“What, in the nude?” Souma laughed after he snatched the cleaning rag out of the air, as if her suggestion were the strangest thing he ever heard. He started wiping down the counter, with each swipe across it pulling away yet another layer of dust and grime. “Why would I ever have you do that? Sounds so uncomfortable. But would it kill you to put on a smile?”<br/><br/>They called cat-people senseless sometimes. That they leapt before they looked, didn’t consider the obvious, or just didn’t<em>care.</em>But even Souma knew that the bunny-maid wouldn’t buy his innocent act at all, no matter how long he kept at it. There was only one reason to pay for that full service. They both knew it, too; but Souma wasn’t the kind of man to give up that easily.<br/><br/>If he was, why would he have ever bothered trying to go into business as a cat-boy? No, no, he had persistence,<em>tenacity,</em>and he’d crack this girl wide open like a dead mouse before the day was out.<br/><br/>To do that, he needed to keep up the charade a little longer. So he cleaned, scrubbed, wiped, and polished away at the counter top. He got on his knees and got inside the shelves on the other side, cleaned around the mechanical cash box, and made sure to keep going until the rickety old thing shined as much as it possible could without some repairs or fresh finish applied.<br/><br/>After the better part of an hour, he stood up and stretched out, the tip of his tail flicking wildly as he savored the feeling. He even purred, as quietly as he could, from the feeling of it. A moment later and he tossed the rag down and made his way for the door.<br/><br/>“I’m going to go pick up my equipment,” he explained to the stubborn maid as he walked past her and reached for the dull handle on the door. “Keep at it until I get back, and keep the door locked, okay?”<br/><br/>Once again, as if he wasn’t intended to have his way with her at some point, he smiled like a completely normal and professional young man with zero ulterior motives. Without any hesitation—what was she going to steal or destroy, after all—he pushed the door open once more and set out into the city.