#system author

You were working a very normal shift at your very average retail store when someone who looked like your abuser walked in. It wasn't them but that doesn't matter to your brain; the panic, fear, and anxiety coursed through you like they really did walk in.

Simon noticed you were on edge when you came home, especially when you wouldn't let him touch you. That worried him the most, you never pushed him away like that. Even when you don't want to be touched you never throw him off of you like he burned you, but he couldn't get an answer out of you. Sleeping it off never worked but that equally never stopped you from trying. You never expected it to result in the most vivid dream you've ever experienced. A play by play of trauma locked from your memory on purpose.

Simon wasn't able to fall asleep, not when something clearly happened to you, it didn't stop him from startling when you started screaming bloody murder out of nowhere. He could see it in your eyes that you weren't all there, you were staring directly at him and yet clearly not seeing him at all. If he tried to get close to you and comfort you you would only sob louder and beg him not to hurt you. It took 20 minutes for you to calm down enough, only it wasn't you anymore. No you went to that nice comfortable place in your brain where nothing could hurt you anymore. It's also where you stayed for a week. Not that he knew, it is a covert disorder for a reason. No he could tell something wasn't quite the same but you did also randomly scream bloody murder in your sleep so it's not like he put 2 and 2 together.

When you did finally front again after your headmates deemed you stable enough to go back Simon still had that pensive worried look on his face. No one said anything to him but it felt cruel to leave him out of the loop. So you did the one thing you never thought you would do.

You told him.

He thought you were breaking up with him when you sat him down to explain everything. The literal binder of information you printed out for him threw him for a loop until he realized you are not, in fact, breaking up with him. He appreciated the binder.

After that he, at first, treats you guys like you're fragile. To him you must be. He has been tortured, abused, buried alive, and seen death since he was a small child and yet his brain is whole. Fucked up but whole. Surely something truly horrific must have happened for you to develop this right? It doesn't take overly long for him to find out that DID doesn't work like that and he's a little guilty that he's relieved. He knows that your trauma isn't lesser but to know that it probably wasn't more than what he's survived makes him glad in a way. He wouldn't wish his life on most people.

He started noticing the differences after you made a nice little list of everyone's names and some generic information about them. He could tell your switches before even yall could. He knew everyone's body language and voices in under a month. Being a soldier helps in that way, having to always notice the smallest of changes in body language can sometimes mean life or death on the field.

Not everyone likes him at first, still wary and shielded. He may be your boyfriend but that doesn't mean he's everyone's. That fact was hard for him to grasp for a while. It helped once everyone warmed up to him especially now that yall aren't so worried about making sure you are the only one out when he's around.