Family History

Chapter 15 and 16

HAPPY BELATED ULTIMATE PI DAY, ONE OF THE GREATEST HOLIDAYS EVER!

On with the story!

-_-_-_

John and Matt witnessed a rare occurrence: a teenager skipping around a school as if it was normal. ...Well, for them, it wasn't very rare, considering who the skipper was.

Lily grinned more as she bounded to the brothers with her well-practiced skip-run, gripping in her hands a few books.

"Guys, look what I got!~" she sing-songed as she sat down across from them. She set her small pile of books in front of her and spread them out to show all the covers.

"You're reading the Fullmetal Alchemist manga?" Al asked as he looked at the books. She currently had volumes 2-4 with her.

"Re-reading," she corrected. "I read them first, then watched Brotherhood, then 2003, then the movies. Now I'm going through it all again."

"That show really did invade your life, huh?" Ed rolled his eyes.

Lily nodded, a little too enthusiastic. "I had been planning to do this far before I met you guys, and just got around to it when we visited the library yesterday."

"Maybe when you're done we can read them, Brother," Al directed first to Lily then to his sibling. "We haven't done it yet."

"Wait- WHAT?" she blurted. "You seriously haven't read them yet?"

"No..." both replied, glancing to each other awkwardly.

"What about Brotherhood?" They gave her the same face, irking her a bit. "I can't believe you two! This is your family history, and it's easily accessible, for crying out loud! Why am I still a bigger fan than both of you combined?!"

"Because you're-"

"Never mind, I don't want an answer from you, Ed," she interrupted. They both huffed silently.

"What's the difference between the books and anime?" Al asked, basically ignoring what happened right before.

"The odd one out, really, is the 2003 anime, even though it was finished first. It was made while Hiromu Arakawa was still writing, so they had less to go off of, so, especially around halfway, it veered off in a completely different direction than the manga. The manga was then finished, and then they made Brotherhood, which follows the exact same storyline as the books besides extremely minor details. They are the same franchise, but there are actually some fundamental differences between the animes, especially when it comes to the Homunculi, I think."

"But we know that the first show and movie are true, so do we have to see what happens in a different storyline?" John said, genuinely curious.

"I think so. We've all said it: it's most likely there are things that were changed when they made it, so it's not all fact. But it could be that there's truth in Brotherhood, too. And some of that you wouldn't know unless you read or watched. Or looked at the wiki, I guess."

"Good point."

"Like, for example, Xing isn't even mentioned in the first anime, but it plays an important part in the second."

"Xing?" both chorused.

"Amestris's version of Asia. It is home to some awesome characters." She smirked.

"Let us know when you're done, then, so we can check them out in the library," Al stated.

"Oh, no need for that." She did a shooing hand gesture. "I can give you them right after I read them, while they're still under my name. I mean, I already read the first last night."