He keeps expecting to see more of Roxas in her. Axel would like to think that he's kept his cool and that neither of them suspect a thing, but he's been looking for it, now that he knows: things that might be Roxas in someone else. The little edge to his smile, almost a smirk; the way that he shakes his limbs out after a good fight; his thoughtful habit of playing with his fingers that always made Axel think of rings.

But he doesn't find them.

So he finds an excuse for them to fight together, and he watches her and he looks for it, but it's just not there. In Roxas there is something primal, raw and alive and enjoying the fight, even if he doesn't enjoy fighting itself; but it's not like that, with Xion.

Xion is-- (and he doesn't like to think it, but it's what he thinks of, and on some level it may be true)-- Xion is like a killing machine. It's a means to an end for her, and she is perfectly capable of ruthlessly bludgeoning a giant Heartless, sweeping into an elegant cascade of ice, and shattering it with a single well-placed blow, and then turning around with her eyes wide and clear and saying, "What other flavors of ice cream do you like?"

She is like an innocent killing machine. It doesn't mean anything to her.

There are worse things to be, Axel tells himself.

But still, when she expressionlessly cuts through a swath of Heartless, and he says lightly, "I'd hate to see what you do to guys you don't like," and she laughs; he really means it.