Dear Mister Sandman

Chapter 20

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.