Chapter Text
Haru Suzuki was a businessman. He worked hard and took pride in his work. In other words, he wasn’t a party guy. However, some of his coworkers had decided that he needed to learn to “cut loose”. So, here he was, at a bar. Haru didn’t really plan on staying for too long. He’d have a few drinks, humor his coworkers, and take a cab home.
Then he saw her. The auburn-haired beauty sitting at the bar in an elegant red dress and lipstick to match. Haru’s coworkers caught him continuously sneaking glances at her and urged him to go talk to her. After much prodding, he finally acquiesced.
“Hello,” he greeted her nervously. “My name is Haru Suzuki. And you are?” The woman seemed to study him for a moment, and Haru was worried he’d already blown his chance. Then she smiled.
“Dixie,” she answered.
“So, Dixie, what brings you here?” Haru asked.
“I’m new in town and wanted to see the sights, meet some people, things like that,” Dixie said with a wave of her hand. “What about you? No offense, but you don’t seem like the kind of person who likes going out on the town.” Haru winced. She’d read him like a book.
“Boys’ night out,” he explained sheepishly. Dixie glanced over at Haru’s stupidly grinning coworkers before turning back to him.
“Let me guess, the boys’ insistence?”
“Yeah,” Haru nodded. For some time, they chatted and got to know each other a bit more. Haru found himself becoming more and more comfortable in Dixie’s presence, until she blindsided him by asking, “So, your place or mine?”
“Er, e-excuse me?” he stammered. Dixie giggled.
“Your place or mine?” she repeated. “You want to seal the deal, don’t you?”
“I just wanted to talk to you!” Haru shouted defensively. “I wanted to get to know you! I’m not looking for a fling!” Dixie frowned slightly.
“So, you’re not interested?” she asked.
“I’d be interested in getting to know you more,” Haru said, scribbling down his phone number on a piece of paper and handing it to her. Dixie seemed to study it for a moment before she smirked.
“Alright, I can work with this,” she said. “Call you later, big boy.” Haru flushed and muttered a goodbye as he scurried his way back to his whooping coworkers. Maybe this boys’ night out wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
He couldn’t wait to see Dixie again.
It would be about a week before Haru and Dixie’s first official date at a cat cafe.
“I’m really glad you called me,” Haru said. “I was a bit worried that you weren’t interested.”
“Honestly, you intrigued me,” Dixie said, sipping her coffee and paying no mind to the cats roaming around her. “I wasn’t expecting you to turn down my invitation. Most men would’ve jumped at the chance.”
“Well, my parents raised me to be respectful,” Haru explained. “To see women as women, not as conquests.”
“Well, then you’re a rare one, Mr. Suzuki,” Dixie said.
“Thank you,” Haru said. “I think?” Dixie chuckled.
“Yes, that was a compliment,” she said.
“It sounds like you don’t have a very high opinion of most men,” Haru said.
“Now, I never said that,” Dixie said. “Even if you are a little bit right,” she added with a smirk.
“I’m sorry for whatever experiences you went through that caused you to form that opinion,” Haru said sympathetically.
“Don’t be,” Dixie waved him off. “If I’m being honest, I thought of them the same way they thought of me: just another conquest.”
“Does that include me?” Haru asked. Dixie smirked.
“What do you think?” she asked.
“I’d hope not,” Haru said. “I’d like this to actually go somewhere.”
“Well,” Dixie said, “I suppose we’ll see.”
It would be a few more dates before Haru would pluck up the courage to hold Dixie’s hand. It would take a few months before they shared their first kiss. Things were going quite well between them, until about a year and a half into their relationship, when Haru used the dreaded L-word.
“W-What did you say?” Dixie asked.
“I said…I love you,” Haru repeated. Dixie stared at him as if in shock. Then she looked away, blinking rapidly.
“No. No no no no no,” she mutters to herself. “This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.”
“Dixie?” Haru asked, heartbroken. Had he come on too strong? Had he scared her away? Did she not love him back?
“Haru, I…” Dixie started, tears in her eyes. “I haven’t been honest with you. If you knew who I really am–-what I really am–-you’d never want anything to do with me.”
“Dixie…” Haru started, but Dixie continued, unimpeded.
“And I should be okay with that! I was intending on just using you! I basically told you as much! But you…you were different from all the others. You actually took the time to try to get to know me, to court me. I thought I was just playing the long game, but…somewhere along the way, I…I started to…” Dixie shook her head. “Ugh, it doesn’t matter! You don’t know the real me! You’d never love me if you did!”
“Try me.”
“W-What?” Dixie said, staring at Haru through her tears.
“You said I’d never love you if I knew the real you,” Haru said. “Well, try me.” Dixie blinked at him before a bitter, humorless laugh bubbled up from her throat.
“Fine,” she said. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Haru didn’t know what he’d expected, but his girlfriend literally changing form in front of him wasn’t it. Her skin became unnaturally pale, to the point that she almost looked like a statue. Her hair darkened from the auburn he loved so much to black. Actually, calling it ‘black’ didn’t really do it justice. It was like a void given shape. But the most noteworthy change was to her face. It warped and distorted, her eyes sagging and her mouth twisting. There was no denying that the woman standing before him was not human.
“Well,” she said, her voice having an almost reverberating effect to it, “here I am.”
“Dixie?” Haru asked dumbly. Dixie just chuckled.
“That’s not even my real name,” she said. “I got it from the song that was playing when you asked me what it was.”
“So, what is your name, then?” Haru asked. The woman before him replied, but all Haru could sense was the splitting headache that suddenly threatened to split his skull open. It was as if her true name was not meant for mortal ears.
“I…think I’ll just keep calling you Dixie,” he said sheepishly after the pain faded. “So, are you a… What are you, exactly?”
“I’m a demon,” Dixie answered. “And this is the part where you run away.”
“Or what?” Haru asked. Dixie gawked at him (or, at least, Haru assumed she was gawking).
“Are you kidding me?” he laughed incredulously. “You just found out that your girlfriend is a demon. A literal hellspawn. You should be freaking the heaven out! You should be running for the hills!” Her voice softened. “And yet…you’re still here.”
“The night that we first met, I said I wanted to get to know you more,” Haru said. “Maybe this is just me still clinging to the feelings I had before, but that’s still true. If this is the real you, then I want to know you.” Dixie teared up at Haru’s sincerity. Haru reached up to wipe her tears away, but she stopped him.
“I appreciate the thought, but pretty much any liquid that comes out of my body is boiling hot,” Dixie explained, wiping away her own tears. “And Haru?”
“Yes?”
“I love you, too.”
Years later, Haru and Dixie would marry. A few years after that, Dixie would become pregnant. She’d return to Hell to give birth to their child, intending to return once they learned how to blend in with humans. Haru was saddened, but understood, and Dixie promised that he could still visit their child to ensure they got to know him as they grew up.
Months later, Dixie would give birth to a baby girl they would name Mari. She had her mother’s pallid skin (which looked dark blue in certain lights) and her void-like hair and eyes, as well as an impossibly huge mouth and a long, twisted neck. But in her parents’ eyes, she was beautiful.
For three years, Dixie and Haru would raise their little girl, teaching her to control her demonic powers and appear more human (which was easier for her to learn than it had been for Dixie due to her half-human nature). They were hopeful that soon they’d be able to live as a family on Earth. But their plans were set back when Dixie became pregnant again.
This time, she would give birth to twins. The female twin sadly wouldn’t make it. But the male twin would, and would be named Sunny. He had his mother’s void’like hair and eyes, but his eyes would also have blood red pinpricks for pupils. His skin would also be blood red, rather than the stone-like pallor this mother and sister had. He’d have a large mouth like his sister, but while her mouth was large due to being able to stretch her jaws to impossible lengths, his mouth was large in that it made him appear as if he had no lower jaw to speak of. It wouldn’t be until weeks later that they learned of Sunny’s most demonic trait: his ability to summon seemingly countless extra hands on a whim.
After a few more years of Haru and Dixie teaching their children how to look and act human, Dixie would finally deem them ready to live on Earth as a true family. She and Haru would decide that it would be better for them to live in a small town, so that if, Satan forbid, their secret got out, it would garner less attention (and far fewer people banging on their door with holy water and crucifixes). Which is how they came to settle in the sleepy little town of Faraway.