A/N: It rained today, so we're taking a lazy day. Time to write! This one is set a little after Dr. J got situated in the schoolhouse.


"Well, this is it," Nya said, gesturing meekly to the huge red machine in front of her. "The original Samurai X mech."

Julien had to step back to take in the whole thing. He hardly came up to the enormous machine's knees. Huge arms, a sword like a beam of a house clutched in the golden claws, towered over his head. A golden spiral shielded the cockpit opened in the chest area, and two huge black canons sat on the hulking shoulders.

Julien whistled and couldn't hold back a grin. "Incredible," he said through giddy laughter.

"Oh, thanks." Nya rubbed her heel into the floor, her smile a mixed one of humility and pride. "Wanna take a look?"

"May I?" He beamed at her.

Nya shook her head and hit a button on her bracelet, causing the machine to go down on one knee and open all of its panelling to expose the workings inside. Julien rushed forward and started to poke around.

"Absolutely unbelievable," he muttered as she left and returned with a set of light stairs on wheels. Then he asked over his shoulder, "And you built this out of parts from a village blacksmith shop?"

"Yeah," she said with a smile. Her voice was tinged with slight regret. "I had to buy a few components like the homing device from markets when I couldn't build them myself, but the main framework is all homemade, and it shows."

Nya stood on the floor, arms crossed, as he climbed the stairs. "She runs just fine," she continued, "but I've had a problem with the joints freezing mid-battle ever since the fight with the Great Devourer. Managed to find some overrides and work-arounds, but it's all only a patch."

"Hm." Julien was thinking hard as he poked around in the machine's chest. His flashlight's beam fell on something unusual, and he took a double-take. "Well, why in Ninjago do you have this?"

"What?" asked Nya's voice far below.

Julien stuck his head out of the machine and answered, "A ten-gauge pulmonizer engine." He tapped it lightly with the edge of the flashlight, and it clanged bluntly. "Ancient, too, almost from my time. Models in my day were known for stalling under unusual heat or high pressure."

Even from this distance, he could see the lightbulb go off over her head. "So you're saying the mech just stopped working because it got overheated?"

"Yes, exactly!" He held onto the handrails and climbed down the stairs backwards, still talking. "I ran into the same problem building the Juggernaut. If you want a high-power combat machine like this to last," he said, and his feet finally hit the garage floor, "I'd suggest a parts change. Perhaps a subatomic filibuster for the internal power coupled with an—"

Nya's brown eyes blew up wide, and both she and Julien said excitedly: "Oscillating newtonic thermal stabilizer!"

"Doc, you're a genius!" cried Nya, and she leaped onto him and threw her arms around his neck.

He chuckled, flattered, and patted her back. "So I hear." When she let him go, he smiled warmly and asked, "I take it that helps you, then?"

"Yup!" She couldn't stop smiling. "I know I've got a stabilizer in the junk heap somewhere. I'm gonna go install it right now!" And with that, she dashed away, still grinning.

Her boyfriend, on the other hand, leaned against the wall in a nearby corner of the garage, an obvious pout on his face and a thundercloud over his head.

Julien frowned. This boy was the blue one, that he could remember—though he wasn't in the distinguishing gi, he wore jeans and a hoodie of the right color. Julien couldn't remember the red-headed boy's name, but perhaps he could get around that. "Something the matter?" he asked gently.

"What?" The teen's head flew up, and then he laughed lamely. "No! No, of course not! Nothing's the matter," he rambled, becoming progressively more irate, "it's not like I've been trying for weeks to fix a machines problem that my girlfriend has had for a couple of months, only for it to turn out to be a simple case of the wrong parts!"

He nearly shouted that last bit, flailing his lanky arms in the air in frustration, but then his arms dropped by his sides and he exhaled, pasting a grin on his face. "Nope, fine, nothing wrong at all."

Julien could see the blue ninja turning a little green. He twirled the flashlight in his hand. "You know," he said slowly, "she talks about you all the time."

The boy froze. "She does?" He sounded skeptical.

"Oh, definitely." Some instances were starting to come to Julien's mind now, and with it, the boy's name. A double victory. "'Jay was so good at this' and 'Jay helped me with that' and 'Jay was so cool when so and so'. Oh, how was it she put it…?"

He tapped the edge of the flashlight on his chin and pretended not to notice Jay turning red in the face and hanging on his words like a dog hangs on a bone.

"Something about the 'curly red hair and little smile that makes her insides melt'..." Julien frowned. It sounded much better coming from her than him. "Goodness, kids do talk strangely nowadays."

Jay was now absolutely and totally red, and he buried his face in his hands. Julien could see the steam rising off of the boy, and he had to stifle a chuckle.

"For real?" Jay squeaked. He cleared his throat and tried to act nonchalant, but he still blushed. "I mean, for real?"

"Yes, 'for real'." Julien assured him with a smile. "She's very fond of you."

"Ah, well, you know," he said, swaggering with false confidence, "the ninja thing, heh—goes over well with the ladies..." Jay faltered and buried his face in his hands again. "She's amazing."

Julien elbowed him in the ribs. "And she keeps telling me about her amazing boyfriend. You're lucky to have each other."

"Yeah. Yeah, definitely," Jay agreed. He didn't look Julien in the eye, but all traces of jealousy were gone, and he looked far more relaxed.

"Jay!" Nya's voice preceded her. She popped her head into the garage and jabbed her thumb back the way she came. "This thing is heavy. Can you help me out, please?"

"Oh!" cried Jay. "Uh, sure! Coming, Nya!" And he ran to her side.

Julien finally allowed himself a chuckle, and he returned to poking around in the Samurai mech. Ah, kids and their young love.


A/N: I headcanon that Julien absolutely adopted the two engineering nerds once he got back to Ninjago. Also, canonical technobabble allows me to get around the fact that I know diddly-squat about building machines at all.

Reviews are flashlights.