…

“Let me double check that.”

The snake handed the money back, and Max counted it. Then he counted it again, and then one last time just to make sure.

Nope. The snake was right. Max had just gone bankrupt.

“Congratulations,” he said, trying not to sound too disappointed. “Please give me tips sometime.”

The snake just stared at him for a few seconds, almost looking as if it was judging him, and then curled back up onto Alix’s arm.

“Nice work, pal,” she said, standing up. “Anyway you guys, I’ve got to go settle a bet with Chloé, she said there was no way my snake could win at Monopoly, so now she has to buy him new sunglasses…”

Max just watched in complete disbelief as she and that dratted snake left without another word. How could he have lost to a snake? A snake???

He felt Kim poking him in the arm.

“Hey sweetie, you still want those chocolates?”

Sweetie. Kim had called him a cute nickname. A reminder that they were sweethearts now as well as best friends. Max gulped down the well of emotions rising within him.

“But I didn’t win…”

“It’s okay. When I made the rules I wasn’t counting the snake. Out of me, you, and Alix, you’re the winner. So you get the chocolates.”

He passed the box of chocolates to Max.

“Oh Kim, it’s alright, you don’t have to!”

“Yes I do,” Kim said, putting an arm around Max. “I probably shouldn’t eat these anyway. Remember what happened the last time I ate loads of chocolate?”

Oh yes, the winter party…

“You have a point,” Max said. “Alright, I’ll have the chocolates then. Thank you.”

“And um… does this mean I kiss you now?”

Kim was blushing again. Instead of replying, Max just pushed down all his nervousness and gave Kim a quick kiss, feeling a huge rush of adrenaline as he did so. Was he ever going to get used to that? Part of him didn’t even want to get used to it. It was oddly nice. It didn’t make sense that it should be, but it was.

“By the way,” Max said, hoping he wasn’t sounding quite as flustered as he felt, “you don’t have to ask next time… sweetie…”

“Mmkay…”

Kim was looking far too starstruck to be able to speak properly, so Max just gave his hand a quick squeeze and stood up to leave. He grabbed the box of chocolates – he couldn’t wait to treat himself to these later. Who were these even from, anyway?

“See you later,” Max said. “I’ll let you know how the chocolates are.”

Kim just nodded, still with that dopey smile on his face. Why did it look so cute?! Max waved goodbye and hurried out of the room before he was tempted to just kiss Kim again.

For the next several hours, though he had been intending to maybe read a book or do something productive, there was nothing in Max’s room that did not remind him of Kim. The desk chair? Kim loved to sit on it and spin around like an adorable fool. The closet? Well, both Kim and Max were going to have to come out of one of those to their countries at some point… The luxury four-poster bed that all royalty students were supplied with? He and Kim had sat on there plenty of times, chatting for hours and hours on lazy, blissful afternoons.

Feeling hot and restless, Max opened the window and breathed in the cool winter air. That was a little better. It was already so dark outside. Of course, this area of the Bourgeois Empire was at a much higher latitude than he was used to, so during the winter months there were fewer sunlight hours and the temperatures were much lower…

Oh, he had taught Kim that. Not even at school, but much longer ago, at a summer camp one year far to the north, where little Kim had not understood why the sun didn’t set until late into the night. Max remembered telling Kim about how the seasons worked scientifically, and feeling his heart flutter at seeing this handsome friend of his staring at him with such concentration in his eyes, like he was fascinated with every word Max was saying…

Okay, he was being a dork. A hopeless dork. Time to actually do something other than daydreaming over his new sweetheart.

He picked up his phone to send a message to Alix. She would be annoyed if all he did was talk to her about Kim, right? So at least that would force his brain to think of something else. If there was one thing Max was an expert at, it was thinking.

Another guess for the lift: that was when you taught your snake to play Monopoly?

He was still curious about that lift thing. Would he ever find out? Or would he spend his entire life never knowing, never being able to correctly guess?

Nice try, but no.

Oh. Right. Well, it would be hard to teach a snake Monopoly with no example of the board game available nearby. Time for more guesses.

Breath-holding competition?

Thinking logically, it was likely to have been a competition of some kind. Max knew his friends too well at this point.

Closer. But still no.

Hmm. There were only a limited number of things one could have done in a lift with no outside interaction. Even if it was a competition, there weren’t many things he could think of. He knew it hadn’t been another kissing competition, and it couldn’t have been an eating competition if they had no food with them–

Food! The chocolates!

Maybe this was a good time to treat himself to some of those. He grabbed the box and lay back on the bed. Opening the box up, he saw that there was a good selection of chocolates to choose from. They all looked great!

He picked out one of them and was about to eat it when he noticed that the light in his room was flickering slightly. Not wanting to get a migraine, he put the chocolate down and stood up. Better to get the lightbulb changed sooner rather than later, right? At least this part of the empire was advanced enough not to have to use candles or gas lamps, or whatever people had used in the old days.

Upon closer inspection he realized that the light itself was not flickering. There was a moth that must have flown in through the open window and was now fluttering around the bulb, casting flickering shadows on the walls. Well, that was a lot easier to deal with. Max was not afraid of insects – or spiders, of course.

Using his jacket to be able to reach that high, he tried to wave the moth in another direction. If he could just get it back out of the window and then close it, that would be perfect! But of course, the silly thing just refused to come away from the light, didn’t it…

It was at least ten minutes of unsuccessful moth-removal attempts before he gave up. Maybe the moth would leave in the daytime. For now he could deal with the flickering. He sat back on the bed and picked up the chocolate, hoping it would distract him from the annoyance of having that moth around.

There was a sudden knock at the door. Would that be Kim? Max couldn’t stop his hopes shooting up. There was no real reason for Kim to be visiting him right now, but hey, Kim was a very romantic person, maybe he just felt like going to see his sweetheart again. Maybe he wanted some of the chocolates. Whatever the reason, Max was always glad to see him.

Putting the chocolate down again, he went to open the door, only to see that it was not Kim. It was Alix. And she did not look happy. She hadn’t even brought her snake with her. Something must be serious.

“You didn’t eat the chocolates, did you?”

For some reason she sounded like she was on the verge of tears, something Max did not hear very often at all considering how tough she always acted. Surprised, he just shook his head.

“Oh, thank god…”

The next thing he knew, he had been wrapped in a hug. A very, very tight hug. Max was used to tight hugs, considering that he spent most of his time with Prince Kim of all people, but this was on another level entirely.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Just… d-don’t eat those chocolates… okay?”

She was definitely crying now, that much he could tell, and still clinging onto him for dear life.

“Why?” he asked, managing to pull her into the room enough that he could close the door. He doubted she would want anyone passing by to catch her having a meltdown, or whatever was happening right now.

In any case, her only reply was to mumble something about timelines, and then hug him even tighter, so much that his ribs must have been close to cracking. She had a lot of strength for someone so small.

Right… timelines. In other words, there was probably a very confusing explanation for all this.

“Are you okay?” he asked her, realizing as he said it that it was a very stupid question which he already knew the answer to, considering that she was crying into his shoulder right now.

“It’s not me you should be worried about!” she said suddenly, finally pulling back enough for him to see her teary face. “Max, those chocolates are poisoned. I know, because… the t-timelines just branched again, and… I just… I just saw you… you ate the… the…”

Unable to go on, she leaned into his chest, bursting into a fresh wave of tears.

The chocolates were poisoned? So then that must mean… was he interpreting this right? In another timeline, he must have already eaten a chocolate. A poisoned chocolate.

Oh… no wonder she was freaking out.

He put his arms around her properly. “It’s okay. I didn’t eat any chocolates in this timeline, I promise. I’m fine.”

That didn’t seem to help her much. For at least the next few minutes she carried on crying, clearly trying in vain to get her tears under control. Max remembered her mentioning that apparently the emotions of other timelines could affect her too, like what had happened in the summer holidays, which would explain why she was so overwhelmed despite nothing having happened in this timeline. Or something like that. She had never quite explained it properly. And if this was the kind of pain her powers could bring, then it was no wonder she didn’t like talking about it.

A strange sense of dread was settling over him. If those chocolates really were poisoned, then how close had he been to eating them? What if Kim had eaten them, as intended? And why were they poisoned? Where did they even come from?

Something was very, very wrong.

Eventually Max managed to prise Alix off him, sitting her down and giving her a glass of water. He very carefully put the chocolate back in the box and put it right on the opposite side of the room. He had been so ridiculously close to eating it. Too close for comfort…

He filled a glass of water for himself too and then sat down beside her. She seemed to have somewhat calmed down by now, though there were still silent tears running down her cheeks.

“So,” he said, trying not to sound too pushy, “what happened?”

She put her empty glass on the table, having finished rather quickly. “I’ve already had to deal with a timeline where me and my snake were the ones who died. I guess it’s your turn now.”

Died?

Max felt a chill run down him. Of course he knew many poisons did kill, but he hadn’t yet quite connected the dots in his head. Now, though…

“How exactly did it happen?” he asked, pushing down his fear. Hopefully she would be okay with talking about it.

“In the other timeline I was just in my room, like I was now, and you had been sending me stupid messages and whatever. And then I got one that just said ‘SOS’. So I came to your room, and you were d-doubled over, and managed to tell me that the chocolates t-tasted bitter and weird and now you – you were like dying, and I tried to take you to the medical centre but you – you – right in my arms – just–”

She had started crying again and couldn’t carry on, but Max didn’t want to hear any more anyway. That had been creepy enough without more details.

“So in this timeline, you ran right here to check up on me,” he said. “That moth up near the light stopped me eating the chocolate long enough for you to arrive, so I’m guessing that must be what caused the timelines to split. Perhaps the moth wasn’t there in the poisoned chocolates timeline. So the other Max wasn’t distracted, and ate a chocolate around ten minutes earlier.”

Thinking about things from a logical, detached point of view was the only way to stop the terrifying reality of this situation from seeping into his brain and lodging itself there, haunting him forever. Another thought occurred to him – one that felt like a ray of hope in all the darkness.

“You saved my life,” he said quietly. “I was about to eat a chocolate when you came here and warned me. And, well… maybe I’m not alive in another timeline, but in this one, it’s thanks to you that I’m still breathing…”

She hugged him again, more gently this time, and he gladly accepted it. His brain was almost certainly starting to malfunction in the way that it did when he had occasional breakdowns – though at least this time he had a good reason. Knowing that this was affecting him didn’t help. Having his best friend hold him tight did make a difference, though. Hearing her uneven breathing in his ear, odd strands of hair brushing the side of his face, her tears dripping onto his shirt, knowing that she needed him right now more than ever, and that if it wasn’t for her then he would have suffered a painful death…

How could he ever have taken her for granted?

“I can’t lose you, okay?” she said, still hugging him for reassurance. “I love you, you stupid nerd, you’re my best friend! I’m not having you die on me because of a freaking chocolate! You – you mean too much to me, okay? I never say it enough so I’m saying it now ‘cause I don’t know what’s gonna happen and you might just die any second and I can’t take that, you deserve so much better, you’re just – you’re my best friend in the whole damn universe – and–”

Hearing her cry once again was putting Max himself on the verge of tears too, and he knew that both of them being an emotional wreck would be a bad idea. Back to logical thinking for now. The emotions could wait. Alix needed him right now, he had to hold himself together, even in the face of such a near-death event.

“The most important thing is that I’m alive and well, thanks to you.” He hugged her a little closer, hoping that would comfort her somewhat. His brain continued working, his train of thought carrying on out loud. “You know what? It’s a good thing Kim gave these chocolates to me. They were obviously meant for him, and since they’re poisoned, this seems like a deliberate assassination attempt. Which means that…”

A pang of panic hit him full force. Kim was in danger.

Forget logic, forget thinking. Now the real breakdown was happening. Someone was trying to kill Kim, and it was by chance alone that they hadn’t succeeded.

He had meant to say more, but now he simply couldn’t. The thought of Kim being the victim of a real assassination attempt had zapped him of every last piece of resolve he had. Was he crying? Maybe he was crying. None of his senses were working all of a sudden. All he could think about was Kim.

“Max. Dude.” Alix had stopped hugging him and was holding him at arm’s length, looking more determined now. He hadn’t noticed. “If someone is trying to kill Kim, I am gonna kill them first. I’m not having either of my best friends die. We’re getting to the bottom of this.”

Max nodded. She was right, wasn’t she? They had to find out what was going on and stop it. They had to save Kim’s life.

The thought gave him just the tiniest flickers of strength, enough for his resolve to return. He clenched his fists.

“You’re right,” he said. “No more leaving things to chance. We must take fate into our own hands, and find a way to protect Kim and stop the assassin.”

For the first time that evening, she smiled. It was small and weak, but at least it was there.

“No more bad timelines,” she said.

“No more bad timelines,” he repeated. “Alix… we are going to solve a mystery.”

#the next chapter is already ready too but i shall have to wait i suppose #anyway why is writing timey wimey stuff so hard and why did i put that into a fic about royal kids being idiots #royalty au #miraculous ladybug #le chien kim #max kante #KIMAX #hell yeah that is still going strong #alix kubdel #the misadventures of prince kim #random stuff #aish writes

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