Same, But Different (A Fullmetal Alchemist fan-fic)

Similarities

Eclair

Who knew I'd be on a train again bored out of my mind?

Yup, that's right. Me. I knew it. This was my life now I guess. Yay.

I sat across from Edward as I was attempting to read a book I had picked up on the study of animals regenerating limbs. Lizards could regrow tails, so couldn't I just regrow an arm?

If only I knew how they could do it. But then again, I'm not a lizard person, thankfully.

Thankfully.

But by saying I was attempting to read the book, I really was attempting. Edward kept giving me some weird glare, as if he was watching an arm regrow from the side of my body.

Hell I wish that was the case. But I was already considered a dog, I didn't wanna be downgraded to lizard person.

"Yes?" I finally asked as I turned a page in the book to get the ugly dissected lizard organ diagram off the page. The next page didn't have much better diagrams. More lizard organs. More pictures of half grown tails. Figures. I had sat all the way in the back of this train car so I was far away from people, but he didn't seem to let up. Maybe he was trying to study me, or maybe he was interested in the book? Who knows. But glaring at me didn't seem to do him any good besides piss me off slightly. I know I hate people in general, that's why I sat here in the first place. I wanted to be away from people so I could focus, but he didn't let up.

Persistant asshole.

He frowned, "I asked if your lizard brain found anything useful in that book?"

I groaned and closed the book, "No, I don't have a lizard brain and no I did not. If I did have a lizard brain perhaps using anything from this book would be useful. All it pretty much says is 'we noticed this' and nothing else. What a low-hanging fruit to publish. At least write more than a damn observation, like I don't know maybe a 'why' or 'how' they do it? Just pisses me off."

"So no new leads there either."

"If an animal can do it, I'm pretty sure I can figure out how to do it. Somehow..." I shook my head and looked out the window. Yeah, there was pretty much no way I could figure it out from studying the animals. Unless I was to turn into a lizard. And yeah, ick. No. I wasn't going to turn myself into a lizard. I heard the horror stories from some other alchemists. 

Hell no. No thanks. Nope. Not going there.

Edward's frown stretched further down his face as he crossed his arms, "So you're not closer at all."

"Nope. I need more concrete information. Because as of now I've got nothing." I admitted as I opened my suitcase next to me and exchanged the book for my overstuffed notebook. I was quick to shut the suitcase, replace it back on the floor, and go about my day browsing through my notebook to find my page of ideas.

Time to scratch off lizards and starfish being model creatures. That didn't work.

"What's with the mess anyway? Are you that disorganized?" He asked pointing at the papers that nearly fell out of the notebook.

"I wouldn't call it disorganization, rather the chaotic collection of my thoughts. My thoughts and at least this research hasn't been linear, so why should my notes be?"

He seemed to at least accept that explanation of my mess, "I guess that's true."

Perhaps we were already irritated with each other's presence, or perhaps there was too much we didn't know about each other--but the silence was way more tense and awkward than it should've been.

"I just don't get it. Between not wanting us to meet, and now we do and all this weird crap, just what the hell is this all supposed to mean?" I tried to diffuse the situation with my frustration, "who knows what else is being hidden from us."

Edward gave a slight shake to his head, "Us? I think you mean you. Everything so far has been about you. They probably didn't want us to meet because of something about you."

"Figures. I'm too stubborn to play into their games. Maybe they think I'm a bad influence on everyone? Or three heads are better than two and they think I've got a missing piece to your puzzle."

And thus started our collab session where we shared notes of anything and, well, everything we had. 

Later on the train, Ed and I sat across from each other as far away from the others and, well, pretty much any other person possible. I know I hate people anyway, so this was a rather easy task. But this time we had a goal in mind: venting about life and everything else that comes with it, including our regrets, human transmutation, auto-mail, and—my specialty—alchemy. It was time to compare notes—or, I guess—share as much as we trusted each other with the knowledge of since some of the stuff I know may be just a little nasty. Cursed you could say.
Yeah,
Cursed knowledge. There we go. That's what I can call it.
"So, you know how to use air in alchemy?"
"Yeah, and some of the purification arts of Xing. There really isn't much to know."
"What's the difference between them, and our alchemy?"
"Well, hmmm how do I put this...oh! They are long range, and are all are mainly used for healing. All of them are based off of healing techniques. They require more complex circles, and you get banished if you use them for evil purposes, or hurt someone." That's about it.
"So they learn that killing is bad, along with death"
"Yup. They learn that one accident gets you into alot of trouble, and you can't change the fact that you are a good person, even though you made one small mistake. You from then on are known as bad, even though it could have happened to anyone."
"So, they are brought up as perfectionists."
"Perfectionists. It was harder on me, because I wasn't one of them. It also was hard because they wanted to know about our alchemy, and about how and why I didn't need a transmutation circle. And why I had auto-mail arm and leg. "
"Did you.."
"Tell them the truth? No. I just said I was born without them."
"Why didn't you-"
"Like they'd understand."
"Yeah"
"Do you want me to draw my human transmutation circle?" I ask, taking out a rather large piece of paper.
"I'll draw mine, and see how similar they are." we drew them, and they were the exactly the same. Not one thing was different. Not even size.
"This is odd" I say, looking down at them.
"It is, but you said you created this circle yourself?"
"I did. I spent weeks on this."
"So did I, but why are they the same?"