‼️DISCONTINUED‼️ Drowning Olympian - DSMP olympic water sports AU

Chapter 11: Cooling off

(Coach) Puffy POV:

Puffy hated it when her team was hurting. She knew that Sally, Niki and Aimsey. Unsurprisingly, Niki had explained what was going on to Aimsey, who had then spiralled and was snapping at himself for shouting at Wilbur.

Puffy tried her best to calm Aimsey down, but he was pretty distracted tugging at his hair anxiously. Sally seemed just as frustrated and lost and upset, while Niki couldn't seem to stop looking despondently between her two friends and her coach.

"Alright you three," Puffy said with a sigh, "we are going to go swimming, you've got 10 minutes to get ready."

The three had mixed responses, Aimsey whining slightly, Niki just confused, but Sally seemed to relax slightly. It would do the three a load of good to swim, it would calm them, be a place where they could rest their brains and let their body do the work.

She left the room to give them space to get changed, Walking with Sally back to her room.

"It's not your fault, ok Sal? No one saw this coming. It is not your fault."

"I... I should've done something... I should've protected him..."

"Sally, there was nothing you could have done, this was supposed to be ancient history, no one expected it to catch up to us. We'll do what we can, but we need to be strong for Wil. He wouldn't want us to be blaming anyone except the ones who did this."

"I know but..." Sally mumbled, although she didn't bother finishing her sentence, noting Puffy's unimpressed look. Right. No blaming herself.

Puffy smiled slightly at her swimmer, Sally would manage this. She just needed the time to process it all. That was certainly something.

Puffy waited for Sally, then together went to pick up the other two. Right now she didn't want to leave any of them out of her sight if they weren't in their rooms. She knew it was unlikely anything would happen, but she hadn't thought anything would happen to Wil either.

She had sent a message to the team group to see if any of them wanted to swim. Tubbo had said he and Ranboo said they would join later, and Puffy knew it was likely Ranboo had only just discovered what had happened all those years ago. Techno had said no for him and Wilbur. Eret had explained that he was with Tommy and so probably wouldn't. Fundy had said he would join, and so after Puffy met back up with the other two swimmers, they all went to find Fundy, who had missed the commotion of the morning due to getting up early thanks to jet-lag and had spent the early morning stretching and working out to prepare for the day.

So, once everyone who was swimming had been collected, Puffy took them all down to the pool. She wasn't intending to train them hard or anything. Right now it was a time dedicated to de-stressing.

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Aimsey POV:

The moment Aimsey felt the water surround her as she dove in, her heart started to calm slightly. She pulled her body through the water, arms stretching out in long, strong strokes, legs kicking furiously. The water had been icy when she had first dove in, but after just one lap she had warmed up significantly.

She swam lap after lap focusing on her body and how it moved, timing her breathes and thinking about nothing except swimming.

That didn't last for long, and soon enough her mind returned to the stress of the morning. She had made it worse. Made everything worse. What had she done that for!? She should've trusted Wil, should've controlled her temper, but she hadn't. She hadn't and she had snapped and she had made everything worse.

Aimsey stopped her laps, pulling up into eggbeater and taking deep breathes. He let the tears roll down his face, hidden by the water droplets. He breathed in, pulled himself underwater, skulking until he reached the bottom, before gently pushing off again and heading towards the surface as he breathed out. He repeated that a few times until the fury at himself had lessened enough for him to breathe normally, and he found his way to the edge where Puffy stood, watching them all like a hawk.

"Did I... How much did I hurt him?" Aimsey asked quietly when she reached the side of the pool.

"Oh Aims..." Puffy sighed, her voice sad, "You did nothing wrong. Without the context, what he did would have been cruel, you only acted out of care for your teammate. No one can fault you for that."

"I should've heard him out, I shouldn't have picked sides so easily."

"Maybe so, but still, there is only so much you can do young one. Sometimes emotions get the best of us. How about you show me your free duet third figure, try to channel all your emotions into it, your pain becoming your sharpness, your anger being the counts, your worry being your height. Focus on those things instead."

Aimsey did as they were told, pushing away from the wall and pulling down into the figure. Up, flick, flick, spin, catch, fishtail-swirly-spin up, in, out, sharp, flick, vertical-swap swap, out in, split- bend bend, up down, flick around, lower, slowly, slowly, FAST FLICK FLICK CRASHOUT. "ALL THIS OVER A KISS" Arm out and hold, flick back, dolphin kick left right spin around and up. Stop. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

Aimsey pulled herself up into eggbeater, taking in air desperately.

"Beautiful," Puffy smiled softly, and Aimsey knew her coach would be making mental notes for corrections later, but for now it was praise. Aimsey basked in that. She let herself lean back against the water, letting it hold her up as she caught her breath. She was an Olympian. She had gotten through so much to get here, and she was going to get her team gold no matter what happened here. She simply had to.

Words: 1000

A/N: this chapter is a thank you gift to my sister, she fixed the sewing machine when I broke it trying to make an aziraphale cosplay, and she is simply awesome, so I owe her one :]