Before you read, I know, I hate myself for writing this, too.
Breath.
He gazes towards her, faintly, and remembers, wonders, how it still manages to be hard to breathe when she's near.
--
"Sir..?" her quiet, tentative, if anything, voice falls to his ears, and his weary head lifts. His eyes are bloodshot, and beneath his fingernails, and on the thin creases on his face, a mix of dust and blood lays. But then again, she supposes she looks something similar to him. "Yes," he says, and winces at the sound on his own coarse voice, and he breathes, but it looks as if it's killing him, "Hawkeye."
"I - it's.. nothing, sir." his wary eyes are turned toward her, and her breath catches inside her chest. He lets his eyes fall, and she slowly lets the breath go. She closes her eyes, and her shoulders slump if only a little bit.
--
"I want you to protect my back, do you understand that, Hawkeye? To entrust to you my back means that you can shoot me from behind anytime, and if I step off the path, I want you to shoot and kill me with those hands. You are qualified to do that. Do you understand?"
He watches her face, but she gives him nothing, "Will you do it?" his words are soft, but clipped, professional, "Will you protect my back, will you follow me?"
He holds her gaze and he wonders distantly if she notices the way she has his breath caught in his chest. She turns her gaze downwards and he exhales silently, "Understood. If it is so you wish," she brings her gaze up to his again and she wonders why it's just so hard to breath, around him. "..then to hell, even."
--
There is pain.
There is pain as the bullet rips through his shoulder, there is pain as he wheels around, knowing instantaneously who it is. Her gaze is locked on his, and his chest is tight. "Hawkeye!-"
"Mustang." he wheels again, as his name is purred out. His teeth are clenched, and he steps unknowingly between Bradley and Hawkeye. "How noble, Mustang." his gut wrenches, as he realizes Hawkeye makes no move to protect him as she usually would have done. "Trying to protect your pet hawk, even after she.. pecks at you?"
"What's happening, Bradley?" he grunts, he can feel the blood dripping onto his gloves, and his hand is clenched, in position to snap.
"Nothing, Roy, nothing at all. I'm simply letting you know. I'm taking away your wings, your eyes."
He stutters, and he wheels around to face the one face he's gotten to know by memory. She doesn't look at him, "Hawkeye, let's go." Bradley purrs, he hears Bradley step away, until his footsteps can't be heard, but the presence is still there. "What's going on, Hawkeye?" she turns her eyes to him, and his chest constricts as the air hitches inside of him. Still, after all this time, he just can't breath when she looks at him.
"You said.. I could shoot you, if you stepped off the path. And you haven't, but. You forgot. You didn't shoot me, when I stepped off the path."
"Hawkeye-"
She walks past him briskly, and her shoulders are stiff as they brush his, a feather's touch that was barely ever there. He turns yet again as she walks past, he opens his mouth, but he has no words for her. "So, sir.. go to hell on your own. I have no wishes of accompanying you." she walks by him, and the breath is taken from him.
"Riza..!" he looks at her retreating form, and in some corner of mind, he wonders why and how, even at a time like this, she manages to make his breath catch. She turns a corner, and she stops. Her shoulders slump, now, and she closes her eyes. The breath hitched in her chest blows out, and she wonders why he takes her breath away like no one else. For a moment, she almost turns around, but that would be like pouring raindrops back into a cloud.
"Hawkeye, let's go." Bradley purrs, and she adheres, still wondering why it is that her breath catches every time she sees that man.
end.
Yeah. No explanation where this came from but there are countless stories on how she'll be loyal to him forever.. so yeah. This had to be written. I don't know where they are or how she'd manage to shoot him without him noticing at all, or where Bradley came from. But. That's that. Don't question the words. I hate me too, don't worry.