To please is to survive. He used to understand that, balls to bones-- with her.

Could serving Master Samir have made him...soft?

Now is not the time to think, about that or, apparently, about anything. His body responds to the command while his mind is still reeling from the brief asphyxiation. Gasping for breath, nonetheless he rolls to the side, hands flattening to either side of the boot that had put him in his place. Without hesitation he applies tongue to leather, starting with the smudges left behind by his idiot fingers.