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You could call Roy and Riza many things. You could call them killers (that was the harsh truth), sinners (that was the opinion of those with faith), liars (that was only occasionally true), lovers (that was something that no could ever know was true) or dogs of the military (that was obvious), to name a few choices. There was one thing you couldn't call them, though.

What you couldn't call Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye was broken.

They were not broken, not by any means. Yes, they were shaken, bruised, battered, bent and stretched to their absolute limits but neither one was broken. While there had been many points when they thought they would crash and shatter into many painful little pieces with awful slivers attached, it never seemed to happen. You could say the reason was because of their pride or their absolute will not to break. Really, though, the strength they had to have to remain whole didn't come from something as potentially dangerous as pride or even from their own will (for they discovered long ago that not even that was able to keep them from coming undone). It came from some other place, a much more secret place and, while not all of their strength was harbored in this secret place, there is enough strength kept there in case the supply Roy and Riza do have in their own selves starts to dwindle.

The hiding place that strength chose was in the other person.

Roy had half of Riza's strength and Riza, half of Roy's. Whether they know it or not, whenever the two are together, they are taking hold of a small part of the foraged strength. They hold onto it with a desperate grip, hoping that they never let it go or that it never slips from their hands. They know exactly what'll happen if those pure and perfect reservoirs ever do fall onto the ground.

Like all fragile things, it'll break.

They'll never let that happen, though. Like Roy can't afford to lose Riza, neither of them can't afford to lose that strength. To lose that strength would only bring about dire consequences, consequences that neither of them want to think about. With that in mind, with those terrible, gut-wrenching consequences in mind, they hold onto the containers, desperate to hold them but also wary of its fragile nature. For Roy and Riza, delving into that strength a little bit a time is a matter of survival. It's a way for them to know that they're not alone in all that weighs them down inside their heads and a way for them to live with themselves for a few moments. It's a matter of keeping each other here on Earth and still a part of life.

After all, the only way that Roy and Riza could ever be considered broken is if one of them goes before the other.