Synopsis | You just want to be "normal". Is that too much to ask? A trip to Walmart with Sukuna may be just what you need to remind you that being normal is overrated.
Content | g/n!reader x true form sukuna, fluff, crack, agoraphobia, social phobia, mention of self loathing, mental health *or lack thereof*
A/N | If you're new here, Hi! I'm Yuri and I live with agoraphobia. Fittingly, the roots of this word are "market place" and "fear", but really it is a social phobia based around leaving one's house or being in public/crowded places. As with any mental health issue, it takes many forms.
Anyway, this is an oddly specific and very much self indulgent drabble based on pretty much every experience I've ever had with Walmart. Including today.
"I still don't understand why you're making me do this." Sukuna said, head leaning on the glass of the passenger-side window of your car where he sat, all four arms crossed in visible annoyance.
"We need groceries 'Kuna." You remind him. "And please put your seatbelt back on."
He rolled his eyes with a scowl. Pulling enough slack from the belt to stretch across his broad chest, he struggled for several seconds to find the buckle hiding under his beefy thigh.
"This is stupid. I told you Uraume can go to the market for us."
"And I told you that I wanted to try being a normal human being for once." You retort.
"Hmph." He pouted. "I fail to see how a- what did you call it?"
"I fail to see how a run to 'Walmart' makes one a 'normal human'."
"'Kuna, you know how bad my anxiety is. I love that Uraume does so much for us, but I'm afraid if I never step out of my box again, I'll regress and turn into some sort of shut-in. I just want to be normal. I want to be like everyone else. Y'know?"
In place of an answer, he gestured sarcastically to his own mutated form. His four eyes blinking in stone-cold irony.
"Okay, okay." You conceded. "You know what I mean."
It had been a while since you'd gone anywhere. Your needs were always provided for in Sukuna's estate, and whatever he didn't have, he sent Uraume to get. As an agoraphobe, this life suited you perfectly. But there was still a piece of you that craved that social ingredient that made you feel less broken, even if it did fill you with dread.
The trip started out okay. You grabbed a cart and skirted the outer aisles, avoiding the ones where employees were stocking shelves or people bustled about for more popular items.
As time went on, however, your chest grew tighter, the sounds grew louder, and your personal bubble was at risk of popping.
Suddenly, the simple act of reaching for milk became a tunnel-vision inducing nightmare of shifting carts and bumping elbows all to the backdrop of a small child wailing somewhere nearby.
You were frozen. Caught in the mayhem. Were you holding your breath or hyperventilating? You didn't even know. Why were you so bad at this? How did this come so easy to other people? And what were you even trying to grab? Was it milk? It must have been milk? Or maybe it was something else and if it was milk was it 2% or maybe whole and why was that child still screaming can't someone do something about that? wasn't anyone else feeling nauseated? and when did it get so hot were the aisles always this narrow?OhGodWhyDidIComeHereAtAll? thiswasaterribleidea?¿?¿? jfhjfs#$&*
Sukuna reached over you, grabbing the milk and throwing it in the cart before swooping his arms around your shoulders and waist, guiding you toward the front of the store.
"Come on, kid." He said in a low grumble. "I think you've had enough. Let's get out of here."
Numb legs carry you forward as you trudge your way toward the self-checkout. You stare blankly in a dissociative state while Sukuna scans the groceries by himself, large hands and fingers fumbling through the prompts on the small touch screen.
Useless. You're so useless. You think to yourself. Can't you do anything? Why are you so weird? So...broken?
"I'm so...weak..." You mumble feebly.
"Come again?" Sukuna grunts with his broad back to you, shoving crumpled bills unsuccessfully into the beeping machine.
"I said you must think I'm so weak." You say, louder this time, bitter tears forming on the rim of your lashes.
"Don't be foolish!" He says. "Of course I think you're weak! You're the weakest human I know!"
You look at him wide-eyed, momentarily pulled from your self-loathing by the shock of his admission.
"Look at you!" He says, turning around to face you. "You can't even go to the grocery store without having a problem for, God's sake. This is exactly why you need me!"
His words fell heavy on your shoulders. Weighing you down. Making you small. Sure, nothing he said was untrue. But to hear it out loud-
"But you're also the kindest human I know." He continued softly. "You feel more deeply. You never stop trying. You're strong where it counts. You taught me love. You take me to ridiculous places. So yeah. Sure. You're scared of things that don't bother 'normal people'. But where the rest of the world looks upon the King of Curses with nothing but fear and loathing, you look upon me with love and compassion, never once bothered that I wasn't a 'normal person'."
The tears began to flow. Sukuna took your face in his hands, calloused thumbs gently rubbing them from your cheeks. "And that- that is why I need you."
A chorus of soft "awwws" came from the other nearby shoppers who had gathered to hear the disfigured man's booming monologue. Cottontop grandmas dabbed at their eyes, while the balding clerk overseeing self-checkout stood from his three-legged stool with a slow, appreciative clap.
Sukuna's face fell flat with an unamused sigh. "Now can we get out of Walmart before I feel the need to burn the place down?"
That got you to smile. "Sure thing, King."
On the way back to the car, Sukuna had some Thoughts™️ to share about his first ever trip to Walmart:
-So that was it, huh? I can see why you wouldn't like going there.
-I'd never want to leave my house either if I had to acquire sustenance from a place like that.
-And did you see some of the freaks??
-No, really! You think I'm bad? You could fill the entire internet with the amount of WEIRDOS I saw in there.
-Trust me, there was not one "normal human" in there.
-And why do we call it a "Walmart Run"? The only running I wanted to do was to get out of there.
-Heck, you know what, Imma burn it down.
