"You don't smile much"
Maya lifted her face from the book she was reading to stare at the commando with a frown. "Excuse me?"
It was all of a sudden, Axton didn't mean to give voice to the thought he had for a few weeks already, it had just happened. He had no idea why it kept happening, but during this last period he found himself staring at the siren more and more, to the point of taking notice of everything, even the smallest things, from the tiny wrinkle that it would take its place on her forehead when she was reading like in this present moment, or the tendency she had of putting a hand on her hip when she was standing idle. During this time he did notice something strange though…
Maya never smiled.
He had seen her grin in the rush of the battle when she took down a particularly pesky enemy, he had seen her laugh to stupid jokes, even if it was light and her mouth was always covered by her hand, but never once he saw her smile.
"I said that you do not smile" he repeated himself, he knew he wouldn't have been able to avoid the matter anymore so why not talk to the siren directly?
"I heard you the first time" Maya gives him a light scowl. "I do not see how this is of any interest for anyone"
A couple of days ago, making use of some time while Maya was busy, he had run this matter through the rest of the group as well, at risk to sound stupid, which he did, at least to Salvador and Gaige, which laughed at him until one was reduced to a coughing mess and the other had turned the same color of her own hair for the lack of air.
Once the laughter died down though he learned that he wasn't the only one who noticed the siren's lack of smiles, but he was the only one who gave some thoughts about it. He didn't remember much of the conversation that happened next, just a couple of plans Gaige had made that had failed miserably, and some words from Zero, something about Maya's heart not being serene, and about her not trusting them enough to open up to them. Zero had also made some hypothesis that something might have happened to her in the past to make her this cold, but none of them could be sure of it, the siren never spoke of her past with them before.
"Of course it is of interest Maya" he only receives a somewhat impatient yet confused stare, her way to say 'explain it to me then' without words.
"Look maybe it's different for you sirens but people smile when they are happy you know?" he watches her close her book and cross her arms over her chest.
"Tell me something I don't know smartass" she scoffs, he could tell she was losing her patience with him.
"The point is this, we are worried that you're not happy" he sighs. "There, I said it"
"Maybe I simply can't be happy" she shrugs as if it didn't concern her, but he saw pain in her gray eyes.
"That's bullshit Maya, and you know it" his momentary angry voice instantly switches to a sweeter, and more concerned tone. "We would just like you to feel at ease with us, we're friends, was it something we did? You can talk to us, you can talk to me" he pleads.
Axton was getting desperate, he didn't want Maya to feel unwelcome between them, maybe it was the fact that she was a siren, or like Zero had said that she didn't trust them enough, but they all wanted her to trust them, they wanted her to know that they worried for her because they cared.
Maya clutched the book close to her chest. Friends, she had no idea what friends were, she had spent all these years alone, confined in an abbey with people that wanted nothing more to use her powers for their own gain. When she left Athenas for Pandora she swore that she wouldn't have let anyone else use her again, she couldn't trust anyone, yet, for some weird reason she decided to stick with the group of misfits that were together with her on that fateful train. It wasn't because she trusted them, but for survival, she told herself. But maybe there was a certain degree of trust involved too.
Months had passed since then, and she had found herself unable to leave these people, and neither they seemed to want to separate from each other, she had supposed that it was because staying in a group was more effective than being alone, even if a part of her feared that they stayed together with her to make use of her powers too, it's not every day that you meet a siren after all.
And it fact it was this part of her that still won over the more sincere part of her that truly wanted to give these people a chance, to open her heart to them, but being used again scared more than anything else. However, in this exact moment she wasn't sure of these thoughts anymore.
"Maya?" Axton calls her softly, puzzled by her reaction, she was just sitting there, holding her book, a little too tightly to say that she was calm.
He was about to say something again when he saw her stand up and turn to him… she was smiling! It was small, her lips were barely curved upwards but it was there, he was sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him.
"Perhaps… perhaps it's nice to have someone who cares" was all she said before she left.
He didn't know what she meant with those words, but of one thing he was sure, the one he just saw was the most beautiful smile he had ever seen.