RESOLVE

By Kait

GENRE: Angst; romance/friendship

RATING: K+

DISCLAIMER: I do not own FMA(B), nor any of the characters in it.

A/N: Not quite Royai, but close to it, I would suppose. Never written anything on the pairing. Just a random thing I wanted to write, since I haven't written in a while.

Riza wasn't going to lie to herself. Sometimes she just didn't understand why she stuck around. Her superior officer acted like a child—especially when he had paperwork to do—and, whenever she turned her back for even a second, he was sneaking around to speak to women he hardly knew.

Dedication was one of Riza's primary reasons. After the Ishvalan war, what else could she put her soul into? Nothing felt the same anymore. She had to work hard and make sacrifices for the horrible deeds she had done in that war. There wasn't a single moment that she'd been able to just turn away and forget. All of the death and blood had been burned into her eyelids, no matter how many times she had tried to shut it out.

So she had quit ignoring it, and had started to fight for the thing that haunted her nightmares.

Everyone who had been in the campaign felt the same way—but they all tried to hide it in their own way. Some went utterly mad. She didn't blame them. She would have gone insane, too, if she hadn't found something to keep living for.

Sometimes she wondered what it would be like without living with the burden of all the people you had killed on your shoulders. Could she possibly make up for what she had done?

Maybe he would respond with a serious but mocking, "Quit whining. We all have things we regret."

It was true.

The Elric brothers—after all that they'd been through—kept fighting to get their bodies back. No matter what false lead they got, or any horror they experienced on the journey—it only strengthened their resolve.

And so, Riza decided, I just have to strengthen mine.

"Sir," Hawkeye sighed, gazing at the pile of documents on her commanding officer's desk. Instead of getting smaller, it seemed that the stack had actually gotten bigger. Not only did this not amuse her in the slightest, she actually found herself getting angry, for the pile had been given to him hours ago.

"Hmm? Ah, I'll get on it in a bit," Roy replied, having seen her signature glare. He had the phone put up to his ear and was twirling the cord around a finger. The smug smile on his face did nothing to appease the woman, since she knew exactly who he was talking to. Or, to put it in better words, she knew the gender of the person he was speaking to.

"I'll speak with you later, Stacy. I need to—arg, what are you doing?" In the years Riza had been in service, she had never done something so rude, nor so foolish.

She just hoped that the man didn't see her alternate reasoning—and the angry blush on her cheeks.

In a temper outburst, Hawkeye had grabbed the phone from Roy's hand and slammed it back into its original position. She knew that she was being stared at, but she ignored it and pointed at the stack of papers.

"Get them done. Now."

Her "resolve" just happened to be him. That cocky smile; the snap of his fingers; the way his eyes shone with determination.

Her resolve was to help him, no matter how much he struggled against her.

Her resolve would never break again. Not as long as she was at his side, pistol out and finger on the trigger.

She needed him, and he needed her, even though he probably wouldn't figure it out until much later.

But she would be waiting.

Sorry that the ending was so short. It was sort of rushed, I guess... Also, I haven't written anything credible lately, so I'm sorry if anyone was a little out of character. I will fix anything you see.

This was just another random one-shot I wanted to make. The last one was about LingFan. That one was more successful... I'm not quite into the whole pairing business, but I know that Royai is cute.

-Kait