8. Straight-backed
That's how she always was, Edward mused, staring at his pen. Said object was sitting on the desk, not moving or doing anything really eye-grabbing, but he'd look strange staring at Riza across the room. Not that anyone would care, but she'd probably be put off by it.
She was always trying, trying so hard. For what? Ed wished he knew why the strict, formal Riza Hawkeye was as she was. He doubted she was born that way (Though anything was possible), and she wasn't like that out of work. He was determined to find out what exactly made the Lieutenant so… Hawkeye-like.
He could go to outside sources, like Havoc or someone. But with Jean it'd be another bet, another stupid gamble. Edward would lose, and the money he'd bet with would be from his budget. That would lead to him being burnt, yelled at, insulted or all of the above, by a Colonel who didn't do his own job at the best times.
Edward reasoned it was because of her protecting kind of job goal thing. He was totally clueless to how the Mustang-Hawkeye set-up came to be, but he knew she was protecting him. Probably because Roy couldn't protect himself, Edward remained sure that the man would blow himself up one day. Then there was the fact that she shot at her protectee every day. Didn't that defeat the purpose of protecting someone in the first place?
Or maybe it's a tough-love theory? Either way, Lieutenant Hawkeye was always the only one to salute properly, unless it was the Fuhrer, the only one to be respectful almost all of the time. She could maintain that calm mask, even when all hell broke lose. She was the one who'd fire the bullet that saved a life, always knew what to do and when. But how did he do it? Edward could list everything about her, but not explain it.
Moaning, Edward returned to his work.
It wasn't worth going into Riza's personality.
It was much deeper than you thought.
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A/N; Just random musings of Edward on one straight-backed Riza.