mainverse || starter || @pastsideals
So, there he was. Dripping wet, just having finished another two laps around his lane, barely hanging onto the pool grate with his elbow. The water constrained his breathing a little bit, now that he noticed- but it wasn’t like he hadn’t been through this before.
He checked his watch, opened to a stopwatch app and frozen to the point he stopped. “1 minute and 2 seconds for a 100 fly,” Ethan thought to himself, smiling as he immersed the watch back into the water. It was a personal record for him- sure, by a literal second, but who gave a shit, right?
Ethan chuckled. No matter how much champion work Lance gave him or how many times he would cry over things past... swimming was always there for him. Even since the beginning... now that he thought about it, it didn’t judge. It didn’t stare or yell at you. It comforted and encouraged you. Almost like a therapist- not exactly, true, but he’d had to have gotten by somewhere.
« Alright, now... time to practice back... ‘tis a bitch... » he muttered to himself, grasping the metal bars above the water level and hoisting himself up, looking behind him as he readied himself once again- until he released, splashing back into the water. There was... another person?
Ethan checked his watch again. 1:27 AM. Who else was at the pool this early in the morning? Ethan only went because it was the only time he got to have any rest.
The champion shrugged it off, hoisting himself off and tapping the timer to start, counting three seconds before almost jumping off the pool wall and arcing into the water- something he’d done millions of times before, yet something that still felt novel and exciting.