***SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 100***
Meaning
His eyes.
That's all Hawkeye sees – past the red haze of blood and the shadows creeping in from the corners of her vision – his eyes. She remembers that look – though his face was different then, not yet hardened by years of war and bloodshed – staring up at her from beneath the weight of her father's body; terror.
It's only then that she realizes she's dying.
Her father once told her that death was merely a set of chemical reactions – emotions and sensations dictated by the body shutting down. It meant nothing. And once, that had been a comfort for her – soothed her conscience as she watched surprise turn to peace as those on the receiving end of her shots drifted into lifelessness; as she sat in Mustang's and Havoc's hospital room that night, praying they'd both make it through the night, or at least die without the weight of Ishbal on their shoulders.
It's no comfort now, though; not as her mind struggles to conjure up the few lingering memories of her mother – baking pastries and chocolates in the kitchen, or watering the garden. Instead, she thinks it's a shame she'd never beaten her grandfather at chess, or that she'd missed laying flowers on her father's grave this year. She thinks of Havoc, and how he'll never forgive her for not visiting, and how she's grateful she'd told Fuery to take Hayate if something ever happened to her. She wants this to mean something; needs it – but all she can conjure up are practicalities. Maybe she'd been preparing for this – her regrets are few.
But his eyes.
"Lieutenant! Lieutenant! Riza!"
His hand is warm as his fingers curl around hers. His words have long since faded into the dull humming in her ears, and her own voice croaks low in her throat. Love is a special thing, she thinks – no regrets, nothing left unspoken, because it never needed to be said at all. She knows everything by the way his hand trembles around her own.
Maybe death really is just a physiological event – but that's no comfort now. She wants nothing more than for this to mean something. Anything.
His eyes are all she sees as she falls into nothingness.