#|| just keep...swimming? ||

a chaotic swimming session with @dakotaxmp the only one patient enough to deal with Alex's dumbassery

It took a fair bit of convincing to get Dakota to join him for his planned workout. And to tell the truth, Alexander still wasn’t fully certain he’d show up. All he could do was hope and wait. 

Slightly out of breath and his hair dripping wet, he sat on one of the rather uncomfortable stone benches close to the wall. Sanya never claimed he’d be waiting to get in the water. Though, to be fair, he did try to show patience. 

But under the curious eye of a particularly conspicuous senior swimmer, he felt more at ease with most of his body below water. And only after they exited, and the demigod finished the lap he started, he allowed himself a short break while he waited for his swimming partner of the day. 

That was, of course, if he didn’t change his mind after all. With his phone now safely tucked away in a locker with the rest of his stuff, Alex couldn’t exactly check his messages every couple of minutes. 

Surely, he thought, a quick peek at his notifications couldn’t hurt, could they?

The contrast between the dark shade of the tattoos that littered his skin and the white color of his swim shorts became only that much more obvious when he stood up. A small puddle of water pooled at his feet, barely noticeable amongst the countless others on the floor. 

For a moment, Alexander looked at the floor. Regarded it, like he was playing out important scenarios in his mind. Would any of his siblings be around to see him, they’d recognize the expression on his face. The scheming face of a madman. 

Would any of his siblings be around to see him, they might even try to stop him in his endeavors.

But they weren’t around to see him. Nobody was in the currently empty pool. 

The realization of his potential to do whatever he wanted drew a small smile onto his face. 

His gaze fixed on the door to the showers for a moment before it wandered to the pool wall until it landed on the ladder closest to it. Alexander then mentally counted the steps it would take him from the wall closest to him to the edge of the pool. If he didn’t miscalculate his own abilities, it would be three. 

Just three steps.

The risk of slipping and smashing up his face on the concrete floor was considerably smaller if he’d just walk up to the edge and jump in from there. But by this point, he made up his mind that he wanted to enter with some sort of flip. Maybe a front flip? Or a side flip?

He wasn’t really sure on that—he tended to make decisions like these while he was in motion. And unfortunately for the face he was risking on smashing into concrete, walking up to the edge just wouldn’t give him enough momentum to decide. 

Three steps. 

Glancing at the frosted glass door to the showers once more to make sure nobody was coming before taking a final look around to make sure no employees were close by, Alexander walked over to the wall to him. 

Three steps.

A deep breath preceded his sprint—in which he thankfully didn’t slip—before he jumped as far away from the edge as possible. The front flip he found himself in wouldn’t win any metals at a competition, but it was of solid enough form to get him into the water just the way he planned to. 

He willed his body to stay underwater, his feet finding the wall closest to them and pushing his weight off to boost him towards the ladder he saw earlier. With a mind that wouldn’t shut up under any circumstances, Sanya challenged himself to get to the other side without swimming up to get air. A task that wasn’t too hard considering his love for sports of all kinds and the competitions of who could hold their breath the longest amongst him and his friends back home.