Eros opened his eyes to the all-too-familiar grey fog. He sighed. In here again?

  He lay on the ground, boredom etched into every line of his face, only to find a tentacle hovering over him, its massive eye staring directly into his. The sudden proximity nearly made his heart stop. It took him a long while to steady his breathing.

  "Why the hell am I dreaming about you again?" he grumbled at the limb.

  The tentacle tilted its eyeball, radiating a wave of pure confusion. Eros ignored it, rolled over, and continued his nap in the other direction.

  This had been his routine for a month. Every time he fell asleep, he found himself in this grey void with the writhing, one-eyed stalk. At first, he was terrified, but human adaptability is a terrifying thing—he’d grown used to it. He knew something was wrong, and he’d considered telling Estelle, but every time he opened his mouth, a primal fear clawed at his throat.

  It was a premonition: If I speak of this, something terrible will happen. He chose to trust his gut. After all, nothing bad had happened yet, right?

  Until one night. He was lying in his usual spot, expecting the usual tentacle, when a black-haired girl materialized beside him.

  Eros blinked. Change of scenery? "What's with that face?" the girl snapped, frowning.

  Eros looked her up and down, slightly surprised. "Oh, you're wearing clothes this time. Though, with your aesthetic, I expected black. I didn't think you’d go for white."

  The girl’s face turned a violent shade of crimson. She raised a leg to kick him into oblivion, but stopped herself mid-motion, her teeth grinding audibly. Definitely... there is no way this perverted junior is the Mistress.

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  Seeing that he wasn't being sent flying, Eros felt a bit disappointed. It wasn't that he was a masochist; it was just incredibly boring in this void, and teasing her was a decent pastime. He reached out, tugging at the hem of her white dress and giving her smooth, slender calf a quick squeeze.

  "Wow," he marveled. "The tactile feedback in this dream is incredibly realistic."

  The girl’s silver teeth were clenched so hard they might have shattered. "You wretched junior... don't push your luck."

  Just then, Eros spotted the tentacle rising behind her. "Oh, you're here too? I thought we were switching guests tonight, but I guess it’s a party." He waved casually at the eye-stalk.

  The girl froze. There's something else here? She whipped around, and the moment she saw the thing, she let out a piercing shriek.

  "Curse it! How did you get involved with THAT thing?! Run! Run!"

  Before Eros could react, she had scooped him up and bolted across the fog. Eros was dazed as he dangled from her grip. "Wait... this isn't a dream?"

  The girl rolled her eyes hard enough to see her brain. "What do you think?!"

  Holy... it’s real? The realization hit him like a freight train. If it's real, then all that touching just now was... His heart skipped a beat, part from embarrassment and part from the realization that she actually hadn't killed him for it. Moreover, if this wasn't a dream, he had spent every night for the past month cozying up to an eldritch limb.

  "Put me down," he said, regaining some composure. "It's fine. If it wanted to kill me, I’d be dead a month ago. It’s just... curious about me."

  The girl slowed to a halt, looking at the dangling Eros with profound suspicion. She kept a wary eye on the tentacle following them at a respectful distance. Once she was sure it wasn't attacking, she exhaled, though her face remained pale.

  "How on earth did you provoke Him?"

  Eros sighed. "During the bloodline baptism. I saw the Elven Goddess facing off against this thing. I don't know why it stuck to me, but it’s been here ever since. I can only sense curiosity from it. Is there something weird about me? I don't get it."