A/N Small note; I kept Hawkeye a Lieutenant on purpose. I know technically she would've probably been promoted to Major after the Promised Day but it feels weird cause she's The Lieutenant, you feel me? lol It's bad enough I can't call Roy the Colonel. xD

The park was deserted at this time of night. Roy surveyed the area as he and Ed approached the meeting point. Central Park was massive, with plenty streetlights; a good location for what they were planning on doing. Beside him, Ed huddled further into his coat. It was the beginning of summer, but the nights were still chilly. Roy himself was rather comfortable in his uniform.

A car pulled up on their right, and Hawkeye and Havoc emerged, both in full uniform. Havoc looked tired, a cigarette hanging from his lips. Hawkeye looked as alert and pristine as always.

Once they reached them, she saluted. "Sir," Hawkeye said. Havoc gave a half-assed salute, but Roy let it slide. He was just grateful they'd come to help carry out his plan at 11PM.

Roy nodded at them both. "Thank you for meeting us here. As I said on the phone, I have a plan I want to test out, but it could be dangerous, so your presence is much needed."

Hawkeye looked at him and Ed with a furrowed brow. "Have you made any headway with the research, sir?"

Roy pursed his lips, looking over to Ed, the golden light between them shining that much brighter at night. "Fullmetal and I have been focusing on understanding the particulars of this type of alchemy, but as it has the potential to become a weapon if inflicted on the masses, we need to test just how dangerous it can become." With the added potential bonus of breaking the bond, though Roy wasn't too optimistic. Ed's theory of them dying seemed more likely.

He briefed them on their findings, described the pain they felt when being separated and then laid out the plan. "Fullmetal and I need to be separated and see just how far away we can get and how painful it'll be. As this has the potential to be fatal, we will first try it with Fullmetal and Havoc walking as far away from me and Hawkeye as physically possible. If that is doable, then Havoc, you will drive Fullmetal further." Roy watched them as the information sank in. "This may or may not break the bond, or it could end with Fullmetal and I passing out before becoming fatal if pushed further." He looked pointedly at Hawkeye and Havoc. "You two are here to make sure we don't die."

Havoc looked nervously between him and Ed, chewing on his cigarette. "And if you two do pass out, what are we to do? Take you to the hospital?"

"You'd need to bring us near each other again." Ed said, crossing his arms. "From what I've gathered this alchemy works on soul energy; my theory of how this is going to end is that we'll pass out once the energies of our souls can't reach each other anymore. As long as we don't stray too far we should be okay when brought back together."

Roy was feeling apprehensive but determined. The stab of pain he'd felt on the few occasions he strayed too far from Ed had been intense, but it had also been unexpected in those instances. Maybe he'd have more of a tolerance if he was expecting it.

He refused to think about what he'd do if this didn't break the bond. While he knew the chances of success were slim, there was enough hope there to ensure disappointment if faced with failure. Ed seemed to think failure was guaranteed, but it was a useful test anyway; they needed to know what would happen if they were separated for their own safety. Since they didn't know how long they'd be bonded like this for, if they did end up separated for whatever reason, it was important to know how dangerous it actually was going to be to their lives.

Ed and Havoc began walking. He remained by their meeting point with Hawkeye. He'd picked Central Park because it had a vast expanse of open greenery, so as far as Ed could go, he'd still be able to see him; they'd be able to tell how far away they were from each other.

The tug made itself known almost immediately, the bond recognising that Ed's soul was straying away from his own. Roy watched the golden string flowing between them. He'd wondered if the tugs and stabs were the thread actually becoming taut, if it had a certain length, but it didn't seem so now.

The first stab of pain made Roy grunt, rubbing at his chest. He couldn't tell if Ed made it known to Havoc, but he continued walking. He gritted his teeth as Ed continued further, as the pain in his chest made him feel like his soul was getting ripped out from inside him.

"How painful is it, sir?"

He glanced at Hawkeye briefly, noting the concern on her face. "On a scale of 0 to 10, it's about a 6 right now."

She nodded, looking back to Havoc and Ed. He could see the cogs turning in her mind as she evaluated that they were, in fact, not that far away from each other at all and already the pain was a 6. Roy came to the same grim realisation.

While they were further than they'd been since the bond happened, it was still nowhere near as far as he wanted to be from Ed on a daily basis.

Ed continued walking; he seemed completely unaffected by the pain, until he stopped, putting his hands on his knees. Roy frowned, but focused on his breathing as the pain increased.

Havoc put a hand on Ed's back and then he was back up, walking again. Roy grimaced as the stab of pain radiated further through his body, no longer isolated in his chest. He could tell his breathing had become louder, more intentional. Hawkeye was eyeing him unsurely.

Roy decided to sit down, propping his back against the tree on their left. Hawkeye kneeled down next to him, her body tense.

"Sir?"

"I'm fine," he huffed. "It's an 8 now. I can handle it." His whole body was pulsing, throbbing; it was disorienting. He looked back to the golden thread between them; it appeared to also be pulsing. He could feel the energy around his wrist throbbing more intensely than the rest of his body; he could feel Ed's pain through it matching his own. The stabbing in his chest was borderline unbearable. The need to take his military jacket off was urgent, it was stifling and too tight, but he couldn't move enough to do so, all his focus being on his breathing.

He couldn't see Ed and Havoc. He knew he should be able to, but everything had gotten a bit blurry. He absently felt Hawkeye put a hand on his shoulder.

"Sir, I think you might pass out."

Roy nodded hazily, swallowing. "What's Fullmetal looking like?"

She looked towards Ed and Havoc, frowning. "He doesn't look much better. I believe Havoc is helping him walk further."

Roy hissed as he felt a sharp stab in his left wrist. "Good, tell them to keep going."

He heard her shout at them, but her voice seemed far away. Everything seemed far away. He really was going to pass out, perhaps the bond's attempt to keep them from going further away. They had to push through. Perhaps if Havoc drove Ed further it would break the bond when the soul energies couldn't reach each other anymore.

Or they would die.

The longing to be near Ed was growing more and more intense. At this moment, the deepest part of him wanted nothing more than to grab Ed in his arms and never let him go; the feeling startled him.

"Keep going," Roy muttered to himself, his eyes squeezed shut. His wrist was on fire. He could feel the blood flowing through every vein like poison, the throbbing becoming a pounding which radiated through his whole body. His head felt like it was about to burst.

He must've passed out, because he recalled nothing from that point onward.

Roy woke up on his bed. He felt like he'd been hit by a car.

His whole body screamed at him as he regained consciousness, his head pounding so hard it felt like a hangover. He wondered if he'd throw up.

He heard a groan next to him - Ed's groan.

Turning his head, he fought off a bout of nausea as he tried to focus his eyes on the blond. They were both on his bed, he realised. The knowledge made him grunt in mild annoyance, closing his eyes as his head pounded.

"Let's never fucking do that again," Ed grumbled, applying pressure on his eyes with his palms.

Roy swallowed, taking a moment as he stared at the ceiling. "Agreed."

He was still in uniform, but his jacket had been removed; he was in his white button up. Ed was in his tank top and leather pants. He assumed Hawkeye and Havoc had driven them back and dumped them on his bed.

How long had they been unconscious?

Roy squinted at the window. It was light out, so it was definitely the day after. The fact that there'd been no dream last night wasn't lost on him, and he thought perhaps that was a good outcome of the hell of last night.

"At least now we know we can walk down the block from each other before passing out."

Ed's words were laced with sarcasm, but Roy didn't have it in him to offer a witty reply. Instead, his mind was going down a different avenue.

"What if we could train ourselves to be more tolerant to distance? Like micro-dosing on poison."

He felt Ed's weight shift as he turned onto his side to look at him. Roy turned his head and met Ed's unamused expression. "I thought we just agreed to never do that shit again."

"But we also can't spend the rest of our lives next to each other."

Ed rolled his eyes to the heavens and rolled back onto his back. "Who said anything about the rest of our lives? You're such a fucking drama queen, it's unreal."

Roy frowned, miffed. "We don't know how long we'll be like this, Fullmetal. It's a good idea to plan long term just in case."

Ed was quiet for a few seconds, staring at the ceiling as he thought. Roy relished the moment of silence.

"Maybe you're right." Roy never thought he'd hear those words from Edward Elric. "That woman said our souls will break the bond once they feel they'll no longer be denied each other. I thought she'd been chatting shit but what if, with time, we can get more and more used to being away from each other until one day we're back to normal?"

Roy rolled onto his side, facing Ed. He felt more alert now, the nausea having subsided. "But that won't be breaking the bond, surely, it'll just be a higher tolerance to distance."

Ed shrugged. "Who cares, really, as long as we can live our lives while searching for a way to actually break the bond."

But by attempting to build a higher tolerance to separation, they would be denying their souls each other. Which meant that, by being away from each other, they wouldn't be able to break the bond.

Roy didn't have it in him to bring it up.

Havoc appeared in the threshold of the door, uniform crinkled and hair dishevelled, and saved Roy from replying. "Oh good, you're awake. For a second there I actually thought you'd died."

Roy heaved himself up with a wince. "How long were we out?"

"About fourteen hours."

Roy frowned, appalled. Ed propped himself on his elbows to give Havoc an incredulous look.

Havoc filled them in on what had occurred after they'd passed out at around midnight. Apparently, they'd passed out at the same time. It'd been like a light switch had been flicked; one minute they were conscious, the next they weren't. Havoc and Hawkeye had discussed whether to risk driving them further apart or taking them home. In the end, they decided not to be responsible for their deaths and drove them back to Roy's, where they dumped them on the bed and slept over, just in case. Hawkeye was downstairs.

His mind was whirling. They hadn't learned what would happen if there was extreme separation, but after last night Roy wasn't sure he wanted to know. It seemed unlikely the bond would be broken that way though; he decided their focus needed to be on how to make their souls want to break the bond themselves.

Downstairs, Hawkeye sat on the couch, reading the day's newspaper. Hearing their footsteps, she turned, her face unreadable.

"Good morning, Lieutenant."

She nodded, placing the newspaper on the coffee table and standing up. "Good morning, sir. I'm glad you and Edward seem all right."

Her uniform was also slightly crinkled. Roy assumed she'd slept on the couch.

"Please feel free to go now, Fullmetal and I are feeling well. Thank you again for last night."

Havoc sauntered over to the front door to put his boots on. "Don't need to be told twice!" he said, plopping a cigarette in his mouth.

Hawkeye seemed to hesitate, before saying, "When are you planning on returning to the office, sir?"

Honestly, that had been the last thing on Roy's mind. The thought of going back to signing paperwork with Ed sat next to him all day sounded like his own personal hell, so ideally he wouldn't return until the bond had been broken. But what if it wasn't? What if it took months, years? He couldn't just not work. His career plans were still plentiful, he couldn't just abandon everything and live the rest of his life sitting inside his house with Ed. He'd go insane.

He rubbed his temples. "I'm not sure, Lieutenant, I'm taking it day by day. Thank you for keeping everything running. Please if I am needed for anything just ring me."

He mentally noted to give her a raise after this.

Ed opened the fridge and grunted. "You've no food."

Roy set his book down, and frowned. This had been inevitable. They'd spent three whole days mainly inside, avoiding public places. Of course they'd run out of food at some point. It wasn't like Roy had known in advance he'd end up soul bonded to Ed and stocked up.

"We need to go grocery shopping."

Ed's face told him exactly what he thought of that particular trip. Disgruntled, he flopped back down on his chair at the kitchen table and crossed his arms. "Al always does the grocery shopping."

"Stop sulking, you'll get to see Alphonse soon enough."

He'd been pondering that, actually. Since he'd pretty much accepted that breaking this bond was going to take time, he'd been mentally going through everything they'd need to start doing together. And that included seeing Alphonse, which meant a trip to Resembool. And it also meant informing the younger Elric of the soul bond.

Roy was apprehensive about that. He hadn't been to Resembool since he'd recruited Ed for a State Alchemist position. He was pretty sure the Rockbells mildly or heavily disliked him. And he didn't really know Al's feelings towards him; it was unlikely he would be too pleased about his brother ending up tied to Roy in such a way.

It was going to be hell.

But he also couldn't expect Ed to not see his family at all while bonded to him.

Ed huffed, and sulked further into his chair. "Well yeah, but he's not here now and I'm hungry."

That was as good a hint as any that they needed to go get food. Roy put his pen down and stood. "Let's go, then."

They mutually agreed to make this trip quick. They went to the small grocery store near Roy's house and mainly stocked up on snacks, cereal and anything else Ed decided he needed for his growth and threw into Roy's cart. They were still getting takeaway for dinner, but Roy idly thought they needed to stock up on lunch items, since they weren't in the office and couldn't eat at the cafeteria like he usually did.

So he grabbed some bread too, and basic sandwich fillings.

Ed threw a supersize packet of chips in his cart, and Roy narrowed his eyes at him. "You're bleeding me dry here, Fullmetal." Cause of course, Ed also expected him to pay for all this. He'd paid for every single meal so far, and Ed hadn't even offered.

Ed turned round and scowled at him. "It's just a bag of chips, you stingy bastard." He went back to looking for more snacks. "And this is your fault anyway, the least you can do is feed me."

Roy clenched his teeth to refrain from saying anything. Was Ed really going to use Roy's guilt to manipulate him? Of course he would, the little shit. This was why he didn't show people his emotions. There were people like Ed out there.

Just as they turned into another isle, he noticed people were looking at them. He liked to think people were looking at his uniform. It was entirely possible, since officers didn't usually do grocery shopping in uniform, but with Ed's loud presence next to him, Roy wondered if they were being recognised. He wondered what people would think about him going on a grocery trip with his subordinate. With Edward Elric.

Ed seemed none the wiser, but Roy was feeling paranoid, feeling eyes on them wherever they walked.

It was only a matter of time before rumours popped up, and Roy knew it.

For years, Roy had kept up a very specific appearance to the public. He was known as a womaniser with a god complex as Ed liked to say, going on plenty dates and making sure he was seen and pictured. He would usually find his face in a lot of newspapers, which was always the goal. He needed exposure, for people to know who he was so when the time came for a new Fuhrer he'd have an advantage.

But he also used this reputation as a cover up. His dates were almost always bearing information for him, courtesy of Madame Christmas, his aunt. Competition would think he was too busy wooing women when in fact he was always plotting.

And, secretly, he preferred being called a womaniser with a god complex than The Hero of Ishval.

Ed didn't care what people thought about him, and while a part of Roy admired that, another part of him thought it a waste. People's opinion was very easily manipulated and it could be used to one's advantage.

Or, if neglected, could be one's downfall.

Ed turned to him, agitated. "Why the fuck are you anxious now?"

Roy, pushing the cart, glared at him. He was being too loud. He stopped, turning towards a shelf and pretending to be looking at something. "There's people looking at us."

Ed pulled a face, and very indiscreetly looked around, glaring at whoever was looking. "Why the fuck would they be looking at us?"

Roy grabbed Ed's arm and turned him so he also faced the shelves. "Oh, I don't know, cause it's you and me buying groceries together like it's an every day occurrence?"

Ed rolled his eyes and picked up a chocolate bar. "People don't care that much, you just think you're too important."

Roy pursed his lips, resuming his pushing of the cart, Ed next to him. "That's where you're wrong, Fullmetal. People are bored, they want gossip, and drama. There will be rumours soon."

Ed, for some inexplicable reason, blushed. "Rumours? As if people will believe stuff like that, it's you and me for fuck's sake, the most improbable pairing in the world."

Roy looked over at him, but his bangs were hiding his face. "If anything, people will be even more excited at the improbability of it. We need to be careful."

Ed remained suspiciously silent after that, and just wordlessly threw more food into the cart.

They left the store with plenty bags, and power walked the short distance home. When Roy entered his house, the paranoia left and he could breathe easier. He idly thought that this could become a problem, if he developed some sort of agoraphobia. And then he wondered what Ed would think if Roy genuinely got too paranoid to be seen outside with him.

He supposed he could've been soul bonded to someone way worse for his reputation. At least Ed was generally liked, even adored, in most places, and he was also Roy's subordinate. It wasn't that weird to be seen together.

He was absently sorting their purchases into the fridge and cupboards, when Ed said, "What if one of us died? Maybe the bond would break then."

Roy paused slotting the cereal in a cupboard and turned to him. "Are you plotting my murder, Fullmetal?"

Ed snorted, but gave him a teasing smirk. "Maybe I am."

Roy raised a brow, leaning against the counter and crossing his arms. Ed was sitting in his chair, his notebook in front of him. He must've been reading through his theories.

"There's also the possibility that the bond would kill you too if I died."

Ed pointed his pen at him. "And that is why I'm not testing that theory."

Roy rolled his eyes and grabbed a packet of chips. When Ed heard the sound of the packet opening, he whipped his head up and huffed, "I bought them for me!"

Roy glared at him, taking a seat in his chair. "You mean I bought them for you."

"Stingy fucking bastard."

"Brat."

A/N Reviews are looovee xx