"Where do you see yourself in five years, Lieutenant?"
The Colonel was in one of his moods today – the kind where everything else was more important than paperwork and he would bother the hell out of anyone who dared stray close enough. In fact, Fuery had been sent to the infirmary mid-morning for an aspirin to treat a headache (brought on by the Colonel's insistence that they all smell his new cologne). Of course, Roy's dalliance hadn't stopped the Lieutenant from doing her job; she'd been filing Havoc's daily assignments when he had interrupted her.
Truthfully, the question caught her off guard.
Maybe it was less the question and more the serious toned in which it had been asked; it could have been the sadness that still lurked inside her from the photograph of her mother that she'd stumbled upon the night before; or maybe it was simply surprise at realizing she'd never been asked such a question before in her life. Whatever the reason, it got her thinking.
Five years prior, Riza had been partaking in the Ishval War. Life had been hard. She spent most of her days in a tower or atop a high building, sitting in wait. She grew tired of canned provisions, shared showers, sand and pain. Nights were short, days were long and her fellow soldiers grew more intolerable with each passing week.
At the time, if she had been asked the question, she would have answered with one word: dead.
Five years preceding Ishval, Riza had been in school. She was top of her class, the only student that could accurately explain how to handle and cook rhubarb without being poisoned, and considered Roy Mustang to be her only friend. That was also the year that her father had her branded, her own skin used as a method of research storage. Her seventeenth year had been a hard one.
If she had been asked that question then, she would have answered: anywhere but here.
As for five years from now, she had no idea. She could be anywhere: on assignment in the West, owner of a bakery, married with two kids. Life could surprise her at any moment and take her anywhere. It was fun to think about for a while, but she was such a logical person that most of the possibilities seemed downright ludicrous.
And, really, deep down she knew where she would be.
"I don't know, Sir," she said. "I guess wherever you lead me."