A/N: This is canon-based, but the timeline is seriously messed up. Also, the AkuShi in this is not romantic.

xX~100 Eternal Moments~Xx

Set 1 – Lunar Flare

7 – Quiet

Xion had always been quiet. Axel hadn't even known she could speak until he came home from C.O. and helped Roxas find her. She used to stand there in the Grey Area, creepily silent, faced shadowed by her hood. Axel never paid her much notice, except to drag Roxas away from staring.

Now… now it was completely different. He cared. One of his best friends was in a coma, and even though she looked peaceful, like she was merely sleeping, he couldn't keep worried thoughts from buzzing in his head.

"Axel," Roxas asked quietly while the redhead's gaze bored into her undisturbed face. "She's going to wake up, right?"

" 'Course, Rox," he said with fake optimism, putting on his Lying Smile and dodging the blond's eyes. "You woke up, remember?"

"Yeah…" But he didn't look convinced.

Did Roxas look like this when he was asleep? Axel wondered. Xion must've been here worrying, just like us… maybe a little more panicked since she's a girl… wish I could've been there for them then. But at least he was here now.

"I wish we could do something," Roxas said hopelessly.

So do I, Rox, so do I. "Well… we – well you really – can collect lots of hearts. That way there won't be so much work for her when she wakes up."

"I guess that's better than nothing." Roxas sighed and gave the sleeping Xion a gentle hug. "Wake up soon, okay?" Turning back to Axel, he added, "I guess I'll go to bed. See you later."

"Yeah. See ya later," Axel replied, but he couldn't bring himself to leave yet.

Saïx was an idiot to give her that mission… why her? Why should she have to take out the imposter? Her job is heart collection; I'm the assassin… it doesn't make any sense.

Axel sat on the edge of her bed, beside her face. "What's up with you two falling asleep on me?" He tried to joke, but it came out hollow. "What am I gonna do with you…"

"Talking to an unconscious puppet? Pitiful."

Axel's head jerked up – When had Saïx entered the room? – and his eyes narrowed. "What's your problem? Ran out of dog treats?"

The blue-haired Nobody stood just inside the doorway. "If you expect me to rise to that bait, you're going to be disappointed."

"You're no fun anymore. Jerk."

Saïx didn't reply to that, either. Just stood there, watching Axel watching Xion.

"I don't get it," the redhead finally said. "If you don't have a heart, why do you act like you dislike her so much?"

"Why do you act like you do like it?" Saïx flipped the question. Axel noticed how he used 'it' instead of 'her.'

I don't understand you anymore, Isa. Axel sighed. "You wouldn't get it… it's not acting. Not with either of them. I don't get it myself, it just… isn't."

"You're right," Saïx admitted. "I don't get it."

He sat on the edge of the bed beside Axel, careful to keep as far away from Xion as possible, like she was contagious. "How do you look at it and see anything more than a puppet?"

"I didn't at first," Axel said, laying a hand on Xion's head. "It was Roxas."

"The Nobody of the keyblade master certainly has some… interesting abilities."

"Like spewing heart-rays and shooting puppy eyes at me until I want to cry like a five-year-old," Axel muttered under his breath.

"What?"

"Nothing," he quickly covered. "But anyway, she stopped wearing her hood all the time. How can you not see her as a person?"

Saïx eyed him curiously, like he was wondering if his friend had developed a mental illness. "Axel. Xion has never removed its hood."

"What? Look at her now!" Axel held up one of her stray blonde locks.

"I am." Saïx raised an eyebrow. Either he was completely blind, Axel himself was delusional (which had to be what his friend thought), or Xion was…

"…Wow." Maybe there was a reason why no one else thought she looked like Naminé, other than the fact that few (non-eliminated) members knew of Naminé's existence. Saïx was one of those. Does she only look like her to me? What about Roxas? "There was that day she took off her hood, when she asked if we could be friends – that's it."

"What are you speaking of?"

"You have to be her friend. That's the only way you'll see her face."

"…What a ridiculous notion."

"No, really!" Axel scooted back, shifting Xion's head onto his lap. "Try it. Just say, 'I wanna be your friend, Xion.' " He didn't know for sure if it would work since the girl was unconscious and Saïx was unlikely to be sincere, but it was worth a shot.

"No way."

"It won't hurt anything but your pride."

Saïx sighed. "Nothing will come of it." But, in a semi-exasperated tone, and only to prove Axel wrong, he said, "I wish to be your friend, Xion."

It would have been imperceptible to anyone but his best friend, but Saïx's blank expression flickered to astonishment, then confusion.

"See? You saw her!" Axel smiled. "Doesn't she look just like Naminé?"

Saïx shook his head slowly. "…What in the name of Kingdom Hearts did Vexen do to that creature?"

Axel's eyes narrowed. "Saïx, she's a her. Get it memorized."

"No. Whatever you're seeing clearly differs greatly from what I saw."

"And what did you see?"

Saïx's face still hadn't smoothed back over, though he tried to hide how disturbed he actually was. "The boy. The one with the wooden keyblade. You thought Roxas was his Nobody."

"Ven?" Axel asked incredulously, staring down at Xion's face. The face he saw as Naminé, the face Saïx had seen as Ven. Xion… it doesn't matter. You're still you, nobody else. Replica or not, Axel knew that she was still his friend.

Saïx again sat silently, pointedly not looking at Xion.

"Hey… she must want to be your friend," Axel realized. "If you saw her without her hood."

Saïx shook his head. "Why would she?"

A smile tugged at Axel's lips. She. "Because you're my friend."

"…"

"C'mon, this is the part where you say you're my friend too."

"…You have always been my friend; it is redundant to repeat the fact so often…"

Axel laughed and slung an arm around Saïx's shoulders, and maybe he only imagined it, but Xion's sleeping face seemed to smile.

A/N: Lol, AkuShi had to completely invade at least one of these, even though it's platonic… *sweatdrop* In two of the 358/2 Days Secret Reports it says that Axel sees Xion as Naminé. Saïx always saw her as a hooded doll. Xigbar saw her as Ven, and I played off of that here. If it wasn't clear, Saïx only saw Xion as Ven for a moment, then he went back to seeing her with her hood up.