Quiet Backstage: A Series of Lippa Oneshots

Intervention

Swimmers AU for Whyisgamora18!
Set in the Summer Olympics, both for team USA!
Enjoy!
Xx. ❤

*Mentions of alcoholic tendencies and disordered eating*

It wasn't a mystery to anyone, about how Lin and I both ended up the center of this team intervention. See, we were both swimmers for the USA Summer Olympics team, and well, the week leading up to our first heats was one to learn a lesson from.

So, let's start at the beginning.

~~~~~

Lin and I had known each other for a long time now. We met at the trials for the Olympic team five years ago, and the rest is history. The one thing everyone always speculated was that we were dating, but we swore we'd never to mix profession and pleasure like that. Therefore, best friends, we remained.

Anyway, back to my point. That week leading up, we had landed in Rio De Janeiro a week prior to our first heats. And like I said, that week was a crazy one. We were training day in and day out, conditioning, and panicking; we were all definitely panicking to a certain degree.

"Hey, Pip, want to come to dinner with us?" Another teammate of mine, Jasmine, asked. I looked up and saw Jasmine, Lin, Jonathan, and Anthony, all standing in a group. We were all our own small family within the team, and we did go to dinner quite often.

But this time, this whole thing was different. I bit my bottom lip, but kept a strong facade. "Um, no, I'm alright. I think I'll just call something in or just eat something here." I nodded.

"You sure?" Lin asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure." I put on somewhat of a forced smile, and looked back down to my folded knees.

"Alright. Want us to bring you anything back?" Jasmine asked.

"No, thanks, Jaz. Thank you, though." I said, standing up. I gave each of them a hug before going back to my room, and they went to dinner.

~~~~~

It was about four hours later when I was completely back to my room. I had just called in half a salad from Panera Bread, though PostMate, and the rest of the gang had long since gotten back from dinner. I closed my hotel room door behind me, and sighed, falling onto my bed. I was purely exhausted, and the stress of the Games starting soon was weighing heavily down on my shoulders. I sat up moments later and saw a jacket slung over the back of the chair in the room. I thought it was kind of odd, considering I didn't bring my denim jacket with me, and with further inspection, I realized that this was Lin's. I walked over to the chair, picked up the jacket, and left my room, headed to take this jacket back to it's original owner. "Hey, Lin, I have your..? Lin?" I asked, slowly opening his door, that was weirdly ajar. I walked into the room to see Lin, slumped down in the chair in his room, an empty bottle of wine on the table, and crushed metal cans around the room here and there. "Lin?" I asked, shaking his shoulder. "Lin?!" I asked, concern blanketing my words. After a bit more shoulder shaking, and talking to, I finally got a pending hungover Lin to wake up.

"Pippa?" He asked, rubbing the side of his head.

"Are you insane?! What are you doing?!" I yelled. "Why do you have all of this alcohol?!"

"Pippa, let me explain." Lin started standing up, but was a bit off his balance, so he sat back down.

"No! Lin, you're so stupid! How long has this been going on?!" I yelled once again, throwing the jacket down.

"Few months." Lin mumbled as I started out the door. "Where are you going?!" Lin shouted.

"To tell Coach!" I shouted right back.

"No, no, no! You can't!" Lin exclaimed, stopping me.

"What are you going to do to stop me?" I sassily crossed my arms.

"I'll tell Coach that you haven't been eating." Lin snapped. My arms dropped, and my eyes widened. He had picked up on the one thing in my lifetime I had ever hidden from him.

"You wouldn't." I gasped, my voice starting to shake. "N-No, Lin, he won't let me swim then! Lin, they'll send me home, they'll--"

"So don't tell Coach that I was drinking!" Lin posed his ultimatum.

"Lin, it's for your own health, I--" Lin shook his head and walked closer to me. I backed away from him as he got closer, and we finally stopped when I hit my shoulders on the wall. I reached my hand through the open door and gripped onto the doorframe as Lin got impossibly closer to me.

"You tell him I've been doing all this drinking, I'll tell him just as quickly about how you haven't been eating." He sneered, face-to-face, the tips of our noses were touching.

"Well, well, well..." A new voice from the hallway filled the air around us. "What a grand way for me to find all of this out, hmm?" Jonathan stared both of us down as Lin jumped from right in front of me. "Lin, I suspected things, considering I've seen your mini fridge, but Phillipa," Groff shook his head and crossed his arms, walking closer to us. "Good job hiding. I would not have guessed that you'd fall into a trap like this."

Lin and I both exchanged a worried glance. "Groff, you cannot tell Coach!" Lin exclaimed. We were now in this together.

"What do you want from us?! Anything! Just don't tell him, please, Groff! Please." I begged.

Jonathan's eyebrows scrunched together as Lin reached in his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. "Lin, you cannot bribe me out of this!" Groff uncrossed his arms. "It's in the best intrest for both of your guy's health." He said as he walked down the hallway to the one room we were trying to push him away from.

~~~~~

And that's how every USA Olympic athlete ended up in the hotel lobby, getting a lecture about how there are healthy ways to cope with the stress of the Games. And that's how Lin and I became the "examples" of this whole intervention.