'Look after my daughter. She is in possession of my research.' was the dying words of Berthold Hawkeye, master of Mustang and father of Riza.
'Can I trust you Roy with my father's research?' was her words right after the funeral, when all others have left the grounds.
Roy Mustang was more than shocked at this question. He doesn't know whether to trust himself or not. Master had told him that he was not ready to learn flame alchemy. Was it because he had decided to join the military? Or was the flame alchemy powerful enough to wreck havoc in wrong hands? Or was he the wrong hand?
'You didn't give me an answer Roy.' Said Riza meeting Mustang's eye with her unflinching ones.
Those eyes, thought Mustang, those confident hardened eyes of a child who had experienced hardship beyond their age. Living with her father all by herself must have been harsh for her. Mustang knew that more than anyone. The times spend with Master locked in his 3 roomed apartment all day long reading up the basics of alchemy while Riza was left to her devices to cook food, do laundry and all other household works. Although Mustang offered to help whenever his Master fell asleep over his books, but Riza preferred to talk with him in those rare moments.
Riza, as a child, never used to go out and play with other kids. She preferred being all by herself and reading books regarding anything but alchemy. She does not detest alchemy but she does not want to grow up to be like her father, always obsessed with alchemy. This must have been the reason Riza's mother death, of broken-heart. Even when Riza's mother fell ill, when Riza was only 2 years old, her father was always busy with his research on flame alchemy and couldn't even spare more than 5 minutes a day to be by his wife's sickbed. It was Riza who took care of her mother. Still, she never felt angry about his father's aloofness towards her mother. She accepted that as a part of his character.
Mother's death didn't anguish Riza much, she had know this time would come before long, but what surprised her more was her father's reaction. He mourned for days, lying in her mother's bed and murmuring how sorry he was. He gave up his research and used to spend the time wandering around the house trying to preserve the good happy times and sometimes, helping Riza with the housework and telling her stories about her mother and how she was so similar to her. Although she cherished these father-daughter time, she could not help noticing the glint he used to have in his eyes while researching was missing, he was dying slowly from inside.
Then came Roy Mustang, an orphan boy adopted by a woman who took very little care of him. He was a boy of high hopes and dreams came to learn alchemy from her father.
Berthold Hawkeye refused to teach him at first, but it was Riza who finally convinced him to accept Roy. Riza had sensed that alchemy can give her father the escape route to his grief and Roy was over-enthusiastic to learn. Riza nor her father regretted this decision.
The alchemy class started and Riza was left to her devices again, now, with her father and Roy shut in the study room day and night with the exception of meal times. They occasionally invited Riza to witness the miraculous things Roy could create with alchemy. And she used to feel so proud of her father and of Roy.
When Roy used to sleep, tired from the hectic study schedule, she still used to spot her father shut in his study doing research of his own.
'Can I trust you Roy?'
Mustang's feeling for Riza had always been a question mark to his own self. He respected his master but he always felt bad at how he used to neglect his daughter during the time they used to be shut in the study room and how Riza almost never smiles. He enjoyed the rare moments he could spend with Riza on her own when master was not home or asleep. He used to make her smile with stories of his miscalculated alchemy and how ugly he thinks of the make-up wearing old 'hags'. It was a refreshing change for Riza to have someone so vibrant and alive around. One thing that he had realized that he felt exceptionally protective about her. As if, to shield her from suffering more than she had to.
The military being the ruling force in the country, his sole goal was always to join the military and rise to the top and after meeting Riza? His perspective had changed a LOT. He now realized why people join the military: because they had someone to protect. Now with the agitation starting near Ishval, he wants to start off with his military duty as soon as possible, because if he stays any longer, any longer like this…he will he will…and he should not.
He looked at her, trying to memorize every inch of her face.
'Yes, Riza. You can trust me, now that I have someone to protect.'
'Then come with me.'