Maya had tried to force herself into believing her attraction to Zer0 was nothing more then a crush. She was simply swooning like a high school girl and affection would pass, or alter to someone more charming, with time. Unfortunately reasoning refused to let the siren lie to her own body. No matter how hard she tried to convince herself otherwise, puppy-love alone would never have stirred Maya into running a fleeting touch down length of assassin's arm. Compel her to bump a less then innocent hip against his side as she seated herself next to him. Spawn very primal sensations in rather adult places.

"Awfully close." Zer0's voice nearly jumped Maya when it rang for the fist time since she'd found him in a relatively safe alcove of the caustic caverns. His tone as evenly cool as ever, despite her blatant touches. "Proximity unusual. Something wrong?"

"It appears I have the hots for you," almost slipped from the siren's mouth. Her brain shot sentence down before it could reach the tip of her tongue however. Maya less then prepared to admit to such aches out loud. Especially when, in all actuality she hadn't even seen enough of Zer0's physique to justify lusting.

Furthermore, even if Maya found the rationale to confess her desires, Zer0 was probably the only man on Pandora that would be less then thrilled upon hearing a siren's declaration of want. The assassin had never once gawked at her like most other men, including Axton and Salvador, did. Neither had she ever witnessed the assassin turn his head at the rare sight of a doable woman striding across the damned planet.

A bitter tone bit at Maya's brain as she scowled herself. 'The day I bed Zer0 will be the same day he stops speaking in five seven five phrase-'

"Zer0?" Her thought never finished itself, as an abrupt realization setting her head ablaze like what flammable rounds did to bandits' skin. "Your last haiku. That wasn't five seven five."

"Five seven five, you must be mistaken, I rarely falter."

"No." Momentarily overlooking her own vexes, Maya went so far to phase out dialogue in her head. "I'm not. 'proximity unusual' is eight syllables, not seven. And that last one too. Six, seven, five. Zer0, you rarely do falter. Which leads me to wonder, is there something wrong?"

As Maya waited for an explanation or a correction (breaking down syllables had never been a strong hobby of hers), Zer0 remained unmoved. His posture and breathing suggested calm consideration, yet the siren tasted nervousness in air between them. At first she almost registered mood as her own. Maya, still uncomfortable, in more ways then one, from sitting so close to him.

"You are… a distraction." A single sentence finally served as an answer.

"A distraction?"

No further elaboration was offered, the question circled between pair like a rakk trying to decide which of two targets to dive toward. When a minute passed in silence Maya wanted to openly swear but opted to keep curses of Zer0, and his helmet, internal. What she would give to burn through that visor and glimpse his expression. To have something to read so she could react appropriately. Instead the siren had to make do with a controlled glare that said "I'm not satisfied" instead of "fucking out with it!"

In the end her intention must have crossed him somehow, because an image soon enough flickered across Zer0's visor. Its spark short-lived, but solid and crimson.

"3"

For a long moment neither of the pair said anything. Silence only broken by slight humm of near by vending machines and the caustic cavern's toxic lake. Then, a single word loosed from Maya's mouth.

"Fuck."

Still not sure if I got the haiku right. I'm horrible at phasing out syllables. Anyways thankies for reading! Please reveiw!

P.S. I did have a slightly smutty part to this, but a friend that sometimes edits my stories said it didn't feel right with the piece so maybe I'll try to make that into something else?