Ezreal was an explorer, that much was obvious to anyone. He hated sitting still and being forced to pay attention to a bland lecture someplace. He'd much rather be out in the field, exploring temples of long forgotten civilizations. When the League required his attendance, however, he had to settle for something else; inspecting artifacts. Inspecting the artifacts from the temples was almost- ALMOST- as great as actually exploring the temples themselves. Unfortunately this time through the free rotation (a time when he simply COULDN'T leave because of the amount of novices wanting to summon him) he had somehow missed the memo, and was highly lacking aincent artifacts.
As one can imagine, Ezreal was really, really bored.
The Prodigal Explorer sighed and flopped into a chair in one of the more secluded lounges, boredom permeating every inch of his being. Some of the other free champions for the week were waiting for their next Summoning, just as he was. There was a severe lack of ranged units in the area, as Ashe had fallen ill just before the rotation. Ezreal hadn't been set for the rotation for another month. A MONTH! But no, Ashe had to get sick and make the Summoners look for another ranged unit to use in the rotation. How exactly the spot had become his wasn't the issue. He was simply frustrated that his scheduled exploration for the week had been interrupted. There would be no other time to get out to the temple until the rotation was through. Then, however, he would have to have a reduced time to explore due to the need to return by his next rotation.
Until he could leave, he was stuck with his boredom.
He had been chosen as the ranged Champion this rotation. Garen was a melee, Aatrox was as well. Warwick was a possible jungler along with Blitzcrank, and Viegar had been a possible mid or sorcer. The only support in the group was Orianna, but many played the Lady of Clockwork as a carry or mid-laner. The novices who knew no better chose Ezreal as a support character. Or at least tried. The Prodigal Explorer had a headache from the pure amount of 'deaths' he'd had today alone. The blonde teen rubbed his head with a groan, thankful that there weren't many Champions in this lounge.
"Something is the matter."
Ezreal jumped at the sudden voice that came from the person who appeared from seemingly nowhere.
"Orianna! I didn't see you there."
The Lady of Clockwork's nearly static face tilted to the side as she met his eye. "Did you not? I have been here for a time."
"Oh, you were?" Ezreal must have not realized the golden Champion had been standing right behind him the entire time he had been sitting.
"I was."
The duo sat- or stood- in awkward silence as they contemplated what to say. Ezreal's headache still throbbed dully in his skull, and a strange ticking noise from Orianna's direction pulsed through the air. Ezreal noticed The Ball- Orianna's very strange other part- hovering between the two of them, its large lens focused on the blonde teen.
Ezreal found his eye attracted to the head-sized object that floated in the air by Orianna. He knew little of the device, but from what he did know was that the Lady of Clockwork used The Ball as a source for all of her attacks when in the Fields of Justice. It was the center of most of her strength, allowed her allies buffs and shields if needed, and also showed a small area of sight to the Summoners as well as Orianna herself. If The Ball had any other significance to the Lady of Clockwork, Ezreall had no idea, but the way she regarded the object was almost as one would regard a close friend.
Or a pet.
Ezreal shivered.
Orianna donned what could be called a curious expression as she stared at Ezreal's blonde hair. Her skirt- Ezreal realized suddenly- was the source of the constant ticking noise. The sharp looking 'garment' rotated in a sharp circle sporadically. Ezreal jumped when he felt a hand touch his hair.
"What are you doing?" Ezreal exclaimed in surprise, moving away from the clockwork girl and to the other side of the chair. Orianna's expression turned to one that could be called sadness- if one stretched the meaning of the word from Demacia to Ionia and back again. The Lady of Clockwork's expressions were inhuman, oddly shaped and hard to describe. Regardless, Ezreal felt a pang of pity as he looked at Orianna's slight slump of sadness, even though it bent her joints in the wrong fashion.
"What is it like?" She asked.
"What? What's what like?"
"Being human."
Ezreal froze at the question. How was he to respond to that? He simply stared at the clockwork girl with confusion on his face. Orianna's upper body twisted to the side, and her expression grew to resemble being expectant.
"Uh... well..." Ezreal stuttered. "It's... well, it's hard."
Orianna leaned forward, The Ball ticking beside her. "Hard how?"
Ezreal felt his cheeks heat up unintentionally from the close proximity of their faces now. He stuttered a bit before finally speaking again. "It's complicated."
"What is complicated about being human?" Orianna persisted. "Father always said I was alive, but the Summoners do not seem to agree. I have heard the others talking about me and The Ball. They say I am not alive, I am not human. Why? What do I have to do to be human?"
Ezreal's mouth pulled into a thin line as he thought. Finally, he answered. "Being human is complicated because we have emotions. I don't know if anyone thinks you feel emotion like the rest of us, so it's strange to them."
Orianna recoiled sharply, almost as if offended. "Emotions? I have emotions."
"Well, there's more than just emotions involved in being human."
"Like what?" Orianna demanded.
"Well, we... um..." Ezreal trailed off.
"Is that it?" Her voice was a whisper now. Ezreal stayed quiet.
Orianna let out a very robotic sigh and sat on the armrest of the chair Ezreal sat in. The Ball came closer to her and touched her hand as she reached to it. Small crackles of energy came off The Ball as it hovered under Orianna's hand. Ezreal found himself perplexed by the show of friendly affection between the two clockwork creations. He found himself almost feeling sorry for the girl of clockwork. They sat for what felt like eternity until Ezreal finally broke the silence.
"What's it like?"
"What is what like?" Orianna looked up at Ezreal in surprise, The Ball mirroring her movement with its own strange eye.
"Being not human."
Orianna stared at the blonde explorer in silence, and all Ezreal heard was her soft ticking. Finally, she spoke.
"It is hard."
Ezreal nodded and chose not to respond. The next Summoner should be ready to be choosing by now. Who knew when either of them would be chosen? Ezreal felt a pang of sadness at the thought of the conversation ending, despite the fact that it hadn't gone much of anywhere anyway. He had always found the Technamagicural clockwork girl to be intriguing. She reminded him so much of artifacts he'd found from ancient civilizations, but she wasn't ancient. No, the technology in Orianna and The Ball was some of the most advanced Ezreal had ever seen. It would be nice to learn more about her. Despite being artificial, she did seem quite human in disposition. An idea sparked in the back of the blonde's mind.
"Hey, Orianna?" Ezreal found himself asking.
"Yes?" Orianna replied as she watched over The Ball which was now flying around in what would seem to be a form of play.
"Would you like me to teach you what it's like to be human?"
The clockwork girl froze. She slowly diverted her gaze from The Ball and turned to look at the explorer.
"You would... teach me?"
"To the best of my abilities, sure." Ezreal knew how much Orianna unnerved the other Champions. Her semihuman appearance didn't help much, as her voice was void of emotion and her expressions were muted at best. He was likely one of the only ones who could stand to be in the same room as her for this long. He inspected her golden plated face carefully to find some form of emotion. He was slightly surprised when she broke into a wide grin.
"Thank you, Ezreal!" She turned to the ball, jumping up ecstatically. "Did you hear that? We get to learn how to be human!" The Ball chirped and flew into Orianna's hug, sending her upper body into a spin as she let out a crude and robotic laugh.
Ezreal allowed himself a small smile at the sight. Orianna probably knew more about being human than he himself did. The soft ticking in the room blended with her laughs, and Ezreal was happy to find he had no more headache. He wasn't looking forward to another game Summoned by a complete novice, but he figured that if he was lucky enough, Orianna would be Summoned too. That would probably be worth it.
Ezreal felt the familiar tingling that signaled the start of the Summoning spell. He met eyes with Orianna and smiled. She wasn't Summoned this time. Oh well.
"I can start teaching you as soon as I get back."
Orianna tilted her head to the side, her skirt spinning as she let her hand wave to the explorer and The Ball bounced in the air beside her, its eye focusing on the blonde.
"I will be waiting."
A/N: While this is my first LoL fanfic, it will not be my last. I have a really long story that I'm writing with the help of my friend BringerOfHope (that being his LoL username... he's normally called Arbiter) that will be showing up soon, but I wanted to write this up to get a feel for the world and a few characters.
This pairing is a thing now. I tried so hard to find a story that was Ezreal/Orianna centric, but there were none, so here I am with this. The thought hit me randomly one day, and I had to write it. Ez and Ori are two of my mains, so this is a really adorable thing to me. I dub it 'Ezanna'! There, it is done.
In any case, if there is any sort of reaction to this, I will continue it, because I have more ideas in my head for these two. It would NOT be anything higher in rating than T for violence and/or sensitive material and language. In any case, tell me what you guys think, alright? Be as nit-picky as you want. Seriously, pick this thing apart. Are they in character? Is it too superficial? Did I mess up the use of a comma someplace? Yeah, rip it to pieces. I want to hear what you all have to say.
Until the first reviews come in...
-Crysi