Title: Renaissance Faire
Summary: A Renaissance Faire, a beautiful maiden and a knight - mayhap love can be eternal?
Orochimaru x Sakura.
Not too deep M - but still not appropriate for a young teenager. Hopefully not too cliche :P
For Hushnelle - because a challenge is a challenge. And I only decided to post since you said it wasn't bad.
She tightened the corset she was wearing as she stepped onto the grassy field. She felt strange and unnatural in this rural setting, and perhaps more uncomfortable in this clothing - but she would have stuck out like a sore thumb had she not bought the costume through amazon prime. This was a renaissance faire, her first ever. It looked like a place where a bunch of creepy people hung out, but it looked at least like there were some places of enjoyment. After all, it wasn't everyday you got to see men battle with long swords and joust in arenas.
"You look beautiful, milady," a thick english accent protruded from her right.
She turned quickly, only to meet the sight of a rose before her face.
Her co-worker looked up from his bow and extended the rose to her.
The real reason she was here.
They'd worked in the same hospital for years, she a surgeon and he a lab specialist. He was one of the most brilliant minds in his field and yet, if she ever needed a quick analyst for a patient he always made time for her. They'd gone on several coffee dates and then did dinners, discussing some of the more recent outrageous topics for their field. Nanobot technology, permanent medical monitoring implants, and of course, the supercomputer that could supposedly perform surgery and make a medical analysis without a doctor or specialist (replacing both of their jobs).
While Orochimaru had a strange appearance, she thought it was likely that he'd found the wrong plastic surgeon. After all, look at what had happened to Michael Jackson when he fell into the wrong hands. She wasn't someone who looked merely at appearances though. The longer she lived the more she found that if she judged someone just by sight alone she'd get it wrong. So after getting to know him she found that she enjoyed his company. He was definitely older than her, but she found the maturity and intellectual conversation to be nice compared to her normal conversation partners who still acted like high school students.
Over dinner he'd hinted at the faire; she'd jokingly told him she was curious. He'd taken her up on the offer, in fact, he seemed to be rather serious about the whole Renaissance thing. He'd been the one to mention how much she'd stick out if she dressed in modern clothes. She was glad he had said something, looking at the people around them.
Surprisingly Orochimaru looked much better in this than his normal chemistry lab coat. His hair was braided and pulled to one side. His chest and arms were covered in chainmail and a tabard hung over that. He looked like he could have walked out from the era.
She smiled at his gesture and took the flower, "Thank you, sir knight." She winced at her terrible accent and his smile merely grew wider.
He escorted her to the entrance and at her attempt to go up and pay, was able to magically produce two tickets from his hand. "Twas a deal in the grand market of Groupon."
She couldn't help but laugh.
In the end, she was deeply surprised at how well the man next to her fit in. His command of language and the fact that he could hold a conversation in latin with a minotaur and wizard made her think he'd probably been better off born in a different time. Even his sword skills were quite amazing when a glove had been thrown at him from a jarring passerby in jest. The two had dueled right there and then, with Orochimaru claiming victory.
When they sat at the ale house, watching a jousting tournament, she couldn't help but tell him the truth. "You really seem to belong here."
His yellow eyes blinked and he gave a chuckle. He moved closer on the bench and put an arm around her shoulder. He tilted his head and whispered into her ear, "I should hope so, I was born in this era. It may have been thousands of years ago, milady, but there are some things never fade from memory."
He drank from his beer mug, draining it completely as she laughed, "So the middle ages it is." She drained her glass as well.
When the faire closed, they sat out in the grass field with the people who had come to camp. They watched several bands begin trying to out best each other, fiddles stripped arpeggios and a bagpipe could be heard in the distance rumbling away.
"Did you have a good time?" he asked.
"Very."
"Want to go to my place," at her strange look he continued, "its a couple of motorhomes away away. I want to show you some of my collection. Its quite fascinating. It won't take more than a minute. "
"Alright." She wondered if he had more than a knight costume. It seemed like he did this a lot.
They made their way to the largest motorhome in the fairgrounds, she had to admit she was fairly impressed. When he opened the door, he extended his hand to motion her up first. She flipped on the light and walked up the staircase.
The biggest surprise was that even though medieval gear seemed everywhere, from old fashion chemistry sets to old books and swords, it was immaculately clean. She made her way further in, inspecting just about everything. She finally focused on the white object that seemed to glow. She picked it up gently to inspect it more closely.
It was stone, pristine white stone. It was carved into the shape of a curled up snake.
"Its beautiful," she murmured, holding it high so that the light bounced off of it.
"I'm glad you approve. Its the white stone."
"The white stone?" she turned the object in her hands.
"Perhaps you've heard of it by another name, the Philosopher's stone?" Orochimaru said.
She blinked and then laughed. "That stone from Harry Potter, isn't it supposed to be orange?"
He gave a laugh as well. "No, its not supposed to be orange. It is the calculus albus, a stone that can grant immortality."
"Or grant any wish?" she quizzed remember the movie. "Turn things to gold?"
His smile grew larger, "If it could grant any wish, you would have come to the faire with me last year."
She blushed. "So the only thing it grants is immortality? This is worse than that stupid supercomputer, I'll be out of a job in no time."
She took a seat on the couch and he sat beside her. She returned the snake carving to him, and he put it on the counter.
"What do you think though, living a world in which nobody dies? How do think humans would act?" He asked.
She barely had to guess. "Well, Orochimaru, I suppose they would be a lot less reserved, would take a lot more risks and overall wouldn't care for the well being of others. But what do you think-"
Before she could finish asking the question, he stole a kiss from her lips. "I think you're quite right. But, the question is Sakura, would you want to live forever?" His fingers combed through her hair.
She smiled before kissing him back. "Why do I need to think about it, if it is impossible?"
"I'm sure the idea of supercomputers was once thought impossible."
"Fine. I'd want to live forever; I'm human so I don't like the idea of dying or hurting. That's why I became a doctor. So what about you? Are you one of those people who wouldn't want to live forever?"
He smirked, and rested his face against hers. "No. I'd want very much to live forever. I fear myself dying more than I fear the death of others. Its why I became an alchemist."
Her eyebrows lifted up with amusement and she pulled back after giving a kiss to his cheek. "I didn't realize that we were role playing. I thought you were a knight?"
He slowly began to untie the corset, "Well, milady. Can not I be both?"
"So how does one then become both alchemist and knight. Were you a knight first, or an alchemist?" she undid the belt around his waist to take off his chainmail.
"Alchemist, of course. It was only after I created the stone, that I was certain I could not die, that I became a knight."
"So were you a student of Merlin then?" she giggled.
His hands froze on her waist. It took him a moment, before he continued his original pursuit. "I wouldn't want to be a student of a perverted old man whose only magical prowess was over toads."
"Toads? I thought there was a blade, Excalibur?"
"The idiot shoved a blade into a rock by accident, when he was caught peeking at the Lady from the Lake. She fought with him to teach him a lesson." He successfully removed the final back clasp and the corset came off.
She giggled more, as she attempted to take off the heavy chain mail. It was only after several attempts that she realized it went down to his thighs and he was sitting on it. "I didn't realize the Lady of the Lake could fight. And get up," she pushed.
He stood and let her remove the draped mail. "Oh she has quite the temper."
"Has? Shouldn't it be had?" she teased, setting the mail on the couch, not daring to toss it to the ground. It was quite expensive to get this gear, she'd seen the prices at the shops in the faire.
"As the alchemist who created the stone; why wouldn't I share with my two closest friends? I wouldn't want to see them die." He scooped her up then, carrying her with one arm. The other hand grabbed the stone on the counter.
"So you are friends with a pervert - that makes a bit more sense," she laughed.
He kissed her collarbone, and made his way up to her jaw bone. "So, do you want to live forever?" he asked, his tone in a much lower register.
Thinking it merely an innuendo, she kissed his forehead. "Yes, please share your secrets great alchemist."