*Really weird, awkward chuckle* I've been waiting for this!

(When I was, what, 6? I had a sensei too. But I remember him being kinda scary. *sweat drop* Why couldn't I have had this sensei? ;-;)

Also, I had told Anthem of the Lonely (who's an awesome author for reals, go check it out) I would put someone based off of her in the story. I don't really know much about her, though, besides the fact that her hair is excruciatingly thick. ._. (Sometimes it takes a while for me to wonder how I even start having certain conversations with people...) This probably isn't accurate, but it'll have to do. She has a bigger part later, so remember! Never forget! XD *waves arms around, hoping someone notices the reference* Yes? No?... I'm pathetic. ;-;

John=Ed, Matt=Al.

On with the story!


Sensei greeted the boys outside his door, and herded them into his office. They sat down awkwardly, not knowing what to say that wouldn't seem rude.

"Last class, it was brought to my attention that you are related to a man named Edward Elric. Would you like to know more about him?"

"What do you know about him, Sensei?" Ed asked in surprise when Al was finished with enthusiastically nodding.

"Hopefully, enough to be of use to you."

The senior plopped onto his desk a huge photo album; huge as in length, height, AND width.

"Does he have a knack for scrapbooking or something?" Ed whispered to his brother in disbelief.

"Ssh, Brother! This is important to us!" Al scolded back quietly.

"Alright, boys. Now, when I first met Edward Elric, it was back in the 1950's." Sensei began as he started flipping through the pages.

"DANG."

"Brother!"

"Don't worry about it, Mr. Elric. I know I am at retirement age." The man chuckled. "Ah, here we go. This is me when I was 7, meeting your great-great-grandfather." He passed the heavy book to the students, both gasping when they saw the old photograph. While both Sensei and Edward were at an entirely different age than the boys were accustomed to in it, it was obvious they were indeed the same people. Both smiled a little awkwardly for the camera as their ancestor had a hand on their teacher's shoulder. There was another picture next to it that also included another man who looked like the mini-Sensei, so they assumed he was his father.

"Both he and his brother, Alphonse, lived in Germany together until they decided to move to the United States when Edward turned 19. 5 years later Alphonse went to travel throughout Asia alone, which lasted until he found a girl to take home."

"Where did you meet Edward?" Al asked politely.

"At a national karate championship." Sensei replied with a fond smile. "It happened near where I lived, and my father was already friends with them, so he took me there. I was never really interested in martial arts until then. Imagine my surprise when a man with blond hair and honey eyes, one of the oldest in the contest, stepped onto the mat against another man twice his size. I mean, besides his interesting appearance, he just looked pretty average, TOO average, to be among national champions. I prepared for when the poor blondie was going to be creamed, when he managed to flip his competitor over his shoulder!" Al's jaw dropped while his brother burst out laughing.

"So your dad introduced you to him afterwards?"

"Yes, Edward. I had taken that opportunity to ask him about his style, as it looked like it was specially designed to fight larger people. I felt like I needed that since I used to be pretty short. He taught me a few moves, and was a pretty good teacher, although he was really insensitive with the comments when I tried them myself. It got me annoyed enough that I made a resolve to get good enough at martial arts to beat Edward Elric."

"Did you ever beat him in combat?"

"Nope."

"What about Alphonse? Did you meet him?" Matt inquired.

"I met him about 10 years later, when both of the Elrics were in town. That picture is on the next page." Ed turned the page, and they saw the photo. The quality of the photograph was a little better, and the smiles of the 4 men in the frame were more genuine. While his dad and the brothers definitely looked older, the biggest change was Sensei, who went from a scrawny 7-year old to a tall, muscly young adult.

"What careers did they have?"

"As far as I know, a variety. In his late teenage years, Edward was a rocket scientist. All he ever told me about the time between that and when he married and had kids was that they went around 'beating up bad guys'. After that, Edward became a professional martial arts master and traveled around the country, teaching and competing, while Alphonse studied Asian culture, then became a professional translater for German, English, and Chinese, plus maybe a small amount of other languages like Japanese. While it wasn't his career, I know that he participated in some tournaments with his brother when he had the time. They may have done some teaching at a college for a few years too. I don't really know what they did after retiring besides travel."

"Do you know when they died?"

The atmosphere of the room changed a little at the quiet question. Their teacher wore a solemn frown as he tried to recall.

"It was about 20 years ago, before either of you were born. I don't know any details, although I assume it was only from old age. If I know those brothers well enough, I'm sure they were enjoying life to the fullest up to that moment."

They all shared a small smile of respect. They were silent for a few minutes, before Ed decided the air was clear enough for him to change the topic without seeming rude.

"May I ask why you waited so long to tell us these things? You've known us for, like, 10 years!"

"I wasn't entirely sure that you two were actually related to them. I know that 'Elric' isn't exactly the most common last name- by the way, there's some other pictures in there, if you want to look at them- but I have just seen too many coincidences in my life to think about this one too much. The resemblance, now that you are both older, is just uncanny, however. I didn't want to bring up the topic of family history without having a good reason, and now that I know for sure that it isn't just a coincidence, I'm fully prepared to give you information."

He glanced over to the clock on his desk, doing a double-take. "Oh, look at the time! Class is about to start! We'll have to wait to continue this another time. Are there any final questions you have for me?"

Ed and Al turned to each other, having a silent conversation, before the former nodded to the latter to speak. "Can we keep any of the photos?"


Lily groaned as she saw all the long lines in different parts of the cafeteria. For some reason, there was a much larger amount of students standing in them than usual. She chose the shortest one, but even then, she knew it would take forever to get something to eat.

A few minutes later, when the line finally inched forward, she accidentally stepped a bit on the girl in front of her. "Oh my gosh, I am so sorry- that shirt is so awesome!" She interrupted her own apology with the compliment by accident, as it had just slipped out without her thinking.

"Oh, thanks!" The girl giggled at the reddening face of the other teenager. "Don't worry about it. I like your shirt too."

Lily looked down at herself, having forgotten for most of the day that she was wearing her oversized neon orange Kool-Aid shirt, which she had just gotten because it was orange (she didn't like Kool-Aid, unlike what people thought from the shirt). She smiled back to the girl with relief, but a small amount of embarrassment lingered about.

Usually, small chat like that would have died right there, but the stranger seemed to want to continue it. She asked a surprised Lily, "Do you know why the lines are so long today?"

"I was wondering the same thing! I tend to pick the worst days to buy hot lunch..." she complained. "See, this is why I usually bring lunch from home!"

"What kind of stuff do you bring?"

"My mom usually makes a sandwich, and with that is whatever snack we have available at the house. Sometimes it's chips, Craisins, or lately, it's been Hello Panda."

"Hello Panda?! I love that stuff!"

"Are you serious?! Most people don't know what the heck they are!" Lily exclaimed, very surprised and pleased.

From there, the two girls had a very long conversation, jumping from one topic to the next, talking as if they were best friends for years. They kept themselves occupied with the discussions, even as they finally reached the lunch ladies serving food.

"I don't remember just about anything of that dream, except that I was wearing my Perry the Platypus shoes- the ones I'm wearing now! Such a coincidence, haha- and the faces on them were getting all distorted and weird, like they were melting or something." Both girls stared at Lily's feet, imagining the strange phenomenon she had described.

"As far as I know, platypus faces don't melt off shoes." The other girl replied. They both laughed lightly as they paid for their meals.

"Oh, I'm gonna go sit with my friends over there. Wanna come with?" The now-not-so-stranger offered.

"Sorry, already have an appointment."

"That's fine. Bye!"

Lily grabbed her arm before the teen could walk away. "Wait! We don't even know each other's names!" They chuckled in mutual agreement. "I'm Lily."

"Nice to meet you, Lily." They shook hands. "I'm Ryan."

She watched the girl, whose name is now known, go over to her friends, not getting the chance to say any more of the matter. She stood dumbly as her brain registered what happened. 'Ryan?...!'


"Wow, this is awesome!" Lily gasped as she carefully held the photograph in her hands like it was a fragile work of art. It was a picture of Edward and Alphonse Elric with their arms around each other's shoulders, both looking around her parents' age, or maybe a little older.

"This... this is more than awesome... I can't think of a sufficient word for this..." She studied the picture with deep concentration, not realizing how she looked.

"Lily! Calm down! You're almost shaking!" Al grabbed the photo from her hands, nervous by her reaction.

"Almost? She's shaking like a chihuahua! ...Are you CRYING?!" Ed exclaimed, completely flabbergasted.

"I'm sorry, guys," she gave a weak smile while wiping away the tear forming in her eye, "it just... it didn't REALLY sink in that they have been living here, on Earth, to the very day they died."

"Why are YOU the one crying?" Ed asked, not noticing that both Matt and Lily slightly smiled at the statement, as it reminded them of one of the quotes from Fullmetal Alchemist.

"You two won't cry; someone should do it for you, don't you think?" She responded, directly quoting the show now.

"I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE!" Lily giggled as she high-fived the enthusiastic Al, who was always happy when something like this happened. Ed was a little slower to realize what he meant. He facepalmed once he replayed what had been said in his head and caught the reference.

"No, but seriously. Why are you reacting to this more seriously than we did? WE are the ones related to Edward, you know."

"I think it's kinda like when someone getting sick affects their family and friends more than the sick person. They are just like 'Why are you people overreacting over this?' Am I right?"

Lily had completely calmed down by now, and was scarfing down her food to make up for the lost time with the conversation. She was on the last bites when the bell rang, and she swallowed quickly to say one last thing.

"Oh yeah. I just became friends with Ryan. BYE!" She ran off before Ed could eat her head or something.


I know, the Winry quote is actually from FMA:B, but pretend they actually know what she's talking about. XD See, this is why I put in the summary that I'm assuming you know stuff about Brotherhood too!

And that weird thing about platypus shoes? That really happened to me... And I told Anthem about it... And she said she wanted me to stick it in here somehow. XD

Seeing that photo would also be like when my family flew to Mexico for the first time in forever (AKA about 5 years). It didn't really sink in until the next morning that we were in another flippin' country. XD

K, bai!


Sensei: No one knows for sure his age, although he revealed to Ed and Al that he is gonna retire soon. None of his students know his real name, either. He has earned black belts in multiple forms of martial arts, and it seems he's not stopping. He is very respected in his field of work. He is in really good shape; in fact, the only thing that indicates he is much older than his well-built body suggests is his gray-white hair. He seems like a very tough teacher, but his students eventually figure out that he is really a big softie, and that they all have a place in his heart. He secretly has a big soft spot for the Elric brothers. "If you want respect, you need to give people a reason to respect you."

Ryan: Alike to Lily in more ways than you'd imagine. She naturally has extremely thick, dark brown curls, but has put in pink and blue tips. She has grown her hair out longer so that her curls aren't so tight. She'd straighten her hair if it wasn't such a pain; she only leaves that for special occasions. She wears lots of stripes, polka dots, and other patterns; lots of black, white, and bright colors mixed together; yet, such loud, teenager-y clothes don't look so loud on her frame. Her sense of humor is sometimes rude, harsh, and insensitive- not surprisingly, she loves "Cards of Humanity." She lost Ed's friendship, but no one is entirely sure what happened. "Boo."