Gunderkeen one-shots

Sink or Swim

Mallory's POV:
At breakfast Floor 19 was enjoying some light conversation in the early morning.
"Past the salt," Magnus asked.
"Get it yourself Beantown." Alex retorts.
"I refuse to be called that!"
"Oh for Gods if Asgard." TJ said giving Magnus the salt.
"Did you guys know we had a pool?" Magnus asked, sprinkling salt over his eggs. "It's like hundred feet deep in the the shallowest places, I wouldn't call that a pool!"
"We should go swimming then," I say.
"Or!" Halfborn jumps in, "we could do flower arrangements to the death."
We all give him a weird look, "Halfborn, have you never been to the hotel pool?" Alex asked, "you've been here since the dinosaurs."
"Watch it Fierro, and I've just never gotten around to it." He defends taking a swig of his mead.
"Well, we can get around to it today!" TJ says. We all get up to go change into our suits.
I change into a forest green bikini, the back of the top had numerous straps. Grabbing a towel, slipping on some flip flops and tying my hair up.
Stepping out of my room, I see Alex in a jade green and black one piece. Magnus had a pair of Doctor Who swim trunks. TJ had a pair of blue ones with a matching swim shirt.
"Where's the oaf?" I ask. Everyone shrugs.
"Halfborn! Hurry up!" Alex yells pounding on his door.
"Okay, okay." He grumbles and walks out in a pair of brown trunks.
"This is dumb, flower arrangements would be more fun." He mumbles.
"Halfborn Gunderson, if I didn't know any better I would think that you're scared of water." I say to him.
"I'm not scared woman!" He bellows. I smirk and raise an eyebrow.
"Sure." TJ smirks, patting Halfborn's shoulder.
We arrive at the pool, it was huge. The water was a deep aqua color and looking down I couldn't see the bottom.
Alex pushes Magnus in, but he grabs her hand so they both fall in. I laugh, suddenly I'm in the pool next. The water is warm and not full of chlorine like some pools.
Surfacing I see TJ laughing his arse off. What caught my eye was Halfborn just staring at the unseen bottom of the pool.
TJ tried to push him in but the berserker didn't budge. He batted the solider away and TJ fell in.
"Come on idiot!" I call, he looks uncomfortable.
"I just remembered, I have a thesis to write." He then walks away and back down the hall.
"That was weird." Magnus says. "You guys have gone swimming right?"
"We have, but mostly in rivers and lakes," I think about this. "Actually I don't think Halfborn has had to swim before."
"That can't be right," TJ thinks about it as well. "I guess he's so tall he's always been able to touch the bottom."
I get out of the pool, grabbing my towel I dry off, first stopping by my room to pull on a pair of shorts and a shirt over my wet swimsuit.
I found Halfborn in the library, reading a book. I snuck up behind him, "whatcha readin?" I ask him. He jumps and scrambles to cover his book.
I snatch it away and, Sink or Swim: The Art and Science of Swimming, I raise an eyebrow. "You can't swim?" I ask shocked.
He shrugs and rubs his neck, "I didn't think I ever needed to know, if a boat sank I could grab some floating material, and anything smaller than that I was usually tall enough to walk on the bottom."
I grab his hand, you're learning to swim." I say and tug him out the hotel doors.
"Where are we going?" He whines.
"Figured you had a better chance of learning if we started with something shallower." I say, we get to a lake that seemed deep enough in the middle for the berserker.
          I strip down to my swimsuit, looking at Halfborn I see him staring and a slight blush on his cheeks.
      "Come on, it's not that hard." I say, wading until I couldn't touch anymore, then I begin to tread.
     "Wouldn't it make more sense if we did this at the hotel where neither of us can die."
"Sink or swim, that's how I learned." I say, remembering my friends throwing my over the dock, telling me that they'd probably come get me if I started to drowned.
         "Instincts take over." I start swinging towards the middle. We where in the middle of no where and there was no one around.
        Looking back I see Halfborn only up to his waist.
"Come on you baby!" I say, "just rotate your arms and kick your feet!"
     "This is stupid!" He calls back.
I get an idea, taking a deep breath I allow myself to fall beneath the waves.
I was confident in my swimming ability and Halfborn's instincts to save me.
         I wait and wait, enough of this, I think and try to go to the surface. But something had my leg. I kicked and kicked, I try to reach down and I untangle myself. My lungs felt like they were going to explode. I didn't have my knife, I thrashed and tried to pull free.
         Finally I couldn't hold it anymore and the cool water swallowed me.
Halfborn's POV:
      I watched as Mallory's hair disappeared beneath the water. A few seconds past and she didn't come up. After about a minute I started to get worried.
"Mack! Very funny! I'm not coming to save you!" I call to her. She didn't resurface, all was silent.
      "Damn it, Keen." I mutter and wade out to my neck. I took a breath and kicked off the sand, I rotated my arms and kicked my legs as Mallory had mentioned.
      I focused on keeping my head above water. Finally I got to where she had gone under. I held my breath and put my head under.
      The water was a little murky but I could make out Mallory's red hair. Diving down, I swam to her, grabbing her I tried to pull her up.
        I see weeds wrapped around her ankle. I pulled hard and we launched to the surface. Focusing on keeping her head above water, it was much more difficult to keep two heads above water then one.
       Finally my feet found the mushy sand. From there I trudged to the beach, laying her down on the shore.
        I listened to her heart, beating faintly. I pushed on her chest and water cane out. Her eyes snap open, she turned to her side and coughed up some more water. 
        "I told you, sink or swim." She said.
"Your an idiot." I mutter laying on my back tryin to catch my breath.
"That's my line." She pouts. I laugh, and she climbs on top of me.
        "Oaf." She says, and kisses me.

A/N
I'm not actually 100% sure if einherji's hearts beat or if they have a pulse. Anyway thanks for reading, stay insane fellow fan-humans!