Roy had just started at the Academy when Master Hawkeye died.

First year at the Academy

Roy was uneasy about women at the Academy, and in the military in general. It wasn't because he thought women couldn't make effective soldiers. The average female soldier couldn't beat the average male soldier in a contest of brute strength, but there were many other ways to fight. Amestris wan't a military power because her soldiers were physically the biggest and the strongest.

It was because women, along with children and the elderly, fell into the category of people a soldier was supposed to protect. He didn't like to imagine a situation where he would have to kill a woman, even if she were an armed enemy soldier in a combat situation.

Aerugo had women in the military, just like Amestris, but Creta did not. And the Ishvalan rebels definitely did not. Roy had heard stories that Ishvalan women were little more than property, first of their fathers and then of their husbands.

He was in the East, so he'd almost certainly be sent to fight in the police action against the Ishvalan rebels instead of in Aerugo, when he was sent as a fourth year Academy student for his first stint at combat. That was probably all for the good. Ishvalans were citizens, but the rebels themselves had lost the right to be called that. And he wouldn't have to fight women.

Some of his classmates were there to find husbands. He didn't have a problem with that, as long as they pulled their weight in the meantime and maintained proper military discipline.

On the other hand, he had nothing but disdain for the women and men who didn't. If they couldn't even control themselves in ordinary circumstances, what would they do in a combat situation, when lives were at stake? What about their comrades, who could end up being sacrificed for their commander's or comrade's lover or spouse?

The excuse was always that they'd be able to do what they had to do when the time came. As if the ability to do that wasn't something that came from discipline and practice in the first place. Like every other hard thing worth doing.

Second year at the Academy

Roy was on leave from the Academy. As always, he was staying at his former Master's house. He had the information on Flame Alchemy already, but he still had to work out the practical application. Here, he had access to all of Master Hawkeye's books. And it wasn't something that he generally had the time or space to work on while at the Academy.

Riza was out hunting with some people from the village: other former apprentices of her father's and her girlfriend, Rebecca Catalina. Roy didn't go. He'd had training with a pistol already, but none yet with a rifle, and he didn't want to embarrass himself among kids like Riza, who'd grown up hunting.

Instead, he spent the day working on alchemical flame theory, refining the transmutation circle, and practicing.

When she came back with the others, everyone had bagged a deer except Rebecca, whose hunting hadn't really been for deer in the first place.

Roy knew the drill. There was a shack on the grounds where they hung up the gutted carcasses. They would let them hang a few days, as long as the autumn weather stayed cool enough, and then Riza would butcher them.

When the other hunters had gone, Roy went out to see Riza at the shack.

"As usual, the guys always aim for the bucks with the biggest rack," she said in disgust. "Totally useless. All they want is a trophy."

"Well," said Roy, amused, "you still get the meat."

"Bah!" Riza countered. "Tough and stringy. All I can do with it is grind it up, spice it up, and make sausage. Do you know how sick I get of sausage sometimes?"

"I'm not complaining. I always get some, and the guys back at the Academy do too."

"Well, it's better than leaving the rest of the carcass to rot. I like hunting and I like meat, but I don't like wasting what I kill. It's disrespectful to the animal."

Roy shook his head and laughed. "Riza, you're the only person I've ever heard worry about disrespecting your food."

"Oh Roy," she said, "you're such a city boy. Lots of hunters feel that way. You just never hang out with them."

"That's true," he smiled. "Except for you."

"These guys are just trying to impress the girls, like Rebecca," she said. "The ones who actually need the meat go for the does and the yearlings. They're easier to kill and the meat is much more tender."

Roy noticed that every carcass in the shack had antlers but one.

"Maybe the guys don't like to shoot does," he said.

"Maybe some guys should learn," she said, suddenly changing the subject. "Roy, you think you'll be sent to Ishval and you're probably right. But it might be Aerugo after that. I don't want you to end up dead because you hesitated that fraction of a second when you faced a woman soldier."

Third year at the Academy

Roy saw the orders on the kitchen table of the Hawkeye house, and went outside looking for Riza. He found her at target practice on the hill.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Riza?" he yelled, waving the orders.

"You're not the only one who wants to strengthen the foundation of this country!" she called back. "I'm a crack shot and a good fighter."

"You could get killed!" he shouted at her.

"So could you," she shouted back.

"I want to protect you, Riza, not fight alongside you," he said angrily, lowering his voice now that he had reached her, but still glaring at her.

"I know, Roy," she said, and her eyes softened. "When my father was alive, he was so obsessed with his work, it frightened me. But I knew it was important and that I was a part of it. My job was going to be to take care of the great man. Then he died."

She paused.

"Roy, I still need to be part of something important. I want my life to count for something. I'm not smart like father, but I'm strong. I can strengthen this country's foundation too."

"You'd be important to me if you became my wife," Roy said. "This wasn't when or how I was planning on proposing, but ..."

There were a few moments of silence.

"That's not enough," Riza said, finally.

"Does that mean no?" Roy asked somberly.

"It means I'm still going to the Academy," she said. "Four years of school and then a minimum of four years on active duty. Are you still proposing?"

"Are you planning on making it a career," asked Roy, "or will four years be enough?"

"I don't know," Riza answered.

"Married couples in the military," Roy said, thinking out loud. "I know they try to station them together, but that's not always possible. And I'll always outrank you, so some postings would be just impossible. They can't put a soldier under the direct command of his or her spouse."

"Always outrank me?" she said, raising an eyebrow. "You're only three years older than I am. I'd say that most of the time we'd be pretty close in rank."

"I hadn't been planning to propose," said Roy, "but I did have some news when I came here. I passed my State Alchemist exam. The Fuhrer's calling me the "Flame Alchemist." When I'm commissioned, I'll be a major, not a second lieutenant."

"Roy, that's wonderful," she said, hugging him.

He put his arms around her too, and held her a little too tightly.

"My proposal still stands," he said. "Even if you go through with this. Even if we have to be stationed apart."

"Then my answer is yes," she said into his shoulder. But when she turned her face to look up at him, she saw that his cheeks were wet. Somehow, she didn't notice that her own were too.

"You're crying," he said. "Was it so awful to say yes?" His tone had become half joking. Just half, though.

"No, of course not, I'm just... I've already made you cry."

Roy's face changed completely as he stepped away from her. "I am not crying!" he said, turning his head, even though he realized how utterly ridiculous the words were even as he spoke them.

"Of course not," she said. "It must be raining." She really had meant to say that without being sarcastic, but she didn't succeed entirely.

He turned back to her and his stern look had softened. "A real downpour," he said. "You never let me get away with anything, do you? I don't have a ring yet, of course."

"It's just an extra expense," she said. "When do you think we should get married?"

"I was going to propose after I finished my fourth year's active duty and got commissioned. I'm leaving this fall for Ishval, and I should be back for commissioning in the spring."

"Okay. Spring sounds good," she agreed.

She put the rifle back on her shoulder. He stood and watched until she had finished her practice.

Author's Notes

This would fit in with my fic "The Toll", although I can imagine many different takes on this that would also fit.

In the manga, when Roy shows up in uniform at the Hawkeye house, his uniform indicates a rank of Private second class. If this is comparable to the US military, this means he is still at the Academy. If he had graduated from the academy, he would have been commissioned as at least a Second Lieutenant.

The manga is somewhat confusing here, because if this were true, he probably should have told Hawkeye to contact him at the Academy rather than Military HQ when they were standing by her father's graveside.

We don't know the exact age difference between Roy and Riza, but three years sounds reasonable to me.

The rules on married couples are based on what was in effect when I was in the US military. I don't think those rules, or the ones on fraternization, are stupid.

Notes updated 11/30/2010

My timeline doesn't quite work with the manga. It would imply that Roy was already at least 19 during his first year at the Academy, and that Riza was pulled out of the Academy to fight in Ishval during her first year at the Academy.

Manga timeline as shown on (remove spaces from url) / wiki / index . php ? title = Timeline

1885 Mustang and Hughes are born.

1901 The "Ishbal Rebellion" begins. Roy is 15-16

1905 Master Hawkeye dies. Roy is 19-20 and is a Private Second Class, indicating he is at the Academy and not yet commissioned.

1908 Roy is sent to participate in the Ishval massacre. Roy is 22-23. Riza is pulled out of the Academy to participate in the Ishval massacre.

1909 Ed and Al attempt human transmutation to resurrect their mother. Roy Mustang, accompanied by Riza Hawkeye, invites the boys to apply for the State Alchemist Program. Roy is 23-24