The first thing the former skeleton noticed was that even though swallowing was supposed to be an activity that forced food down, something in Gabe's throat was bobbing up. The Adam's Apple, presumably. It wasn't helping. The second thing he noticed was that each time Gabe swallowed, his breathing momentarily stopped. That, Skulduggery chided himself, should have been obvious; but something about the realization clicked. It almost shone through on his face, causing his eyes to widen slightly.

The whole process was an automatic reflex, but initiating it was what had been causing trouble. Skulduggery just needed to stop thinking in terms of operating a mannequin - as he did his skeleton - and let natural brain functions take over. 'Instincts,' as Gabe said. Skulduggery no longer knew every nook and cranny of his body, and right now, maybe that was for the best.

With that in mind, Skulduggery took his hand back and returned his attention to his plate. Cutting off a piece of sausage was the simple part now, especially after working with so many fiddly bits of string the day before. He hesitated with the fork just outside his mouth, giving it a look as if he was silently threatening it, before he tried eating it.

He didn't swallow immediately; first, the detective tried to pick out any unfamiliar taste or texture. That was difficult, considering any taste would probably be unfamiliar. But even after a few moments, Skulduggery was still swirling the food around with his tongue. The taste had finally hit him, and... Skulduggery didn't mind taking a moment to savor it. He'd missed this, he realized with a small jolt. Even after all this time, he still remembered the taste of sausage.

After that, swallowing was laughably easy.