Battler pays Shannon to begin the first round. (Pink Trigger, Stacks -1)

"Well, if you tell me not to worry about it, I guess I'm not going to, ihihi!" Battler gave a graceless laugh, with a perverted grin stopping just short of drooling. "If this is a dream, I'm gonna get my money's worth before somebody pinches me and I wake up." He grabbed one of the unfathomable stacks of cash from the briefcase and waved it in her direction.

"Ah... Thank you, Battler." Shannon bowed, then accepted the stack with both hands before placing it aside. "This may be impolite to say, but... I was worried you had changed in all your time away. Now, I see that you've remained just the same." She giggled, tilting her head.

"Oh?" Battler looked a little taken aback, like he didn't know how to respond. "Hehe... But you've changed a lot, Shannon! I'd definitely remember if you looked like this the last time I was here, hihihi...!"

Shannon flushed and squirmed in place a bit, but continued to smile and did nothing to hide the chest Battler was staring at from his view... In other words, she was behaving just the way I'd want my moe maid to act. "Well, Mr. Player, if you would..."

I nodded and hit the "Play" button on the tape deck next to me in the dark, beginning a mood-making saxophone track loaded onto the cassette within.

The servant momentarily wore a concentrated, flushed expression... Then, she seemed to calm herself, becoming serene. She opened her eyes, but her long eyelashes remained low as she regarded Battler with a half-lidded gaze. Then, the timid, clumsy maid everyone in the family pitied was running her hands along her body, rocking her hips backward and forward in time with the music while tracing down her side with one hand, up her shoulder and towards her short brown hair with the other. As she held that hand above her, she used the other to play with her skirt, dragging it with the hand that rubbed across her hips and down her leg as she turned to show Battler another side of her dance. "Mm... Don't hesitate to ask me for whatever you wish, at any time." Her skirt and apron hid another miniskirt below, but the outfit had a large slit that made it visible. With that leg leading, she stepped in towards him and swished her skirt again, calling attention to the golden tattoo on her upper left thigh.

Battler watched in a trance, leaning forward on the loveseat with his hands on his knees. "I think I'll leave it up to you, Shannon... Y-yeah, you've changed a heck of a lot since I last saw you. Is it rude of me to ask about this? Like, uh... when, where, and why you picked this up?"

"Ah... There's, um, not much of a story," Shannon evaded the question, hiding her face from him as she continued to gyrate her hips, now with both hands in her hair. "I simply... learned this in preparation of becoming a wife. That is... I f-felt I would be better able to please a husband, if I had this sort of talent."

"Ha! I'm totally jealous of that husband right now," Battler admitted. "I feel pretty guilty about getting to see this before he did... Geez. I really feel like a bastard, making a nice girl like you do this for a dead-end loser like me."

"Not at all!" Shannon turned, regarding him with her big blue eyes. The confident dancer temporarily disappeared as the cute young maid reappeared. "Battler, you shouldn't disparage yourself that way. I'm certain one day, you'll be a fine, successful gentleman with a wife of your own! Also, I'm... n-not as nice of a person as you seem to think... Honestly, even now, I'm being... incredibly selfish..." Shannon muttered to herself, staring at her feet.

"Hey, there's nothing selfish about using your talents to earn yourself a little money, if you can find a big enough sucker to pay for it." Battler said his cool but self-disparaging line with a fittingly wry grin. "I mean, everyone needs money."

"That's true, but... the things I want can't be bought with money, Battler." She smiled shyly again, but paused in a pose with her hands still over her head and her impressive chest thrust out. It really was an alarmingly unfitting look for Shannon, no matter what Eva seemed to think. "Speaking of which... Would you like to pay for another round? It would be my pleasure to serve you in a more, um... h-hands on manner, should you choose..." The maid flushed again, with a nervous expression that didn't match her practiced pin-up pose.

Battler raised an eyebrow. He grinned, but he looked confused, and he wasn't the type of guy to let a thing slide. "H-hold up... You just told me the things you want 'can't be bought with money.' Why are you offering me a second dance?"

"Ah, hm... I wonder..." Shannon grew strangely evasive. "W-well, if I had to say... I was asked to? As furniture, it is not my place to reject the order..."

That answer didn't satisfy Battler at all. "Come on, Shannon. Is now really the time for those strange names my Grandpa makes you all use? A-and anyway, I'm gonna feel bad if you're dancing for me because someone made you..."

"Please, don't worry yourself with that right now, Battler." Even though she still looked sheepish, she made this request directly enough to make him drop the matter. "Do you accept, or not?"

If Shannon earned another stack, she'd be in a position to take a serious vacation, or maybe even consider another line of work... It was truly a life-changing sum. Would Battler let himself be parted from that kind of cash? I wondered if those two attractive young people had any notion of that money at all, looking into each other's eyes with mood-making candles and music all around....