Floating - Adiza FF

Part 3

Hello hellooo!

I think for this story, my A/N always starts the same.

I am sorry for making you guys wait for so long!

But, maybe I can make up for it: there is a little surprise. One of the reason for the delay of the upload of this one was that I was not able to write the story in the amount of parts I predicted this story to be. So, now I decided to extend this story a bit further, and make it a 3+ part story.

So this means, there are 1-2 parts left! I hope this is in your favor as well.

Again, thank you so so much for all the support!!!

A special thanks to SA9reader for the help, she is the reason why this didn't take me even longer to write ;)!

Song: Eminem - Guts Over Fear ft. Sia

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Things were looking up for a few weeks, she was learning a lot of things, he was, as expected a great teacher and he really did push her whenever she needed it, but then one faithful day...

She was really improving her swimming skills by week three. Everything was going smoothly...

It was almost ridiculous to think that she was afraid to jump off the side a week ago. Now that he had showed her to glide on top of water, she was feeling more and more confident.

Of course, he still needed to help her out with keeping her body straight, but she was making progress.

Right now, he just told her to keep her hands together, stretch it above her head. Taking a deep breath, she started gliding and he was pulling her, making her feel the smooth movements. After coming up to take some air, he gave her more instruction.

And he noticed the small transition. A week ago, he still saw a hint of fear in her eyes, when she got into the water, but now, she was at a point where she was struggling with other situations.

For example, the fear of depth. All the instructions he had given her were done at the shallow end of the water. But every time he suggested to try the new progress in the deep end she backed out.

However, as there was a reason for her to have chosen him to be her teacher, he came up with a small game.

A few days after, he was in the water with a bright yellow swimming float and she already knew that this time, she would not be able to back down.

"C'mon, don't tell me you're afraid of this thing?", he said, clearly teasing her.

"Yesterday, I saw a 4-year old use it.", he continued, making her blush in embarrassment, even though she knew he was teasing her to make her overcome her fear.

"What do you want me to do?", she asked meekly, already knowing what it's going to be. He sighed deeply.

"Okay, I know Adi, you're afraid, but you have made so much progress, we will now try to take this to the deep end. And you should already know by now. I will always be by your side. There is no need to be afraid, okay?", he explained in a more serious manner, and even though it calmed her down a little bit, she was still super nervous.

"Alright", she agreed. So, slowly, he instructed her to use the float to keep her upper body on top of the water and to keep paddling with her legs in order to move forwards. They practiced first at the shallow end and then, it was time to take it a step further.

"First, I will be pulling you as well, so, really, trust me, nothing is going to happen.", he said, while looking into her eyes, to make sure she understood how serious he was being.

She only nodded and took a deep breath. He kept pulling her towards the deep end, and the further they moved into it, the more her heartbeat started to increase.

But he moved her so slow and steady that at some point, she trusted her body not to sink. The float helping her to grip onto something as well.

She even dared to look at him, and she found him smiling at her, making her smile back at him, too.

So, it went on, at first, he was pulling her along with him, and gradually he made her swim with the help of the float alone.

Sure, she was incredibly scared, the moment he let go of the float, but soon after, she realised that actually, she had been doing all the work alone anyways. He was just beside her, as a support.

After a few days, she got even confident enough to agree on a swimming competition, of course with the help of the float.

But that was when it all came crushing down again.

He had just told her where the finishing line would be. They had been doing this for quite some time now, and to her envy he was always a little bit faster.

She again nodded and was waiting for him to count to three.

"One, two, three!", he called out and immediately pushed himself into the water and began paddling like crazy.

She too started but then suddenly, she felt a stinging pain in her left foot. Struggling to paddle further, she started hyperventilating and let go of the float.

She wanted to call out for him, but no sound left her lips, her body froze.

Her foot was cramping so badly that she didn't know what else to do... she felt so helpless... just like when she was little.

At some point however, the adrenaline started to kick in, and her arms moved, but uncontrolled, and that's when Zain also realized that she was not alongside him, as usual.

She heard him call out for her, and saw how he immediately turned around and swam towards her.

He also immediately understood that there was something wrong.

So, the moment he was close to her, he pulled her towards him. "Adi, what's wrong?", he asked worried, holding her trembling body up.

She was only able to weakly mumble "foot", and he understood. He then quickly pulled her to the side of the pool where the ladder was placed to get out and made her sit on the steps.

He pulled her leg up and started to massage her foot that was cramping. It hurt like hell, but already after a minute or two, the massaging helped loosen the muscles that were tightening.

Her body was still trembling by the time he fully helped her out of the pool. They sat down on the chairs and she tried so hard to calm down and she didn't say a single word. And he started to get worried.

Gently, he put his hand on her arm. And as expected, she was startled for a moment.

"Adi?", he started, but she then just turned towards him and crashed into his chest, hugging him for dear life, and soon after, he felt the hot tears on his bare chest, which felt contrasting to the overall cold dampness on his skin.

Her breathing was heavy, and her body trembled but he just let her silently cry, putting his arms around her, soothingly caressing her back.

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How was it?

Again, sorry for the long wait, but I hope I made up for it a little bit!

Let me know you thoughts!

See you soon!