Light.

That was Charlie's first thought when her eyes opened the next morning. They were immediately blinded by the brightness in the room. She should've drawn the blinds closed last night. But Charlie also remembered that she didn't feel the energy to do so. The young woman was just happy to have Morpheus take care of her sleeping again.

Speaking of Morpheus, where was he? Her head turned to the left as she looked at an empty kitchen. Did he leave her again? The sudden feeling of panic overcame her and she tried to sit up. But couldn't. Something was holding her back.

One look to her right made Charlie realize what was actually happening. No, she was not still asleep and stuck in a nightmare. She pinched herself just to make sure.
"Ouch." She rubbed the sore spot on her arm now. Then she looked back to her right and weirdly enough, relief washed over her.

Next to her, stretched out to the extend of having his feet dangle off the end of her couch, laid Morpheus with his face snuggled into her upper arm. His right arm was around her neck, which was holding Charlie back from sitting up. But she really had to empty her bladder, so she grabbed his arm softly. And as slow and steady as possible, she slid out underneath him whilst her left foot came on the ground to hold her up. She let go of his arm now and let her second foot step on the floor. Success, she thought when she stood up from the bed and took a step forward.

"What the-" Before Charlie knew it, her butt hit the floor and her head hit the couch. What just happened? She felt a nasty cold thing on the bottom of her foot and looked at it. Was that a brownie? What the heck? Where did it come from?

"What happened?" Came Morpheus' slightly belated reaction as his upper body shot up from the bed. It took him a second to realize where he was.
"I just fell, because of this junk on the floor." Charlie got rid of the brownie on her foot and stood up to glare down at him.

Morpheus gulped and rubbed his eyes a second later. Was he in Miss Denver's bed? This had to be a joke. He glared back at her.
"Why am I in your bed?" He didn't even remember falling asleep. He looked around again, immediately disliking the brightness in the room. He remembered being bothered by it when the sky first turned a little brighter and he started hearing cars turn into traffic below her window. Ugh, how much he hated daytime.

"You tell me." Charlie threw the brownie in the bin and came back to place her hands on her hips.
"Some Sandman you are. Messing up my place, falling asleep in my bed and blaming me for it." She said.
"I'm not Sandman and I-" Morpheus stood up, since he did not like feeling like a child getting scolded at by his mother.

"I fell asleep on the floor there. I do not remember coming in your bed. My subconscious must've looked for something warm and slightly more comfortable than the hard floor. I may be helping people sleep, but I'm half human, still. My apologies, I did not mean to bother you. As for the brownie, it fell out of my hand when I was walking around and I couldn't find it anymore. I also apologize for that." He quickly explained, feeling extremely embarrassed. He was supposed to help her stop sleepwalking and couldn't even prevent himself from doing so? How was she supposed to trust him?

"It's okay, Morpheus. I'm sorry too. I didn't think this through. I don't have a big enough place for a guest room. I should've known that you would be exhausted too. I'm not upset that I woke up next to you. I overreacted, I'm sorry." Wow, Morpheus thought. When did they start being this mature and polite? Charlie had the exact same thought and a small smile overcame her features.

"How about I get ready for the day and you clean up your mess?" She asked.
"I was going to do that anyway." Morpheus said, his tone harsh again. Charlie frowned, what did she do wrong now? She had no time to worry about his weird behaviour. She needed to pee really bad, so she left him in the kitchen whilst she went into the bathroom.

"Stupid." Morpheus was upset. Why did he sleep in her bed? And why did he like her smile so much? It was getting out of hand. He was really hoping his reasoning was true and his subconscious was only looking for warmth. And not her... Being the Uvalion of Sleep, he knew exactly what sleepwalking could mean. It had many reasons and despite him having the Might to control other people's minds, he had close to no control over his own. Especially when sleeping. He was still partially human after all. And it really showed when it came to that.

Maybe he was upset about the delay of his plan? Charlie thought when she started brushing her teeth. She could understand his disappointment, really. He was probably trying to get away from her as fast as possible. Because as Hypnos told her, Uvalions and humans were not supposed to interact for a long period of time. Heck, she wasn't even supposed to know about all that. She shook her head and looked at herself in the mirror.

Gosh, did she look like that the whole time? She had looked way worse in front of Morpheus, but having him see her right as she woke up was embarrassing. Her eyes were puffy and her lips were dry. She couldn't even look at her hair without blushing. Maybe, he was so mean before, because he thought she was ugly? Well, there she went. Once she started to think about her insecurities, there was no stopping her head from overthinking.

It was particularly annoying, because Charlie knew she was supposed to seduce him into not going to the senate. She was supposed to look good for him on the trip. She spit out the toothpaste and washed her face.

Well, she guessed it was time to step up her game then. As Charlie bent down to take out a black purse from the sink cupboard, a long breath escaping her lips. Once she straightened her back and opened the purse, her teeth found her bottom lip as they thoughtfully chewed on it. It had been quite a while since she had gotten ready for something. Since she had put make up on and done her hair.

Her hands wrapped around the hair straightener and she wondered if it even still worked. After plugging it into the outlet next to the washing machine, she had her answer. Its display started to shine blue and it only needed a few minutes to heat up. She placed it on the floor and decided to start on her make up in the mean time.

Morpheus had long finished cleaning up his mess from last night. He now wondered what was taking Miss Denver so long. They had to be at the airport in two hours. Darian was going to be at Miss Denver's apartment in one and she still had to pack her clothes.

Today was a bad day. He already woke up on the wrong side of the bed, literally. He should not have woken up in her bed at all. Aside from that, he had to now readjust his sleeping manner. Instead of sleeping through this horrid bright day, he had to be awake for it. And the flight would also be during daytime. How annoying. He was already yawning again and slapped his cheeks in order to wake up. He needed to freshen up a bit.

"Shit." Charlie thought when a knock erupted on the bathroom door. Her eye liner pencil fell from her hand into the sink and to make matters worse, she looked at the line she so carefully drew before that. Only to see it ruined. With a roll of her eyes, Charlie looked at the door.
"What?" Came her response to Morpheus' knocking.

"Miss Denver, you have been in there for almost an hour. Must I remind you that Darian is on his way here to take us to the airport and that you have still not packed your bags?" Oh, double shit.
"I'm almost done. Give me five more minutes!" Charlie turned back around and with a make up wipe, she wiped off her eyeliner. With no other disturbance, she eventually finished her make up, topping it off with a pretty pink lipgloss. One last look into the mirror and once she was satisfied with how her hair was sitting, she turned around and opened the door.

"Finally. Get to packing." Morpheus ordered as he simply walked past her and into the bathroom before closing the door shut.
"What crawled up your butt and lit up your fuse?" She muttered to herself. He didn't even acknowledge her make up and hair. Did he even look at her?

"Excuse me?" The door reopened.
"Well, why are you being so rude again?" Charlie hadn't intended for him to hear her, so she felt kind of sorry.
"I am not being rude. You have made us late once, I won't let that happen again. You have to understand the importance of-"
"I get the importance of this trip. I do, Morpheus. Maybe you could try and be a little nicer to me though. I haven't asked you to take on this burden for me and you know that." She said, making him shake his head.

"Be a little nicer to you? Miss Denver, the only reason why I'm still here is because I'm being nice to you. The only reason why I'm not at home sleeping right now, is because I'm being nice to you. I'm changing a lot right now, just to be nice to you. So stop being ungrateful and just do as I say for once." He sounded so annoyed with her, not even her make up could stop Charlie from looking away. She felt bad. Obviously she was grateful for him, but he had no idea how hard it was for her to not lose her mind. Having him be rude triggered her all the time. She felt so damn alone whenever he acted that way. Which was weird, since she had been living alone for a while now.

"What's that on your face?" Once again, Morpheus expressed a rather belated reaction. He took a step closer as Charlie turned her head again to see him staring at her with a frown.
"Well, it's make up." She answered Morpheus, who rolled his eyes.
"I know what it is. What I'm actually trying to ask is if you really took all this time to just slap some colour in your face." He looked disappointed now. Charlie's heart dropped.

"We're going to the airport, Miss Denver. Not a ball." He reminded her.
"I know that, but why can't I make myself look pretty for the airport? You know what they say. When you get yourself ready, you immediately feel way better. And after what happened the past few days, I needed to make myself feel better." She wasn't entirely lying. Morpheus shook his head.
"You can't trick your mind like that. Especially when you don't even look better." His eyes roamed her face in distaste. Ouch.

"Are you done?" Charlie asked, feeling like a clown now. What was she thinking? He would never see her as more than a nuisance.
"With what?" Morpheus crossed his arms, watching her look at his shirt. Why wasn't she looking at him anymore? Was there something on his shirt?

"Being rude? I thought we had somewhere to be. If you'll excuse me, I still have to pack." With that, Charlie turned around and walked towards her closet next to the couch. She heard Morpheus scoff and then leave her as well as he eventually went back into the bathroom.

"You clown." Charlie told herself as she felt a single tear roll down her left cheek. She wasn't even supposed to care about his words, but she did. They hurt and she actually tried to look good for him.

Note to Charlie, don't bother wearing make up for Morpheus Oneiroi. He would most likely find it ugly.