Sagume hadn't visited the Dream World in a while. She was too busy with work, being a Goddess on the faithless Moon truly was a miserable and thankless job. She couldn't help but to resent their obsession with purity, even if only a bit. "Go jump in a pit and sit there to get rid of that impurity." "Go terraform the Earth and kill everyone on it." Frankly, she was just about tempted to give the Lunarians a reality check and make them deal with the impure Earth, but seeing as that would have made them mortal, it just led her to debating whether she was just killing them like the terraforming would have killed the Earthlings. God, she hated moral debates.

But today, she got an invitation. It was from Doremy, the Dream World's ruler. It was just to spend a bit of time together, just relax a bit. And for once this week, Sagume wouldn't be busy at all, so she could go just fine. She remembered how her voyages usually went; she'd lie face-up in bed and wait for a while, and eventually Doremy would show up to grab her. Fixing her wing afterward was never fun, but that was her fault for not just lying on her stomach.

Sure enough, as she started to feel drowsy, a familiar pair of hands grabbed her own. With a jolt, she found herself being flung through some kind of dark space, continuously passing by different abstract sights and visions. When she stopped, she was in another familiar location, another bedroom, though it wasn't her own. It was Doremy's.

"You're right on time," chimed a familiar voice. "I'm glad you could be here."

The baku sat on the other end of the room, staring at herself in a mirror and seeming to apply makeup. She only made eye contact through said mirror, though Sagume didn't really mind.

"I'm sorry if the move was jarring. Those arms weren't actually my own, just a little manifestation I came up with on a whim one day. People always describe dreaming as being 'whisked away to a world of fantasy,' so why not portray that a bit more literally?"

"I…" Sagume paused. If she wasn't careful with her words here, she could do something really stupid here. That was her curse, really; every situation she spoke of would be "reversed," or the opposite would occur. If she said "I understand you," would something happen to cause her to stop understanding? As a result, all she could muster up was a simple "okay."

"I'll be over there in a minute, I just want to look presentable. Go ahead and sit down."

Sagume looked back at the bed behind her. Black and white, not unlike Doremy's outfit, with the plushest pillows and thickest blankets she'd ever seen. She placed herself down on the bed, waiting for Doremy to finish her routine.

"I'm sorry I haven't invited you over in a while," Doremy admitted, "it's been a hectic week. Dream Shinmy's gone on another rampage and it's destroyed most everything, and Dream Nitori won't fix it unless she's paid exorbitant fees."

"Dream Shinmy? Does that mean…"

"Oh, no, we actually got her back ages ago. We just put Real Shinmy back and forgot to tell anyone. So the one you stopped at that fireworks festival? That was the real one, still mad after being left in the Dream World for almost a year."

"Oh, poor thing…"

Sagume got up as Doremy stepped away from the mirror and yawned. The baku trotted herself over to the bed and sat down next to the goddess.

"Anyways, I wanted to run by an idea with you. Did I tell you about the purifier I installed in the room over there?"

Sagume shook her head.

"It's meant to remove impurities from the air, but I got some dream kappas to tinker with it. Now, it also purifies living beings, without killing them of course. You could certainly use this on an Earthling and it would work just fine, but… well, I have a proposition."

Sagume nodded. Still not one for words, even now.

"I'd like to invite you to move in with me. It should be easy to set up a link between your home and my home here for your official duties, and thanks to this keeping you pure, this should still let you fulfill those responsibilities of yours while letting you get away from all the people you don't like. I'm sure the name Watatsuki rings a few bells?"

Right, those sisters. Sure, they managed to defend the moon from an invasion that one time, but Sagume could never stand them personally. Toyohime was obnoxiously carefree, and Yorihime was just aggravatingly boring to be around, like Eirin without any of the interesting medical trivia she'd occasionally spout. In all honesty though, they were among the most tolerable of the Lunarians to be around. Any chance to spend less time with them was a blessing, but… she didn't know. Maybe she'd need a bit more time? Just to pack her belongings, at least?

"I can see it in your eyes." Doremy tilted her head back and gave Sagume just the cheekiest smirk the goddess could imagine. "Don't worry, you don't have to move in immediately. Or at all, if you just want to stick to visits. I'm just happy to get to spend time with you, our past grievances aside."

Oh, Doremy. Even when she was being charming, she could be annoyingly smug. Still, for someone who didn't enjoy being around people much, Sagume sure didn't mind Doremy's smugness, at least right now. And she wouldn't mind being around it just a bit more if it meant getting to enjoy Doremy's company in general. With that, she nodded.

"So you will move in after all? I'm happy to hear it, you weird… half-bird, half-amanojaku… whatever you are."

"Goddess."

"Sure. Now get over here, let me get the late night entertainment set up."

Sagume obliged, awkwardly scooting over to her companion. The baku seemed to pull something from thin air; some kind of pink blob. This was a dream soul, sort of a physical manifestation of someone's dream. When Doremy wasn't eating them, she was prone to viewing the dreams as entertainment, and had even found a way to play back dreams that happened a while ago.

"It seems there's a few other couples with their own shenanigans down on Earth," Doremy chuckled. "Because it seems their dreams are just them reliving what happened during the day. Care to watch with me?"

"...hmm."

"Good."

Sagume rather sheepishly leant against her partner; even as her one wing wrapped around the baku's torso, her hands gripped the sheet beneath her with intensity. There was something deeply impure about this sort of physical intimacy that she just wasn't used to, as much as she wanted to be just to spite those on the Moon who annoyed her. Living on the Moon for a thousand years or so really gave a woman difficulty adjusting to anything beyond that. Bless Doremy for being so patient with her.

"Are you okay?"

"...tonight's going to be miserable," Sagume declared.

"You cheater, you~." Doremy laughed. "Alright, let's just have some fun with this."

Sagume nodded, not saying anything in an effort to avoid jinxing it. She decided it'd be best if she stopped thinking about it for a moment. She had some dreams to watch. Hopefully they'd be as fun as the last batch.