[fic] the pacific - watching you sleep, baby
Title: Watching You Sleep, Baby
Fandom: The Pacific
Rating: PG
Genre: CRACK. SO MUCH CRACK.
Word Count: 1,181
Characters/Pairing: Sledge/Snafu if you squint
Summary: SNAFU IS SUCH A CREEPER OMG.
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters--they are based off of the actors' portrayals of characters in HBO's The Pacific, not the real people themselves.
Author's Note: So when I met spirograph I was like, hey this girl is pretty cool! ...LITTLE DID I KNOW WHAT KIND OF ENABLING CRAYCRAY RELATIONSHIP I WOULD BE GETTING MYSELF INTO. THIS IS HER FAULT. ALL OF IT. HER FAULT.
PS PREPARE TO LOSE ALL RESPECT THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE HAD FOR ME.
If there’s been anything that Eugene’s learned within his first few days in Pavuvu, it consists of the following:
1. Seniority is something like a currency around here. The longer you survive, the harder you can haze the recruits. This is probably the reason why Eugene’s found himself scrubbing more surfaces than he ever has before in his life.
2. Reading is for sissies and you aren’t even supposed to have time to do it, what with being busy dying for your country and all. The only thing that’s mildly acceptable is porn and sometimes the bible-only one of which Eugene actually carries around in his pocket.
(It’s not porn.)
(He had to clarify that to Snafu.)
3. He better learn fast how to trust the men in his unit or he won’t survive for long.
4. Snafu is crazy.
5. Snafu is in his unit.
Maybe he should have been a little alarmed by the way that Sid gave him a disbelieving look when he studiously recounted who he’d have to be working with. Probably should have been a little bit concerned, at the very least-but he hasn’t been around for long so he can’t really be blamed for his misconceptions.
But-
Point in case:
Snafu thinks it’s perfectly acceptable to traumatize new recruits.
As in, really put some effort into the whole traumatizing process. Whereas the other marines generally possessed such things as morals and a tiny tiny shred of sympathy for having been in the same position as the recruits at one point in their lives, Snafu retains no such thing. In fact, sometimes it seems like he retains the antithesis of such a thing, a black hole specially designed to suck the wonder and innocence out of men.
“Too late now!” Eugene hears Snafu yell after some blond kid one morning. The kid looks terrified as he practically runs away from Snafu and Eugene can’t help but stop and stare after him. What in God’s name?
He turns to look at Snafu. The other man is cleaning his gun nonchalantly but he glances at Eugene anyways. When Eugene doesn’t move, Snafu speaks up, “You need help checking your dick for jungle rot too?”
Eugene quickly walks away.
And later, when they’re eating in the mess area, Eugene has a hard time tuning Snafu’s voice out.
“Naw, that’s where you’re wrong,” he overhears Snafu say at dinner, “I’d probably just truss ‘em up like a pig. Slow roast Jap. Maybe a little cumin. Some sage.” He’s saying all of this very seriously, a little contemplatively as if he’s considered the merits of cannibalism before.
Eugene knows that he’s staring a little bit. It takes Snafu a moment but he notices. He pauses, looks at Eugene as he speaks and adds very deliberately, “Hypothetically.”
Eugene isn’t sure if he believes him.
Plus, Snafu is everywhere.
It’s a lot less omniscient and a lot more creepy than it sounds. Maybe it’s just Eugene being paranoid, but he’s fairly sure that he’s being watched all the time. Sure-there was the whole being a marine thing and having to answer to superiors who were constantly checking to see that he didn’t put a single toe out of line, but this was an entirely new level of being watched.
And it’s not like Snafu even tries to conceal the fact that he’s always just hanging around, watching. Eugene doesn’t know if Snafu makes a special effort just to follow him around, but when he looks up from doing his laundry and finds Snafu cleaning his gun or packing his bag or just doing nothing at all, he’s staring at Eugene. Not the you just happen to be in my line of sight sort of stare, but an I’m looking at you boy sort of stare.
And in the morning when Eugene takes his morning piss, the bushes rustle a bit except there’s no wind and Eugene half expects a helmeted head to pop up among the leaves. He’s sort of torn between hitting his head against the nearest tree in frustration or just telling the other man off. Except of course, when Eugene tries to find the other man, he’s nowhere to be found.
“How do you deal with this?” he asks Burgin.
“Hm?” Burgin replies, “Oh, Snafu? You sort of just get used to him after a while. He been doing something to bother you?”
Eugene’s not a whiner so he just shrugs.
A moment later-yeah, there it was: the feeling that someone had just started staring a hole in the back of his head. Eugene takes out his bible and starts writing furiously when all of a sudden there is someone standing right behind him and inhaling deeply.
Eugene freezes. He doesn’t want to turn around. Even Burgin is looking at the person behind him kind of strangely.
“What are you doing?” Eugene asks and it’s in this weird sort of voice like he doesn’t actually believe this is happening, “Were you just sniffing my hair?” He turns around to face Snafu before scrambling back a few feet, eying him warily.
Snafu just looks at him nonchalantly, puts a cigarette between his lips. “No.”
Then he leaves.
There is a moment of silence. And then.
“Yeah,” Burgin concedes, “That’s a little weird, even for him.”
Eugene very decidedly does not despair.
“I think he’s trying to be your friend,” Burgin concludes.
“By creeping me out,” Eugene mutters, “Good.”
Eugene is a little apprehensive about his first taste of war-and the morning that they ship out, he’s a little hunched in on himself and trying not to think what was coming up ahead. He had sat next to Snafu which was probably a bad idea in itself but the other man isn’t staring blatantly at him at least. Hell, he even does something as normal as offer him a cigarette and pat him reassuringly on the back-Eugene doesn’t know what to make of this behavior at all.
But then the battle comes and goes and Snafu spends an awful lot of time being quiet and staring at him still-but Eugene’s also pretty traumatized so maybe he’s not paying attention. He spends a lot of time writing in the margins of his bible and not paying attention to Snafu so maybe he’s slowly being accustomed to being stared at.
So maybe it’s with a start of surprise when they’re all back on Pavuvu that he realizes that he’s gotten used to Snafu and his decidedly unorthodox ways. When Snafu sits down next to him one day and says, “Hey, you should share the porn,” Eugene doesn’t even bat an eye and keeps writing. Snafu grins then proceeds to pick through Eugene’s belongings because he has no sense of personal boundaries.
He’s pretty sure that Snafu still lurks in the bushes when he takes his morning piss and sometimes he likes to fondle things like canteens and guns and other people in front of Eugene but-
At least he knows that Snafu has his back.
Fandom: The Pacific
Rating: PG
Genre: CRACK. SO MUCH CRACK.
Word Count: 1,181
Characters/Pairing: Sledge/Snafu if you squint
Summary: SNAFU IS SUCH A CREEPER OMG.
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters--they are based off of the actors' portrayals of characters in HBO's The Pacific, not the real people themselves.
Author's Note: So when I met spirograph I was like, hey this girl is pretty cool! ...LITTLE DID I KNOW WHAT KIND OF ENABLING CRAYCRAY RELATIONSHIP I WOULD BE GETTING MYSELF INTO. THIS IS HER FAULT. ALL OF IT. HER FAULT.
PS PREPARE TO LOSE ALL RESPECT THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE HAD FOR ME.
If there’s been anything that Eugene’s learned within his first few days in Pavuvu, it consists of the following:
1. Seniority is something like a currency around here. The longer you survive, the harder you can haze the recruits. This is probably the reason why Eugene’s found himself scrubbing more surfaces than he ever has before in his life.
2. Reading is for sissies and you aren’t even supposed to have time to do it, what with being busy dying for your country and all. The only thing that’s mildly acceptable is porn and sometimes the bible-only one of which Eugene actually carries around in his pocket.
(It’s not porn.)
(He had to clarify that to Snafu.)
3. He better learn fast how to trust the men in his unit or he won’t survive for long.
4. Snafu is crazy.
5. Snafu is in his unit.
Maybe he should have been a little alarmed by the way that Sid gave him a disbelieving look when he studiously recounted who he’d have to be working with. Probably should have been a little bit concerned, at the very least-but he hasn’t been around for long so he can’t really be blamed for his misconceptions.
But-
Point in case:
Snafu thinks it’s perfectly acceptable to traumatize new recruits.
As in, really put some effort into the whole traumatizing process. Whereas the other marines generally possessed such things as morals and a tiny tiny shred of sympathy for having been in the same position as the recruits at one point in their lives, Snafu retains no such thing. In fact, sometimes it seems like he retains the antithesis of such a thing, a black hole specially designed to suck the wonder and innocence out of men.
“Too late now!” Eugene hears Snafu yell after some blond kid one morning. The kid looks terrified as he practically runs away from Snafu and Eugene can’t help but stop and stare after him. What in God’s name?
He turns to look at Snafu. The other man is cleaning his gun nonchalantly but he glances at Eugene anyways. When Eugene doesn’t move, Snafu speaks up, “You need help checking your dick for jungle rot too?”
Eugene quickly walks away.
And later, when they’re eating in the mess area, Eugene has a hard time tuning Snafu’s voice out.
“Naw, that’s where you’re wrong,” he overhears Snafu say at dinner, “I’d probably just truss ‘em up like a pig. Slow roast Jap. Maybe a little cumin. Some sage.” He’s saying all of this very seriously, a little contemplatively as if he’s considered the merits of cannibalism before.
Eugene knows that he’s staring a little bit. It takes Snafu a moment but he notices. He pauses, looks at Eugene as he speaks and adds very deliberately, “Hypothetically.”
Eugene isn’t sure if he believes him.
Plus, Snafu is everywhere.
It’s a lot less omniscient and a lot more creepy than it sounds. Maybe it’s just Eugene being paranoid, but he’s fairly sure that he’s being watched all the time. Sure-there was the whole being a marine thing and having to answer to superiors who were constantly checking to see that he didn’t put a single toe out of line, but this was an entirely new level of being watched.
And it’s not like Snafu even tries to conceal the fact that he’s always just hanging around, watching. Eugene doesn’t know if Snafu makes a special effort just to follow him around, but when he looks up from doing his laundry and finds Snafu cleaning his gun or packing his bag or just doing nothing at all, he’s staring at Eugene. Not the you just happen to be in my line of sight sort of stare, but an I’m looking at you boy sort of stare.
And in the morning when Eugene takes his morning piss, the bushes rustle a bit except there’s no wind and Eugene half expects a helmeted head to pop up among the leaves. He’s sort of torn between hitting his head against the nearest tree in frustration or just telling the other man off. Except of course, when Eugene tries to find the other man, he’s nowhere to be found.
“How do you deal with this?” he asks Burgin.
“Hm?” Burgin replies, “Oh, Snafu? You sort of just get used to him after a while. He been doing something to bother you?”
Eugene’s not a whiner so he just shrugs.
A moment later-yeah, there it was: the feeling that someone had just started staring a hole in the back of his head. Eugene takes out his bible and starts writing furiously when all of a sudden there is someone standing right behind him and inhaling deeply.
Eugene freezes. He doesn’t want to turn around. Even Burgin is looking at the person behind him kind of strangely.
“What are you doing?” Eugene asks and it’s in this weird sort of voice like he doesn’t actually believe this is happening, “Were you just sniffing my hair?” He turns around to face Snafu before scrambling back a few feet, eying him warily.
Snafu just looks at him nonchalantly, puts a cigarette between his lips. “No.”
Then he leaves.
There is a moment of silence. And then.
“Yeah,” Burgin concedes, “That’s a little weird, even for him.”
Eugene very decidedly does not despair.
“I think he’s trying to be your friend,” Burgin concludes.
“By creeping me out,” Eugene mutters, “Good.”
Eugene is a little apprehensive about his first taste of war-and the morning that they ship out, he’s a little hunched in on himself and trying not to think what was coming up ahead. He had sat next to Snafu which was probably a bad idea in itself but the other man isn’t staring blatantly at him at least. Hell, he even does something as normal as offer him a cigarette and pat him reassuringly on the back-Eugene doesn’t know what to make of this behavior at all.
But then the battle comes and goes and Snafu spends an awful lot of time being quiet and staring at him still-but Eugene’s also pretty traumatized so maybe he’s not paying attention. He spends a lot of time writing in the margins of his bible and not paying attention to Snafu so maybe he’s slowly being accustomed to being stared at.
So maybe it’s with a start of surprise when they’re all back on Pavuvu that he realizes that he’s gotten used to Snafu and his decidedly unorthodox ways. When Snafu sits down next to him one day and says, “Hey, you should share the porn,” Eugene doesn’t even bat an eye and keeps writing. Snafu grins then proceeds to pick through Eugene’s belongings because he has no sense of personal boundaries.
He’s pretty sure that Snafu still lurks in the bushes when he takes his morning piss and sometimes he likes to fondle things like canteens and guns and other people in front of Eugene but-
At least he knows that Snafu has his back.