"Lieutenant?" Colonel Roy Mustang asked, looking at his aide calmly, his half finished paperwork in front of him with a pen lying on it while he rubbed his sore wrist.
"Sir?" Hawkeye said from the corner of the office where she was preparing coffee with the use of a new electric kettle.
"Where would you be, had you not joined the military?" Mustang asked watching her closely for any sign of- well anything.
Lieutenant Hawkeye was silent for a while, stirring a spoon in the cups before turning to him. "Well, I suppose I would be back in my hometown, Sir."
"Yes, but what would you be doing?" Roy replied, accepting one of the cups she had offered.
"I might've been raising a family, or working at some other job sir." Riza replied, inwardly wincing at her words. This conversation had come up every so often. Previous times she would've said something different, maybe concerning her finding her mothers side of the family or what not. But she was not so young, though not nearly old, most women her age had begun to settle down.
Roy took a sip of the coffee, silently swearing at himself; The murderer he was.
"But it would have been very hard, there are few men I could trust with my back." Riza said calmly, inspecting him over the top of her mug.
"I don't think there's anyone you can entrust yourself to, Lieutenant." Mustang murmured, placing his cup down on his desk and looking up at her.
"Are you saying every member of the male species is unreliable sir?" Riza asked lowering her mug and taking a seat across from him. Roy looked up at her, a wry smile pasted onto his face.
"Most defiantly, Lt."
"That would mean I can not trust any member on my team, Sir."
"Perhaps you should look for different employment then Lieutenant."
"Unfortunately sir, I cannot. I doubt I would know anything else to do, I'd make a waste of myself." Riza replied with a soft smile.
"It would be better than making a murderer of yourself." Roy said fiercely.
"But in my wake another person would be forced to do that." Hawkeye said softly, thinking solemnly of Edward and other recruits, surely they would be forced to kill someday.
"They've already got me Lt., they wouldn't need another one."
"Perhaps, sir, you aren't enough." Hawkeye replied glancing at him, his sad tone.
"How could I not be enough? I've killed so many.. I've took away so many lives." Roy said, meeting her eyes with a plea for forgiveness.
"Because, sir, no matter how many lives you took you've always saved more, and you need my help if you want to be able to do so." Roy smiled gently, his eyes still depressed, still not believing it fully.
"How can a dead woman help a dead man, Hawkeye?"
"By doing anything for the dead man, sir."
"And if the dead man doesn't want the dead woman to help?"
"The dead woman will ignore his words and do so anyways."
"That is a very stubborn corpse, Lieutenant." Mustang said smiling
"The dead man always knew that sir." Hawkeye said matching his smile with hers.
"She will be the death of him, Hawkeye." Roy said downing the rest of his coffee before picking up his pen.
"A dead man cannot die twice sir." Riza replied, pulling herself to her feet and taking a sip of her coffee.
"Of course they can't Lieutenant." Roy said watching her take both mugs to the corner to clean them. Despite her words, Riza being married, having a family, a life, never left Mustangs mind, staying well past time to go home and leaving well past it's time. But pictures of Riza holding a black haired baby on the porch of a well kept house stayed fresh in his brain.
My Royai Day contribution, it would've been up yesterday on actual royai day.. But it was my birthday.. Comment and what if you would ^_^