The Pacific Imagines

Merriel "Snafu" Shelton Imagine #3

   Shelton sat on an old oil drum. His teeth gritting against the not yet cigarette between them. Cleaning his sidearm vigorously. And once he finished cleaning, he just kept pulling the clip out and placing it back in. Just trying to do anything the distract himself from the two that were laughing and screwing around while cleaning drums. Snafu never scrubbed drums, and he always made that very clear.

  His eyes darted up quickly to see Y/N smearing her oil covered hands all over Sledge's white T-shirt. Her smile widened when Sledge laughed and chased after her. The Cajun looked back at his weapon. His heart ached. Something he couldn't quite explain  because he was so used to making girl's hearts ache. Huffing as he wasn't paying attention too much. His jealousy and anger within his mind taking over. And that's when the clip slipped and cut his hand. Dropping the firearm onto the ground and cursing loudly. 

  "God fucking damn it!" he shouted. Grabbing his now bleeding hand. It wasn't too deep, not enough to need stitched. But it was bleeding quite a lot. Y/N's head popped up and she pulled away from her boyfriend Sledge. She was a Corpsman. She was doing her duty. Helping a Marine who was being a dumb ass and sliced his hand. But to Shelton, it was different. He didn't want it to be different, he just wanted to let her do her job and not feel anything. Though, that wasn't the case. Anytime the young woman spoke to her, fixed him up, accidentally bumped or grazed him, a tingle shot through him that he never had felt before. He just kept falling more and more in love for the woman who was dating his best friend. 

  Y/N approached him with the same smile she did anybody. And Merriel still got lost in it. A soft, nervous smile came to his lips as he almost forgot about his hand that had been dripping blood all the way down his hand and forearm. "What did you do, Snafu?" she asked. Reaching for his bleeding hand and pulling out some gauze and bandages. Snafu didn't answer for a moment.  Just lost in watching her and the feeling of her hand holding his. He hadn't even realized when he was just silent and staring for about a minute. "Snafu? You okay? Man you must've lost a bit of blood," she said as she began to clean him up. Wrapping his hand up in the bandages and keeping an eye on.

   The Marine snapped out of it and chuckled a bit. "Yeah, must've been some blood loss," he agreed. But oh no it wasn't. He was just falling deeper, and deeper in love with just some small town girl, doing her part in the war, and dating his best friend. He knew how screwed over he was. And yet, he didn't regret it. 

  Y/N pulled away slightly and looked at him. Her hands on her hips and she adjusted her helmet on her head. Merriel looked at her like she was a goddess standing before him. He could see past the smell of not being able to properly shower for weeks, the dirt and blood cakes onto her skin, the dirty uniform. He didn't care about any of it. She was just so beautiful and he couldn't tell her. Because her heart belonged to someone else, and not him.

  "In a few hours, come back and find me so I can check that wound out. I got to make sure it doesn't get infected at all," she told him. Her smile still present. Snafu just nodded. Scared in that moment that if he was to open his mouth, something he didn't want coming out would have been said. That's right, Merriel Shelton was scared for once when it came to a girl. 

   Y/N gave one last nod before turning on the heels of boots to jog back to Eugene. Calling out his name as she did so. Leaving Merriel sitting there, jealous and angry. But not angry at Y/N or Sledge. Angry at himself for doing this to himself. He fell in love with a girl he couldn't have. Staring at his one bandages hand the other that was covered in blood, oil, and dirt. Sighing as he just wished he could go home and forget all about her and Sledge.

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  Watching the two Marines in love walk besides each other. Laugh together. Just do every damn thing together burnt Merriel more and more each time he saw. It wasn't their fault. And Shelton knew it wasn't his fault. Or maybe it was. He didn't mean to fall for her, he was friends with her first! It was clear that the past few days, as the feelings grew stronger, the more angry and jealous the Merriel got. And he felt he was going to snap.