Haircut (Kingdom Hearts, English)

Seriously, what reason could Xion have had to change her hairstyle? Axel didn't understand it. Set during 358/2 Days. Axel-Roxas-Xion Friendship/Headcanon thing. One Shot. No romance.

Old piece from 2012. Based on the fact that one of Axel's Reports states that Xion looks exactly like Naminé. I developed a bit of headcanon around that one point.

Can also be found on Ao3 and Fanfiction.net

This really shouldn't have caught his attention like this.

When Axel realized this, however, his curiousness rose even higher, rather than dropping again. It should have dropped. He knew it should have. After all, it was nothing too unusual, was it? Everyone could do it. Most people actually did it. Even he could try, if he felt like it. But the thing that bugged him… where was the point? Why should she do it? Why would she have wasted time with this, when they all had their hands full with missions lately? When could she even have found time to do it when they spent each and every free minute at the clocktower and where did she get the equipment, not to mention the knowledge of how to do it? Why would she even have been interested in doing it? It seemed to make little sense… Yet there she was, right in front of him and he could clearly see it.

Xion had cut and dyed her hair. The once long, pale golden locks were now short and black like the color of her coat, not even reaching to her shoulders. It was a strange image to look at for him. Almost like he was looking at a different person. Or… more like 'finally I am looking at a different person'? It was hard to tell. It was complicated. He didn't know if it was relief – actually, it wasn't supposed to be anything, right? – but looking at her that way gave him a strange "sensation".

"Good Morning, Axel," she said, and there was a smile on her face as she looked up to him.

"…Ah. 'Morning," he replied, trying hard to not let her catch on that he was still looking at her hair, rather than her face.

Xion tilted her head, causing the black strands framing her face to move a bit as she did. And if Axel hadn't known better, he'd have said that her hair wasn't just shorter and darker now, actually, it even seemed to move "differently"… somehow.

This was crazy. Why was he so obsessed with a friend's hair? He really shouldn't have been thinking about something as trivial as this so much, but something, somewhere in the back of his mind just wouldn't leave him alone about it. It was weird.

Regardless, starring at someone's hairstyle in such a manner for an extended period of time is bound to catch their attention sooner or later. And Xion wasn't unperceptive.

"Hm? Is something wrong?" she asked. Her smile had dropped. "What are you looking at?"

"Ehm… Nothing. Never mind," he shook his head a bit, finally managing to divert his attention from Xion's hairdo. Still, he felt it deserved being commented on. Xion was a girl, after all… Girls wanted their friends to comment on stuff like this, didn't they? Either he was seriously out of touch with these things, or he had never had experience with them in first place… He couldn't really tell right now.

"Nice hair," he finally just stated shortly.

Xion responded not in the manner he had expected. If anything, she seemed confused, wrinkling her forehead a bit.

"Oh…uhm…" she ended up shrugging. "Thanks… I guess."

And then, she smiled again.

For a moment, Axel wondered if he had said anything strange. But it didn't seem like it to him. After all, what's there much to misinterpret with two simple words? And even if he had said anything strange, it didn't matter. He just returned the shrug, though he didn't really know why he did. Mere reflex, probably.

(Well, at least,) he decided, (I won't be thinking of Naminé that much anymore now. That'll sure help getting what happened at C.O. out of my mind.)

Believing himself to be satisfied with that thought, Axel let the matter rest.

That was the moment when someone stepped through the door. Xion turned to greet this person.

"Oh! Good Morning, Roxas!"

Axel was already standing towards the door, so he didn't need to turn. He, however, put one hand to his waist,

"Hey there, Roxas."

"'Morning, Axel, Xion." Roxas was stretching his arms, as if he had just gotten out of bed a minute ago, which was likely the case. He wasn't exactly a morning person and had a habit of sleeping fully dressed. "So… You two already got your Missions for the day? We'd not happen to be teamed up or something?"

There was a slight bit of "hope" in Roxas sleepy voice when he said that. Perhaps because he knew his friends would be more lenient with him not working on 100% of his usual performance, given he obviously did not sleep quite well that night.

"Sorry, I'll have to disappoint you," Axel replied, leaning back a bit. "I got my Mission earlier. I'm teamed up with Xaldin for the day."

"Luxord for me," Xion added. "Doesn't look like we'd have much to do with each other during today's work."

Roxas' response to this was a short sigh. He looked back and forth between his two friends during it, "Well… I guess we still have the evening, right? The clocktower, like usual?"

Xion grinned, "You bet! Right, Axel?"

"Sure, like always," he nodded, but at the same time, he focused his eyes on Roxas for a reason he didn't immediately understand himself. He only knew that something seemed to… "irk" him. Only after a short while of thinking, he realized that the thing that irked him about Roxas was the way Roxas looked at Xion. It was too casual. Like nothing "irked" him about her. Like nothing caught his attention at all.

But there should have been something that caught his attention! After all, she had cut and dyed her hair, right? Roxas had no memories of his previous life, so someone changing hairstyle must be totally new to him, right? Shouldn't he be at least a bit surprised at this? Shouldn't he?

…Why was he even still thinking about this? Axel felt stupid. What was wrong with him? …Maybe he was the one who hadn't slept quite well that night.

Hadn't Axel known better, he'd have said that Xion's new look had "startled" him and brought up "worries", but that couldn't be, right? Something like this didn't exist for him. Not in this form. Again, he was probably just tired.

Oh well, given that a nice day of reckoning at Beast's Castle with one of the most boring people around here was not likely help him wake up his senses… He guessed he'd have to hope he'd not fall asleep.

He didn't fall asleep. In fact, he didn't feel tired at all, throughout the whole day. "Out of sight, out of mind" seemed to apply, as the moment Axel was away from his friends, the issue of Xion's new style – whatever now exactly might have been the "issue" with it – didn't occur to him again for several hours. He just went on his mission, did his work, cleared all objectives and was done with. Clean, easy, simple. Only when he sat by the clocktower that evening, already waiting with three freshly-bought Sea-Salt Ice Cream Popsicles, and his friends showed up – Roxas first, then Xion – the strange, pointless thoughts flooded right back into his mind. Whenever he now looked at Xion, his eyes were at her hair again, not her face. Once again, he felt stupid. So stupid, he almost dropped Xion's ice cream when he handed it to her. Thankfully, she caught it. There were no repercussions, other than an amused laughter from her.

"…so yeah, Xigbar's kinda uncomfortable sometimes, really," Roxas concluded a somewhat longer recount of his experiences during his mission of the day. "Especially when he makes those comments I just don't get, you know? I have no idea if those are supposed to be jokes or something and if I'm supposed to be laughing at them…"

"When Luxord spoke today, I didn't have a clue what he was talking about either most of the time," Xion admitted. "He's making all those weird comparisons I can't really imagine. It's kind of hard for me to make heads of tales of it…And you, Axel?"

"Hm? Ah…" Distracted as he had been, he needed a few seconds to reply. "I don't really have problems like that, to be honest. Well, I've been with those guys for much longer already, so, I guessed I am used to those things."

"Oh," It was Roxas who turned his head a bit, like this comment had given him the feeling of being the inexperienced rookie again. Axel, however, didn't leave it at that,

"…Still, that doesn't mean I always get what they say. Actually, I'd be willing to bet that they don't always quite know themselves."

Roxas looked up and back at his friends again. What followed was an amused laughter from him. Xion soon joined in and so did Axel himself. Their laughing continued for a short while, until it slowly grew quieter and they, content with their shared joy, looked towards the setting sun together. It took a while until Axel made another comment.

"So, Xion…" he began. "Did anybody else say something today? Just curious."

He made a short gesture towards her head, hoping she'd understand what he meant. Unfortunately, it seemed to go entirely over her head though.

"Say something?" she asked, turning towards him. "About what?"

Axel did not respond anything. This topic was irrelevant. He knew it was. He was getting sick of having to keep telling that to himself. He was also getting sick of not knowing why it seemed to irk him that Xion didn't seem to know what he was talking about. He really didn't want to give in to some stupid, irrational hunch like this.

"You know what? Never mind," he said, oddly feeling like he was repeating himself. Xion give him one more strange look, before both she and Roxas, who had been watching this short-lived conversation, returned to looking towards the sun. So did Axel

They had almost finished their ice cream already. Roxas had left the least, Axel the most.

When they had finished and got ready to return (None of them had found a Winner Sticker. Figures.), it was Xion who opened the corridor for them and she was also the first to step through. Axel and Roxas got up to follow. However, they did not leave before Axel, for once last time, couldn't resist the urge to turn to Roxas and ask a question.

"So… what do you think about it?" was what Axel said to the younger Nobody.

"Hm? About what?" Roxas replied, looking clearly confused.

"Xion's hair." Axel felt like smacking himself for addressing this topic again. Seriously, what was wrong with him today?

"Uhm…" The initial lack of words in Roxas' response was immediately reminiscent of their first few days together to Axel. It was a bit nostalgic. Eventually, however, Roxas responded in a full, rather clearly articulated sentence. "Well… It's Xion's hair, right? It kind of belongs to her. What's there to think about it?"

"…Yeah, you're right. Not much," Axel said, resisting the need to add 'You've got me there.'

However, it was just a few moments after, that Roxas, smiling, continued to speak, "Well… I guess it'd be weird if it was suddenly different. I mean, Xion would be different then. Of course, she'd still be Xion, but… It'd just be strange if she suddenly changed too much, right?"

Axel was silent. Now he had absolutely no idea what to make of what he heard anymore.

Was it that? Was he actually losing it? He didn't know anymore.

"OK, let's head back, before Xion starts to wonder if something happened! C'mon."

Roxas headed through the portal first. Axel and his slightly dumbstruck face – of which Roxas had not taken notice – followed only a little later.

The topic of Xion's haircut was never addressed again after that.

One day, Axel just accepted the fact that he seemed to be the only one who seemed to have noticed the changes that day. It wasn't like it mattered.

They were Roxas, Axel and Xion and they shared their evenings and ice cream under the same sky.

Back then, this was the only truth that held a meaning.