"Miss Denver?" Morpheus had enough. He had been listening to her groaning and moaning for half an hour now.

She was still insisting on her privacy in the bathroom, but he could not simply sit there and just listen to her painfully getting rid of the thorns and splinters that were stuck in the bottoms of her feet. It must hurt like hell, he figured. And she probably didnt even have tweezers or anything. He had to help her, even though it was uncomfortable for both of them.

"I'm okay!" She cried out for the nth time since he left. He had tried to come in eight other times, but his patience was almost gone now.
"You must've stepped through the rose bushes in the garden on your way here. I will come inside and help you take care of your feet with the tweezers." He announced, trying something other than asking her if he could come in and help. Now he left no room for discussion and she had to just let him in.

"No!" She responded. There went his plan B.
"Miss Denver, you are not being reasonable." He told her, balling up his fists by his sides.
"I am, Morpheus. I am bloody naked!" She reminded him in a rather rude tone.
"It does not matter, we can handle this like adults!" He tried.

"But- but I'm naked!" She repeated, making Morpheus roll his eyes.
"So what? I won't look at you like that. I will simply take care of your feet. Not in a weird way of satisfying a fetish, of course! I don't have a foot fetish." He said. When Charlie didn't answer, his eyes widened.
"Not that I judge anyone that has a foot fetish. I, for my part just don't have one." He quickly explained.

"Are you implying that you think I have a foot fetish?" She asked, a hint of amusement in her voice.
"No. I don't know. I don't really care, Miss Denver. I'm just trying to help you. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't even be in this position. Let me help you, please." His eyes closed as he felt hopelessness overcome him. He had no idea how to fix anything in that moment. No idea how to move forward with her case. But he knew he was running out of time. The least he could do right now in order not to lose his mind was to at least help her with this issue.

"What did you just say?" Her voice was suddenly soft and filled with surprise.
"Please?" Morpheus repeated after rolling his eyes once more. How come whenever he said the word please, everybody was surprised? He did have manners and he was always polite. Granted, he did not often ask for anything. Hence the word please rarely passed his lips.

"Okay, but no looking." She sighed and braced herself as she thankfully still had enough foam left to cover her upper body. The bathroom door opened and revealed a nonchalant looking Morpheus. She wondered how he could pull that look off. She was feeling embarrassed as heck!

"I have tweezers in here." Was all he said before opening his medicine cabinet above the sink. Charlie watched as he took out a pair of shiny golden tweezers and wondered if everything in this house was golden.
"Is that okay?" She didn't even realize he took a seat on the rim of the tub, his body slightly turned to look at her.

"Yes." Her voice was almost gone. For no apparent reason.
"Well." He patted his lap and waited for Charlie's feet to settle onto it. Once she placed them on top of his thighs, he went to touch them.
"Pleace, be careful." Charlie was close to pulling them away again, he noticed.
"I will." He assured her, securing his grip on her by gently touching her left ankle with his left hand. He took his time observing the many splinters and thorns.

"It must hurt like hell." He commented.
"Trust me, it does." Was her response.
"It won't magically stop hurting, but we need to do this, so your wounds can start to heal." He reminded her, watching Miss Denver nod.

Morpheus looked at her face. She was so red, it would've been comical if he wasn't so sure that her blushing was probably mainly caused by her pain. And probably embarrassment. But Morpheus didn't feel like laughing as he saw her pained eyes. They were silently pleading him to be gentle. He was going to try his best, he told himself. And so he looked back at her feet.

"I am going to start now." He announced, making Charlie squirm already. But he had a tight grip on her ankle, since he had a feeling her body was going to try everything in order to release the pain. That's why he was also expecting her to grab him. He was prepared, mentally at least.

"Ouch!" Charlie dragged out as he got rid of a rather long splinter.
"I will do this with a system. The long and rough parts first- the splinters. And then come the thorns. They should be out quickly, because they are tinier." He explained as he got rid of three other splinters.
"Ouch! Can we take a break?" She tried to pull her hurting left foot away.

"I think we should get this over with fast." Morpheus kept his grip on her ankles.
"No, I want to take a break." Charlie pulled harder.
"If you pull away now, you are going to think too much about it." He shook his head, keen to get another splinter out.

"Morpheus, please." Her eyes started watering up again. It hurt like hell. Why did she come here without shoes?
"Just a few more, Miss Denver. You can do it." He tried to sound motivating, but his tone had not changed much from the monotone one that he always kept.
"You're being mean." Charlie sniffed and looked away from him.

"I'm trying to help you." He felt like he had repeated that sentence quite a few times lately.
"But it hurts!" Another big splinter.
"This was the last one. See, we're already over with it. Now to the thorns." Morpheus continued.

"Thorns! I'm surprised I didn't step in dog shit." She said, confused as to where the thorns even came from.
"You're right. I also think that the possibility of stepping in any faecal matter on your way here should be far greater than stepping in thorns. But then again, stepping in thorns while crossing our yard was close to inevitable, since they are everywhere except for the pathway to the front door. I suppose you didn't use the pathway." He told her. Charlie simply stared at him, blinking twice within a minute. She wondered if he was some sort of genius too. But then maybe, he just appeared so smart, because he talked different.

"What is wrong?" Morpheus stopped and looked at Miss Denver.
"Except for my torn up feet you mean?" She asked him, almost overhearing his question at first.
"You are being so quiet now and I don't think I should leave you alone with your thoughts. As I said, this will be over soon." That thorn was a tough one, he noticed by the way her leg flexed as he pulled it out.

"Morpheus?" She asked after a solid minute of silence passed between them.
"Yes, Miss Denver?" He continued with his work.
"There is no way around going to Helda, right?" She realized. Even tying herself to her bed sounded like the most naive idea now that she could literally find her way back to a house that she was never supposed to find again.

"No, there isn't. I am afraid you cannot even fall asleep again until we're there. So we must leave as soon as I finish this. Preferably whilst my father is still out." Morpheus felt a strong feeling of release after hearing her question.
"I'm so tired." She said in defeat, talking more to herself than him now.

"I can imagine. But I am on it, Miss Denver. When you interrupted me, I was trying to get my father's keys to his office. Because his office beholds the secret door to our library. It's a collection of ancient books with a lot of stories. Most of them are cases that happened in real life. I was hoping to find something close to our dilemma." He explained to her, seeing her nod in understanding.

"And what if there isn't a case like mine?" She asked.
"It doesn't matter. I am just trying to find out if there is anything I could do to help you go to sleep right now. Going to the senate is still part of the plan. I thought maybe getting a good night's sleep in would be a good idea. But it would not be a permanent solution." He shrugged, finally getting rid of the last thorn.

"All better." Morpheus said as he examined her feet again. They still looked rough, but the bleeding stopped. He carefully put them back into the water and watched as her face cringed.
"After you are done, we will need to disinfect and dress up the wounds." He looked down at her for a second too long. He couldn't help his eyes to travel down her face, past her bare collarbone and onto the foam that was on top of her chest. It did not leave much room for interpretation, seeing as it was only covering around eighty percent of her chest. Morpheus gulped and quickly looked away.

"No matter what you do, don't fall asleep." He strictly said before exiting his bathroom.
"Don't worry. I don't think I'll ever be able to voluntarily fall asleep from now on." Charlie hated that she was full of pity for herself. It was her own fault, she should not have been so stubborn and just listened to Morpheus for once.

But if she was being completely honest, she was afraid to leave for longer than a day. She was sure her mother was already worried sick, because she had yet again skipped family dinner together. The whole entire reason why she chose to stay that close to her parents after graduating was that she kept up family traditions for as long as they still were a family of three.

Her father's days were counted, hence even thinking about travelling across the globe never crossed her mind before. But she was afraid of what could happen if she went on like that. If she didn't go to Ailavu with Morpheus and fix that stupid curse. But she didn't want Morpheus to be punished. She believed him when he said he didn't know. He might be rude and socially awkward, but he seemed like a very honest- sometimes brutally honest man. That was one thing she noticed from the very first time they met. Well, the very first time that she still remembered, of course.

"Oh no." Charlie thought out loud when after another half hour, she decided to get out. Immediately, her feet gave in due to the pain. There was no way she would be able to get out on her own.

So for the second time this evening, she braced herself for another round of awkwardness as she called for Morpheus.