Berthold Hawkeye regretted many things in his life. When he looked back on the rift he'd caused between his late wife and her family, he felt ashamed. He could've handled that entire situation with a good deal more tact. There was no need for a rushed elopement, and his ego would've eventually healed from the blow of her father's disapproval. Elizabeth's temper won the day, though, and the situation spiraled out of control. Had he taken a more objective stance, he could have seen things from old man Grumman's point of view and slowed their relationship down. With a grunt, he realized referring to his father-in-law by the "old" moniker was a bit of a joke. Wasn't he the old man now?

Another regret was getting so caught up in his work he didn't notice how ill Elizabeth had become. The cancer spread quickly and took over her entire body. Watching her die had been the most desperate period of his life. He could do nothing but hold her hand through the pain. The angry glares from her father at the large family funeral still burned him in his dreams. Berthold knew he deserved them.

He also wished he'd encouraged a stronger relationship between his daughter and her grandparents after Elizabeth's death. Riza struggled with her loneliness, and he knew he was poor company. It was his wife who'd brought the sunshine into the house. She chased away all his storm clouds, and his heart still ached with the absence of her laughter. Riza was a miniature carbon copy of her mother, and that didn't help his grief.

Roy Mustang was a blessing. The boy's own parents had been killed some years before in a tragic car accident; Berthold remembered the sensationalist news stories that lead to better guard rails on the South River Bridge. He made Riza smile again, and her happiness had helped him repair his own relationship with his daughter. Selfish as that was, he was grateful he hadn't had to take the first painful step.

It did not escape his attention that the Mustang boy's evenings were no longer spent at his home. Riza's attentions now mostly fell upon Jean Havoc. The senior Havoc was a successful business man and a well-respected member of their community, but Berthold shared Roy's not-so-subtle distaste for Jean. He was loud, arrogant, and his jokes often left one wanting and wondering if he'd misfired the punch line. Of course, he never mistreated Riza, and Hawkeye had no doubts his daughter would send the boy packing if he dared to try anything inappropriate. But, he disliked Jean all the same. Perhaps his judgments were unfair, but was a father supposed to approve of every stray dog his daughter brought home? Surely not.

Unlike her mother, Riza didn't seem to be driven by raw emotion and had laughed when he casually asked if she intended on spending the rest of her life with the junior Havoc. Besides her excellence in archery, she also studied fervently in history and showed a significant interest in foreign political policy. Berthold didn't attend as many of her extra-curricular activities as he'd like, but the one debate he'd seen made his chest swell with pride. His little girl was smart, quick-witted, and stuck her points soundly and without excess. She wasn't a romantic.

Jean was an athlete; his academic skills were fair and largely mediocre. He hadn't failed any courses to date, but his efforts were lacking in the same way as his attempts at humor. The boy seemed to aspire only to commandeer his father's business empire and focused his energies on related subjects. Mustang, on the other hand, was bright and full of questions. The easy way he accepted criticism and applied it to his studies was refreshing for a rigid man like Hawkeye. It wasn't hard to admit he was a favorite, and it seemed fortuitous he had an eye for chemistry. Roy also had an eye for Riza. Berthold doubted Mustang had actually consolidated his friendship feelings with the romantic ones - the moody, and awkward way he interacted with his daughter as of late spoke irritating volumes - but he certainly wouldn't mind if Riza announced she reciprocated those feelings one day.

Hawkeye coughed into a handkerchief and stuffed it back into his breast pocket. His employment at the academy was something he cherished. Hardly the groundbreaking, and somewhat illegal, alchemical research he'd been free to pursue at the university, but he could be closer to Riza now. He wanted to tell her about his diagnosis, but with each passing day, the task grew infinitely harder. She had suffered greatly after Elizabeth's death, and he was loath to add to her burden. It was his hope that her friendship with Roy would be enough to carry her through this time.

The dam was really nothing but a shoddy attempt to stop flash flooding near the South River Bridge and the system of farm roads feeding towards it. It had been in place prior to the bridge renovations the media coverage of his parent's death had achieved. Roy didn't especially enjoy going there, but it was a popular place for kids to escape adult authority. He always supposed he should have more introspective thoughts about spending time only a few hundred yards from the spot where his parents died, but he didn't. When he was younger, he'd confessed to Riza a fear that his disinterest made him a heartless human being. She'd only hugged him and asked, If you're so heartless, then why did you keep coming back to me? You care about a lot of things, Roy. Don't feel bad for not having deep feelings about something that happened when you were just a little kid.

Roy's foul mood from earlier hadn't lifted, and he was content to stew in his own frustration apart from everyone else. He sipped his beer with disinterest on the far edge of the dam and threw pebbles over the edge. When Rebecca and Riza finally showed up, he put on a happier face. His girlfriend winked at him across the small campfire, and he smiled finally. Rebecca brought out a gregarious side of him that helped to dull the edge of his recent funk. He loved the sound of her laugh and the way she grabbed his hand when he felt like an outsider amongst his own friends. It also helped that she never questioned him ad nauseam about his friendship with Riza. He'd had quite enough of that in the past.

"Are you going to sit in the dark all night?" Rebecca plopped down next to him and nudged his ribs with an elbow.

"Nope." He smiled down at her. "I was just waiting for you."

"Aw, that's sweet, Roy. If you hadn't been such a grouch earlier, I'd almost believe you." She took his hand in hers and leaned her head against his shoulder. "You can talk to me, you know. Whatever's bothering you bothers me too."

"I'm sorry." Roy felt like he'd been saying that a lot lately. "I know I've been pretty intolerable." He reached over and turned her head to face him. "It's not your fault."

"Nope, it isn't. It's your fault for not liking your best friend's boyfriend."

"I don't have to like him."

She looked him in the eye. "True, but what good is it to hate him? Riza could do a lot worse, you know. Jean is sweet to her, and she looks happy."

"Hughes is right. I'm just a big, pouting baby, I guess."

She laughed and slid her arm around his waist before kissing him. Another thing he liked about Rebecca was her total lack of shame for publicly displayed affection. Whether it was the absent-minded way her fingers ran through his hair or the disregard for students passing them in the hallway when she pressed her lips to his between classes, Roy always felt like the only person she saw in a crowd. She was a physically expressive girl, and he'd be an awful liar if he said he didn't enjoy it. During the most recent school assembly, she'd whispered in his ear that she'd be waiting for him in the unused supply closet behind a stairwell. Obviously he couldn't disappoint her, and he counted himself lucky that her parents were progressive enough to supply their daughter with a prescription for birth control.

"You should come over tonight," Rebecca whispered against his mouth. "Mom is working a graveyard shift, and Dad is still out of the country."

"Can't we just leave now? I'd like that very much." Roy's fingers inched their way into the waistband of her shorts.

"No, you horn dog. I want to hang out for a little while, and we can't leave until Jean shows up. I won't leave Riza without a ride home. Not with Kimblee here, anyway. She took a pain pill for her shoulder, and I don't trust that guy."

Roy leaned his forehead against her shoulder. "You're such a saint, Bec."

She snorted and grabbed his empty beer bottle. "I'm actually saving you from jail time. Don't act like you wouldn't flay him if he touched her."

"You're right," he mumbled. "Why are you always right?"

"I can't help it. Now stop trying to be a lone wolf and come sit with me. I think it may rain soon anyway. I want you to be sociable and try to make the best of the evening." She left him alone on the pilings and joined their friends. Roy tossed the last of his pebbles over the edge and left his perch.

After Rebecca's comments about Riza medicating her shoulder, he opted for only one more beer. It wasn't that Kimblee had ever done anything to earn Roy's distrust, but the guy was definitely off-putting. He always seemed to be one step ahead of everyone else in a conversation and liked to keep people uncomfortable. Riza hadn't ever cared for him. She claimed he looked at her like he knew everything about her. At the time, Roy cracked a joke about x-ray vision and earned himself a bruise on his shin afterwards.

For the first time ever, Roy was happy to see Havoc. He showed up only minutes before the clouds started to mist on them, and, at the very least, Roy knew he could be trusted to escort Riza home without sexually assaulting her. Jean Havoc may have been an arrogant jerk, but he wasn't a rapist. Roy could admit he wasn't a bad boyfriend, but those facts didn't make him dislike the guy any less.

He followed Rebecca home in his own car and found himself in her bed. It wasn't unusual for them to meet at her house rather than his. Chris Mustang rarely arrived home before midnight, but Rebecca's mother regularly worked the nights as an obstetrician at Central General Hospital. Her father spent most of his time in other countries, smoothing out corporate trade deals and business contracts. If Roy's aunt took issue with the late hours he spent with his girlfriend, she never complained too loudly.

Roy leaned back against the mass of pillows and ran his fingers over Rebecca's naked thighs. She sighed and traced formless shapes on his chest. He enjoyed the warmth of her body and the way her breasts pressed against him.

"Will you stay with me tonight?"

"I can't. My aunt will kill me if she finds my bed empty in the morning."

"There isn't anything I can do to convince you?" Rebecca sucked the skin of his neck into her mouth, and he couldn't help the groan that escaped his throat.

"I'm easily convinced, but it's not the hill I want to die on."

She laughed and rolled off him. "Well, you'd better go then. I'd hate to be the cause of your death." Roy sat up and groped in the darkness for his shirt

"Ah, Bec, if I died in bed with you, it would be the best a guy could hope for." He slid on his pants and shoes. "What a way to go," he whispered before kissing her goodbye. "I'll see you Monday."

"Yeah, yeah. Go home, and be careful on the road. It's raining pretty hard now."

"I am an excellent driver," Roy scoffed.

"I doubt Breda's dad would agree. How many tickets did he write you last year?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Roy smiled, ducked out of her bedroom, and made sure to arm the house alarm before stepping out the front door.

The rain was, indeed, falling harder, and by the time he pulled into his own driveway, the hour was later than he'd planned. His aunt's car was in the garage, and Roy prepared for her well-deserved wrath. Getting home so late was a crime in and of itself, but in the rain was especially heinous. It had been in such a storm his own parents were killed. She'd never gotten past the manner of their deaths, and Roy knew he really should have been more considerate. He bit his lip and entered the house.

Author's Note: I have painted Berthold Hawkeye differently here, and it's intentional. I don't want Riza to be the abused girl that she is in canon. I wanted Hawkeye to be human, and likable.