"Finally." Came Charlie's first word since the two had spoken in the toilet cabin of the plane.

There was sort of a comfortable silence between them during the rest of the flight. Now that the plane had landed and the passengers were told that it was safe for them to unbuckle their seatbelts and get ready to leave the plane, both Morpheus and Charlie were really excited to just be on solid ground again. Once Morpheus reached into the bag cupboard to get their bags, he realized how tired he really was.

His head hurt almost as much as his body from sitting on a plane for eleven hours. Even after having talked to Miss Denver, Morpheus could not fall asleep. It was really frustrating and only fed his bad mood.

"Here." Charlie was lucky to see the bag flying towards her after Morpheus only gave her that one-word-warning. If her reaction would've come only a second later, the rather heavy object would've hit her in the face. He wasn't looking at her as he started walking towards the door, following the line of passengers in front of him.

"He hates me." Charlie told herself as she sighed and decided to wait until the rest of the first class passed her. As the last person to pass them, Charlie found it convenient that all the flight attendants were right at the door, telling each and every passenger goodbye. Well, every attendant was there, except for the pretty one that gave her the tea.
"Thank you for flying with us. We hope you have a great stay in beautiful Ailavu." An elder woman smiled at her.

"Thank you. I just have a short question. One of your colleagues gave me this tea. She's not here right now. But I was just wondering what kind it was, it tasted so good and unique." Charlie asked the woman and immediately received a confused frown from her.
"All of my colleagues that had been on the flight are right here, Miss. Besides, we only serve camilla tea. It could not have been anything else." Charlie knew then and there that the woman was trying really hard not to show her judgement on her face. She almost forgot about her embarrassing behaviour a few hours ago.

"Oh, okay. Thank you." With a warm face, Charlie eventually left the staff as she entered the tunnel towards Ailavu's airport. So, the woman who gave her the tea was not a flight attendant? Then how was it possible for whoever that was to just serve her hot tea like that? And where was that person now? Was she crazy? Upon seeing Morpheus waiting for her at the end of the tunnel, Charlie walked faster in order to tell him about her confusion.

"Morpheus." She started.
"I've been waiting here for five minutes. You act like we're here on vacation, Miss Denver. Now hurry up and follow me, we have a schedule to keep." Without even letting her begin to tell him anything, Morpheus turned around and confidently walked into the direction of an escalator. Charlie quickly followed despite disagreeing with his current behaviour. She was hoping that maybe after their talk on the toilet, he might start being a little nicer to her. But one could only dream when it came to Morpheus Oneiroi.

"Keep up, Miss Denver." Morpheus ordered over his shoulder when he noticed that she had been following him with a gradually bigger growing distance.
"You're too fast. Your legs are longer than mine, I cannot keep up, Morpheus." Now, Charlie was getting annoyed with him. Of course they weren't here for vacation, but the rushing right in that moment seemed very much unnecessary.

Morpheus clenched his jaw and halted in his steps, waiting for Miss Denver to reach him whilst critically looking at his wrist watch. Once she was a meter away, Charlie thought she could finally take a breath. But as soon as she slowed down to stand with him, he had turned back around and continued walking towards the exit. With a roll of her eyes, she followed, picking up her pace.

Another 'finally' wanted to pass her lips, once the two of them had reached the main hall, in which the suitcases were already coming out on huge, black conveyor belts. Following Morpheus, Charlie stood near the belt and watched out for their suitcases.

"There's mine." She pointed at a blue one that was coming their way. Morpheus nodded and picked it up for her before placing it next to them.
"Thank you." Charlie said, but received no response. She looked back at the belt. So did Morpheus. And that for the next half hour. When the last suitcase had been claimed by some elder couple, Charlie looked up at Morpheus.

"What now?" She asked him, glancing at his purple cheek from the punch he received a few hours ago. To him, the flight must really stink, Charlie thought. Which gave him a reason to be as rude as he was since they left the plane.
"Info stand." Came his grumpy reply. Oh, he was so annoyed.

"Hello, how may I-"
"My suitcase was not on the conveyor belt. I have important objects in there." Yes, very annoyed. Morpheus showed the young lady behind the counter his passport and she immediately dropped her kind smile to nod sternly and take his passport. Charlie was gald the woman didn't comment on his old picture once she opened it. But she figured the woman was equally as intimidated by Morpheus as Charlie was when she first saw him. And she couldn't even blame her shaking hands, seeing as with his bruise, Morpheus looked even scarier.

"My apologies, Sir. But from what I can see on my computer, all bags have successfully been transferred and put on the conveyor belt." She said, making Morpheus clench his jaw again.
"Unless my suitcase had developed legs and walked away, which I find very unlikely, your computer data is wrong. There were no more suitcases on the belt." He tried to sound calm, but to be honest, Morpheus just wanted to leave and take a nap in the hotel.

"I will call the responsible staff. One moment, please." The lady said and turned away to make a call on her office phone. Charlie watched as Morpheus physically faltered. His elbows came to rest on the counter and his head fell down between them as he took a deep, calming breath.

Not being able to resist the urge of comforting him, Charlie placed her hand on his right shoulder.
"It will be alright, Morpheus." She would've felt really bad if he saw himself all alone in this situation. But she was still here with him, which up until that moment, he appeared to have forgotten. His body immediately stiffened and his head came back up to turn towards her. Morpheus looked at her with an unbothered expression. His eyes roamed down her body and then up towards her hand on his shoulder.

Charlie's heart dropped when he straightened his back and moved in a way so that her hand would fall off of him. He looked back at the lady in front of them. That was harsh, even for him.

"Alright, thank you." The woman behind the counter ended the call and looked back at Morpheus with an apologetic expression. Oh no, Charlie thought.
"There really is no more suitcase that belong to flight AG3658. I'm afraid to tell you, no one could tell you where the suitcase is now. Maybe someone took it before you came. But we cannot help you with that. I'm sorry." Was all she could say.

"And what am I supposed to do now? I can't possibly stay here without a change of clothes." Morpheus told her, his voice less calm now.
"Well, if I were you I would report the missing bag at the police station outside. Maybe they can help you a little more. Most of times though, if someone stole your suitcase, they're often long gone." She explained to them, making Charlie gulp as she wordlessly looked at Morpheus.

Whilst Morpheus was looking at the woman with angry, tired and annoyed eyes, Charlie was looking around. Maybe the thief was still here. She remembered his suitcase was brown and leather. It was rather unique, so it would be easy to identify it. But to Charlie's horror, she could not find any suitcase around that was even remotely close to looking like his.

"Come on." Morpheus ordered Miss Denver as he turned away from the woman behind the counter and started walking towards the exit. Charlie followed, feeling disadvantaged times two now that she already had shorter legs than Morpheus plus her own suitcase to pull. He on the other hand, only wore his backpack.

"Morpheus." She said his name when her suitcase got stuck in a hole in the ground. She merely meant to call him, so he would wait up for her. But Morpheus came back to lift the suitcase up and then carried on to pull it himself. Charlie blinked and then quickly ran after him.

"You don't have to-"
"I know. But you obviously have issues pulling it yourself. And since I don't even have any, I'm going to do it." Came his interrupted response as the reached an escalator. Charlie sighed, but still looked around with hope.
"Where are we going?" Charlie asked when after a few minutes they eventually reached the exit of the airport. Morpheus was leading them towards a cab.

"To the hotel, Miss Denver." Morpheus almost growled back at her.
"But don't you want to file a report or something? Or maybe we should look around?" Charlie knew she would've done everything to get her suitcase back. But Morpheus seemed to be fine with his missing belongings.
"No, I don't think it will help. You heard the lady: that bastard is probably already long gone. Now come on." He answered her with annoyance as he bent down to talk to the cab driver.

"But-" Charlie started.
"In." Wow, he was really mad. She understood him, but he still needed to stop being so rude to her. It wasn't her fault that his suitcase was gone now.
"Morpheus, if you'd just listen for once." Charlie stomped her right foot, stopping him from getting into the passenger seat. Morpheus looked at her with a stern face, his hand clenching around the door handle of the white mercedes.

"I think we should still file a report. I know you're tired and upset. But your personal belongings are in there." She explained to him in a more gentle tone.
"It's okay, Miss Denver. I will see to it as soon as I have taken a good nap. I cannot function properly right now. So please, for the love of Helios, get in." He ended his little speech with a sigh. Returning the sigh, Charlie nodded and with a dropped head, she got into the backseat.

Once the cab driver put Charlie's suitcase into the trunk and closed it, he came back to start the engine.

Morpheus leaned his head against the cold window. They had been in this country for less than two hours, but he was already fed up with it. First, his damn suitcase goes missing and now the cold weather. He was wearing the leather jacket that he wore in New Habbershire. But it wasn't enough. Aside from that, he had a weird feeling about this stay, but he made sure not to let Miss Denver know.

Whatever happened on the plane was obviously not natural. He felt watched as soon as he woke up from the trance he was in on the plane. And he knew that wasn't just an irrational feeling. Somebody was out to disturb him and Miss Denver. Even though he didn't know why, he had to make sure to find out who it was. But all that had to wait for a little while.

Right now, all he wanted to do was sleep. Sleep, and sleep only.