Chapter Text
Ryland isn’t entirely sure what to think when Rocky crawls into the room asking, Why Simon eating arm question? That brings a slew of his own questions to mind that he’s not entirely sure Rocky would be able to answer considering there’s still a lot of human habits that he isn’t familiar with. Ryland is only a single example of human behavior. Still, “eating arm” could mean a lot of things and he’s not sure how long Rocky saw Simon “eating his arm”.
“I’m not sure what you mean exactly, Rock,” Ryland responds with. Rocky huffs before shuffling his limbs.
Simon eating arm! Use mouth and chew on arm! Wet sounds! Disgust disgust disgust! Rocky exclaims. Now that has Ryland a little more alarmed. It reminds him too much of how coyotes would chew their legs off if they were snared and Simon already lost one arm that way! Plus there’s the added anxiety of why does Simon feel the need to chew is remaining arm off?
“Let’s go check on him and ask a few questions, shall we?” Ryland proposes. Rocky shifts part of his carapace up and down, what Ryland learned is an Eridian nod, before scuttling back to where he saw Simon. Ryland follows behind until he walks in on Simon standing in the middle of the med bay, Armando interestingly silent. Rocky pauses upon entering the room, which Ryland takes note of. Either he’s being considerate of Simon’s space or something about Simon is bothering him. Pushing that thought to the back of his mind, Ryland tries not to let the fact that Simon dropped his arm to his side as if he’d been caught deter him. As he looks over Simon’s features, there’s nothing indicating he was auto-cannibalizing himself or self harming. His arm is shiny but it looks like it’s only from saliva. It still doesn’t explain why Simon’s arm was in his mouth in the first place.
“Rocky said you were eating your arm?” Ryland states with a questioning lilt to his voice. Simon’s eyes flit over to where Rocky is hunkered down before darting back to Ryland’s. He adjusts his stance to where he’s facing the both of them with his shoulders somewhat hunched.
“You tell me this isn’t COI yet I’m still a prisoner,” is all Simon responds with. His voice is low and disbelieving. It takes Ryland a couple seconds to connect the dots around what Simon is implying and he tries not to let it show on his face how horrified he is that Simon thinks Ryland is like a prison guard. Ryland doesn’t know how to feel about this level of mistrust. He’s dealt with it in middle schoolers, sure, but with a grown, traumatized man? This is above his pay grade.
“You still haven’t told me what COI is and I promise you’re not a prisoner here! Rocky is just worried. Humans are squishy and fragile to him and he doesn’t understand why we do certain things. So why were you chewing your arm?” Ryland asks after a long-winded explanation. Simon doesn’t look away and Ryland isn’t even sure he blinks. He just silently wipes his arm dry on his clothing. Ryland sighs, this clearly isn’t going anywhere without intervention of some kind. Simon is still a stranger to them and clearly isn’t willing to offer information freely, even for something as insignificant as this. So Ryland opts to fill the dead air.
“I mean, it looks like you haven’t hurt yourself so that’s good. I don’t mean to make you feel watched. It’s just hard to not be watched since Rocky uses echolocation to see pretty much all of Mary. It was super awkward at first when I had to tell him I didn’t want him listening while I used the bathroom,” Ryland rambles, hoping that Simon would eventually interject with the answer to his question. But no, Simon was quietly watching Ryland while he talked about nothing. Actually, wait a second. Ryland continues to over-explain Rocky’s echolocation and what he could hear but he keeps his eyes on Simon as he slowly raises his remaining arm to his mouth again and just. Scrapes his upper teeth against his skin before closing his whole mouth over his skin, his nose scrunching slightly from the angle and motion. Ryland does his best to not falter while he’s talking and to keep pretending he doesn’t see Simon doing this. But he is chewing on his arm. Rocky wasn’t wrong about that. Then a thought occurs to Ryland.
Simon only has one arm. He’s seen him scratch at his healing stump plenty of times. But what happens if his remaining arm is itchy? He doesn’t have another hand to scratch it. The pieces fall into place and Ryland blurts out, “Is your arm itchy?” Simon immediately stops what he’s doing but he doesn’t lower his arm this time. Instead he regards Ryland with his deep, dark eyes. Like he’s wary that even this one weakness of having an itch on his arm would somehow harm him if he admits it. So Ryland patiently waits for Simon to weigh his options and is rewarded with a very subtle nod.
“Do you want me to scratch it for you?” Ryland asks innocently. Simon’s expression pinches briefly before smoothing out.
“No, it’s fine,” Simon essentially growls back. He brings his inner forearm back to his teeth, the sharper ones along the left side of his face this time, and they flex and nibble at the skin. Ryland can see the points indenting into the surface of Simon’s skin. Those sharp teeth being so close to the veins in Simon’s wrist has Ryland shifting his weight on his feet nervously.
“Please, let me help you. Surely that makes you nervous too?” Ryland pleads. Simon scoffs at him but he does pull his arm away from the left side of his face. “I don’t even need to scratch it for you! I can find something abrasive and leave it out for you to, oh, well, hm, you can’t hold it can you? I’d have to clamp it down for you to use. Oh, biscuits, I can solve this!” Ryland chatters. Apparently he was so in his own head about finding a solution for Simon that he completely missed him walking into his personal space until he nearly collided with him. Ryland takes a jump back at the proximity before glancing down and seeing Simon’s arm outstretched towards him.
“You’re? Letting me-?” Ryland stammers. Simon nods slowly, again with the intense eye contact. Ryland lowers his gaze to Simon’s arm. He thankfully wiped away his saliva from his skin so Ryland didn’t have to worry about the sensory nightmare that would be for him. Up close, he can see where the skin is raised with little bumps and the red, inflamed skin around it where Simon was using his teeth to scratch at it. Ryland gently takes Simon’s wrist in his hands and turns Simon’s arm this way and that to take in its condition. The bumps seem like the ones he’s seen fading from Simon’s face. They’re not completely gone but Simon definitely looks better than when they first pulled him from the iron sub. Still, the bumpy texture remains on various parts of his body. Ryland absentmindedly wonders if some lotion would help with the itchiness Simon is feeling.
Regardless, Ryland was given a rare moment of trust from Simon so he will do his best not to squander it. So he brings his right hand over where the redness is most prominent and softly drags his nails over the skin. Simon’s breath hitches, which prompts Ryland to stop and pull his hand away like it burned him.
“Did that hurt?” Ryland questions. Simon shakes his head ‘no’ so Ryland tries again. He rakes his nails over the bumps and tries not to think about the texture as he repeats the motion.
“Harder,” Simon mutters. Ryland nearly jumps out of his skin at the request but he obliges and digs his nails into Simon’s skin a little harder. He’s passively aware of Rocky tapping in the background, likely trying to get a good look at this strange human ritual. Ryland continues to scratch at Simon’s uneven skin, tracing the redness from Simon’s earlier attempts at relieving the itchiness without causing injury. Where his nails drag over the skin, pale lines trail behind before the blood fills back in under the surface. Ryland is careful not to press too hard to the point there are broken blood vessels dotting Simon’s arm. Thankfully, Simon’s earlier biting didn’t cause any damage above or below the skin. Ryland isn’t sure he’s doing a good job until he hears a soft rumbling sound. He chances a glance up and Simon’s eyes are half-lidded and the sound is definitely coming from him. He’s purring! Ryland clears his throat and the sound stutters as Simon opens his eyes and stares at him.
“Do you want me to keep going?” Ryland asks with a soft smile on his face. Simon’s eyes dart down to where Ryland’s nails are still grazing his skin before he licks his lips in contemplation, the rumbling noise tapering off. His eyes find their way back to Ryland’s and Ryland feels him pulling his arm out of his grip. Simon pulls his arm to his chest before looking between him and Rocky.
“...Thanks…for this,” Simon mumbles before ducking out of the room. Ryland looks up at Rocky before shrugging. He’s not sure why Simon felt the need to leave but he’s going to give him space. Once Rocky deems Simon is out of earshot, he taps the ground once.
So Simon not eating arm question? Rocky asks. Ryland grins.
“Nope! Here, come to the lab and I’ll explain everything about human skin irritations!”