Lion Head Mesa [m] cut out my heart and you leave me bleeding

Footsteps fell to Charles' ears before he looked up to see the Pharaoh. His vision was blurry and muddled. The words made a wry chuckle fall from Charles' lips. Why do you overindulge? What a question. It was one that Charles had asked himself many times, but the only thing that he could think of was that he must be stupid. There must be something wrong with him. That's what he had been told his entire youth, after all, and now that he was an adult, he found that his mother had been right all along; there was something wrong with him. He did not deserve what he had here in Akashingo.

Perhaps that's why he overindulged.

Charles did not like being force-fed the water from the moss. This was not the first time that happened. Yet with Pharaoh staring at him demandingly, he allowed some of the water to drip from the moss into his parted lips. He started to cough after that and continued to lean against the wall, dazed, until Pharaoh 'invited' him in.

The coywolf followed into Pharaoh's room, like lamb to the slaughter. He was not sure what he feared more; Ramesses' anger or Ramesses' forgiveness. Or perhaps it was that forbidden touch, the one that he craved most of all of them. Oh, how he longed to be truly free. This was a place where one could attain such things. And yet...