Well, the blood problem was genuine, but Nathan wasn't completely clueless about using the situation to his advantage—he was using it as a thinly veiled excuse to hang out with Charles. Which Charles had to already suspect, and could have turned Nathan down if he'd minded. But he'd agreed, so Nathan assumed he was cool with being distracted from his work and that actual sleeping probably wouldn't happen for a while. Or it could. He was hungover and tired enough to be compliant either way.

Without bothering to shower to wash off the blood first, Nathan rounded up some clean clothes, the newspaper he hadn't finished (just in case Charles did decide to do work... instead of him) and the one non-blood soaked pillow he had left. He made his way to Charles' room and decided to be polite by knocking instead of inviting himself in, of course hoping his attempt at propriety was noticed and appreciated.