I do not own FMA. Enjoy!
As a young girl, Riza never thought she had a bit of ferocity in her. She never considered herself to be bold, violent, ruthless, or any of the other traits that went along with being ferocious. She was meek, quiet, timid, sweet. She wasn't a girl to fight back or try to change the tide of things, even if her body and mind screamed for her to do so. For most of her childhood, she was a passive observer of others, never really participating in their activities unless she felt she had to (this rule especially came into play after she met Roy Mustang - keeping him out of trouble was definitely a thing she felt she had to do, lest he get in hot water by Riza's father, who doubled as his alchemy teacher). While she didn't exactly like how meek she was, it was something that was hard to change about herself- being more of a quiet, behind the scenes person just came more naturally to her.
That changed, however, as she got older. Maybe it was Ishval, maybe it was the maturity she gained from getting older and experiencing more things, maybe it was both of those things combined along with a lot more. Regardless, she found that she became bolder as an adult - she was willing to sacrifice more of herself and take risks she wouldn't have even considered as a teenager. That being said, her quiet tendency and behind the scenes nature was still a fixture of her adult personality. She preferred to have her actions speak for her, choosing to be a source of silent, steadfast support for her superior officer. With this new kind of boldness came a hidden but rather ferocious temper. Only specific conditions could set Riza off to the point of this temper showing through but when it did, she was like an attack dog - quick, loud and ready to pounce on anyone who tries to cross her or those she cares about. Despite this boldness, however, she found that, in terms of the choices she made, what she decided to do were things that she felt she would have chose to do anyway, teenager or not. In a way, everything yet nothing really changed to her.
If there was one part of Riza's life that definitely changed, however, it was how she went about her relationship with Roy Mustang.
Roy and Riza never ventured into an amorous or romantic relationship as teenagers, the awkwardness of the age and their general lack of time forcing them to just work on becoming friends for the five years they spent together in the same house. Years later, when the Ishvalan war had ended and they had finally figured out just how they felt about each other, they had their moments when they would quietly spend the nights together, making sure to make them very few and far between so that they wouldn't raise suspicion. It was wrong, it was extremely illegal in every sense of the word, and it was probably one of the riskiest things Riza had ever done...which is probably why she took control a lot of the time during these nights. It was the pure adrenaline, combined with her newfound ferocity, that made her kiss with newfound passion, that made her touches and actions so much more aggressive and confident that they would have been had she explored this territory when she was just a teenager. Every bit of her ferocity came into play during those times and it was during those nights that it became apparent that the sweet, meek and quiet Riza Hawkeye of the past was gone, replaced with her adult counterpart that made up for her quiet nature with an unending fire.
A fire that could easily match and sometimes outdo the hottest ones the Flame Alchemist could ever hope to conjure.
AN: I think I'm getting better at this whole "updating while being busy with school" thing, although maybe not by much. The good news is that you won't be without the next chapter for too long- I'm gonna kinda cheat with chapter seventeen, but I won't get into the details today. Bottom line, chapter seventeen will be up this thursday, otherwise known as Halloween! Also, consider this a "nine month anniversary" update. I can't believe it's already been that long! I hope to continue on for nine months more! :3.