A/N Hiii, shorter chapter this one compared to others, but I've recentluy realised my way of writing isn't very good at chapter cutting xD By that I mean, I tend to write as though I'm writing a long ass one shot and THEN cut into chapters, so then the awkwardness comes from having to make sure i don't cut the chapters weird but that also means weird length chapters lol anyway...

Enjoy!

Pinned against the wall by Ed, the woman's eyes travelled from Ed to Roy, and then her gaze fell on the golden thread between them. She smiled at it, her expression putting Roy on edge. It wasn't smug or evil. It was almost…soft, caring. As if it meant something, to be bound by it.

And this woman could see it – the golden light around their wrists.

Her gaze settled back on Ed, who was glaring at her so fiercely Roy wondered how the woman was so calm. "You appear angry about the bond."

Roy was incredulous, cutting Ed off before he could speak. "Undo it – now."

She glanced at him, then at Ed, and smiled again, knowingly. Knowing what, Roy didn't know.

"I cannot undo it."

Ed snarled in her face as a rock settled in Roy's gut. His heart was hammering in his chest – panic, he realised. For the first time in years, he'd been caught so off guard that he was panicking.

He hadn't had a panic attack since Ishval.

Moving his face closer to her, Ed spoke, his voice low, ominous. "You are going to tell me exactly what this array is, how it works, and how to undo it, or else."

The woman calmly assessed Ed's furious stare. "Very well." Ed's hold on her eased the tiniest bit, allowing her to move from being pressed flush against the wall.

A cold breeze whispered through the night, and it made Roy shiver. He clenched and unclenched his fists, focusing on his breath. He thanked the heavens Ed was here with him right now and had been so quick on his feet, always led by instinct.

Ed shot a quick side glance at him. "The fuck is up with you?"

Roy took a deep breath, unclenching his fists again. "I'm fine."

Their focus went back to the woman, who was observing them with a small, genuine smile on her face. That unnerved Roy more than any evil smile ever could. It was like she knew something private about him, like she could see deep inside of him and hear his most private thoughts – it felt like a violation.

"My people worship the God of Love," the woman started, her hands coming to rest on her chest, over her heart. "This magic, is part of our devotion to him – more love needs to exist in the world. Souls yearning for each other get ignored, and it's a shame."

"Get to the point," Ed growled, moving closer threateningly and pushing her back against the wall. He was shaking with anger, his patience running thin. Roy could feel the anger flowing off him in waves, felt it so strongly in his chest he glanced down at his wrist. "I don't give a shit what fake God you worship, tell me what this fucking array is."

"The array bonds souls."

"What did it take." Ed was seething, her replies not sufficient, not answering any of the vital questions they both had. "What did you give to bond the souls together?"

The woman simply smiled. "The magic only works when two souls long for each other. The array just meets that silent yearning, connecting the souls as they wish. There is no debt to be paid, it is more like slotting together two pieces of a puzzle that fit perfectly." She nodded to the golden thread flowing between them. "The fact that you triggered the magic means your souls are finally connected as they wish, as they should be. It is a lovely thing to witness." Her sweet smile widened.

Roy could tell the word magic was making Ed almost combust every time she said it.

His heart had calmed, his breathing steady. His mind started working again. The way to get answers out of people like this was to play by their rules – their language. Even though he knew the term magic was bullshit, even though alchemy without equivalent exchange didn't exist – even with a philosopher's stone, souls had been used in exchange for the alchemy – they had to get answers out of her somehow. They needed something – any nugget of information to start their research on.

He walked closer, standing next to Ed. "So is it the souls that could break the bond – if they so wished?"

Ed scoffed next to him, but remained silent as the woman's attention focused on Roy. "The souls will break the bond when they feel secure enough that they won't be denied each other again."

What the fuck did that mean?

"Well your array made a mistake."

He glanced at Ed, who looked more composed than he had seconds ago as he spoke. He had let the woman go out of his death grip, but his golden stare was still intense.

Roy knew what he meant. This woman seemed to think she could bring together people who had feelings for each other and who, for one reason or another, weren't together. But this wasn't the case between them. The array must've worked at random, and she just seemed to add meaning behind each attack.

The woman just smiled again. "The magic makes no mistakes; your souls wanted to bond, and they did."

Roy's headache was coming back with a vengeance. He turned to Ed, who met his eyes. "We need to get back to Central, we'll bring her with us."

But when they looked back at the woman, she had vanished.

The train ride was quiet. Roy's mind was elsewhere as he gazed out the window at the hills and meadows, now shrouded in darkness and moonlight. He could see his reflection on the glass, and he slid his eyes toward Ed's reflection. Ed was sitting opposite him, his face unreadable as he leafed through his notebook. The soft golden light between them was the elephant in the room, an unmentioned being that was on both their minds, but neither knew what to say about it.

They were connected. Their souls. Roy went through all the information they had gathered about this alchemy today, and he knew what to expect. He and Ed would not be able to leave each other physically. They would potentially share dreams.

That particular thought made Roy more uncomfortable than he anticipated.

Dreams were private, uncontrollable. He couldn't just decide to play a dream he didn't mind Ed seeing like a movie. He still had nightmares sometimes, memories from Ishval that haunted him, things he'd done he wasn't proud of. The thought of Ed being witness to those things made shame settle in his chest.

He didn't want Ed's opinion of him to sink even lower than what it already was.

Across him, Ed jotted down bits of his thoughts. Maybe he was writing down what the traveller had told them. Roy could hear her words in his mind, over and over again. They made no sense, but perhaps once they got to the library they would agree on a starting point.

The train slowed to a stop outside Central station, and they exited the platform. After the woman had vanished, him and Ed had gone straight to the station, so Roy hadn't had a chance to call for a driver. Ed didn't seem to think anything of it as he started walking silently towards the general direction of Central library. Roy could only follow, feeling a tug in his chest as Ed got more than a few strides away.

"Fullmetal."

Ed halted, turning back to him and raising an eyebrow.

"We need to test how far away we can physically be from one another."

There. The first mention of what had happened between them. What he had caused. He had been the one to step on the array. The guilt was there, in his chest, a shameful feeling that he had failed Ed, that the one moment he had lost his cool had cost him. Had cost Ed.

Ed didn't seem angry at him, and that made it worse. He had expected Ed to be a giant pain in the ass on the ride home, insulting him and hating him and blaming him, but he hadn't, and Roy didn't know what to think.

Ed frowned at Roy's words, his gaze going down to his right wrist. This was the first time Roy had seen Ed acknowledge the golden thread between them. For a moment he had wondered if he was the only one who could see it. But perhaps Ed just didn't want to look at it; didn't want to see what now bound him to Roy.

"I'll stand here, you walk towards Central library. Let's see how much we can get away with before it hurts."

Without a word, Ed turned back around and continued walking. There was a feeling in Roy's chest, a feeling he couldn't describe, didn't know where it had come from or why he was feeling it. It was a sort of disappointment. A weird longing - but he didn't know what for.

The tug got more and more intense as Ed walked away from him. If Ed was feeling it too, he didn't let on. Roy swallowed as the tug turned painful. It was like a stabbing in his chest, like someone was trying to rip out his heart. As if the golden thread was wrapped around his soul itself and had gone taut, and was now trying to drag Roy's soul out of his body and towards Ed.

Ed stopped walking. He turned back, and Roy stared. Ed stared back.

They were barely six strides away from each other.

Roy let out a breath as the anxiety built inside him.

This was going to be hell.

They both seemed reluctant to sleep. Perhaps Ed was also unwilling to let Roy see his dreams.

Roy didn't blame him.

Central library was mostly empty, a couple of people scattered here and there, engrossed in a book, but nowhere near the amount of people as during a normal day. Roy hadn't been to the library at ten at night in a while, but he wondered if Ed was used to it, if this was the usual time he came.

He could imagine Ed liking having the library to himself.

Ed quietly led him to a section, and it soon became obvious to Roy just how much time Ed spent in here. He wouldn't be surprised if Ed knew the layout of this entire library.

"Let's start with reading up on soul alchemy. I know quite a bit about it already, but I always focused on information about Al's situation so I could've discarded something that could be important now."

Roy nodded, picking up a couple books he knew mentioned soul alchemy. They worked silently over the next few minutes, Roy aware not to stray too far from Ed's side, and soon they had a table full of books.

Ed sighed, rubbing his eyes. "This is gonna be a long night."

"Indeed."

They sat opposite each other, Ed immediately flicking open a book and reading. Roy opened one himself, but he found the feeling in his chest distracting, the guilt was eating away at him and not knowing what Ed was thinking was unnerving him. How was Ed so composed?

"I'm sorry, Fullmetal."

Ed glanced at him, but his eyes settled back on the book. "About?"

Roy frowned. "I was the one who stood on the array. We are in this predicament because of me."

Ed flipped a page and shrugged. "It's happened, can't do anything about it now."

Why was he so calm, so accepting? While Roy knew Ed had calmed down after the Promised Day, it hadn't made him mellow. This was…

"Would you have been angry with me if I'd done it?"

Roy blinked. "Yes." Yes, he would've been furious. He would've told Ed every single thing in his life that had become an inconvenience because of this soul bond. He would've been a giant pain in the ass and he had expected Ed to be one too.

A small smirk tugged on one side of Ed's lips, as if he was trying to stifle it. "Of course you would've."

Roy put his book down, slightly offended. "What does that mean?"

Ed followed suit, resting his book on the table and leaning back in his chair. He seemed amused. "I was angry, until I realised I could feel your guilt through this soul bond, and you were feeling so damn sorry for yourself on the train I just didn't have it in me to stay angry at you."

Embarrassment fluttered in his chest, his neck becoming hot. He didn't allow people to see his emotions; years in the military had taught him to school his face into an unreadable mask. But Ed could now feel his emotions through the bond, like he had felt Ed's rage before.

He felt slightly violated.

Keeping his face blank, he said, "Well, I do apologise regardless. This is going to be a major inconvenience until we can break the bond."

Ed nodded, picking the book back up without another word.

They were silent once again.

A/N Reviews are appreciated, tell me what you think! :)