A Little Friendly Competition

It had crossed Alicia’s mind – briefly – to try twisting out of the hold. But instinct argued against it, the position that they were in and the way her legs were trapped under her body giving her pause. Up on her knees, Eka stacked up almost on her shoulders but not quite, there was a very real worry that she’d damage her own neck in trying to get out. Twist the wrong way, if Eka went the other way…

Not worth chancing it.

Certainly not for a sparring match.

Hence the tap, which was followed almost immediately by the hold coming apart and the relief that came with it. Besides, in some ways, this made it more interesting. Ok, she was not saying she’d wanted Eka to take a point and Alicia certainly hadn’t taken it easy on her but it was more interesting this way. The brunette now had something to fight for and, while there was a determination in her eyes, Alicia wasn’t sure that it couldn’t have turned to the defeat she’d seen in the other woman when they first met.

The big redhead definitely didn’t flop to the canvas but she did rock back on her haunches, taking a deep breath to refill her supply and rolling her shoulder around.

Yes, Eka Guramishvili definitely knew her triangle chokes.

Her brief reverie only lasted a moment, before she grasped Eka’s offered hand with a grateful nod and used it to rise to her feet.

”Sure,” was her answer, because there wasn’t really any other answer. Not that she’d ever even thought about it but one glance at the solid muscle that comprised most of Alicia’s lower body made it pretty clear that it wouldn’t be all that hard for her. ”Cracked a guy’s ribs once, back at school.”

The kickboxer shrugged, threw the other wrestler a look, stretching out.

Odd question.

Alicia did not respond well to her little joke. The Georgian girl had been riding wave after wave of emotion, and this was a low point. She gulped a bit and shook her head. Eka had been embarrassing herself for a while, and it looked like the embarrassments were to continue. At least she had evened the score, for what it was worth. She had just earned a chance to win the whole thing, and even if the chance was marginal she still had to go for it and give it her all.

Eka took a step back, and gave her opponent some space to stretch out a little bit. The ravenhaired girl didn't want to hurry Alicia at all, as she needed some rest as well. Her chest rose up and down, because she was breathing hard and trying to hold back all the consternation swelling in her chest. She had set up four walls four herself: her self-doubt, her unrealistic expectations for herself, her pride, and now finally her sadism. Eka felt like she was completely trapped, and it was all her own doing. And she knew that.

"Whenever you are ready." She said. Her tone was dark, harangued by all the mental ills plaguing her. It was time to be done with this, one way or another. Then she could go back and listen to Bach or someone, and forget the day ever happened, just like she had been doing for the past while.

And now they were tied at one fall apiece, leaving her with but a single fall to win if she didn’t want to pay for lunch.

Strangely enough, Alicia wasn’t feeling overly worried about that. So far, she’d been enjoying their match and – win or lose – she didn’t see that changing.

Well, her wallet would definitely prefer it if Eka ended up paying but it’d cope.

Rolling back her shoulders one last time, massaging a bit more of the tension out of her neck, Alicia sunk back into her kickboxing stance. She threw Eka a nod, a mix of curiosity and almost uncertainty behind the look. There was something off in the Georgian’s tone, a note she didn’t quite like. It’d put the redhead on her guard, though she refrained from questioning it. If Eka was good to go, Alicia wasn’t about to question that.

She’d never take that from anyone herself, she saw no reason why Eka would be any happier if she suggested that the other wrestler shouldn’t be fighting. And it was a look and a guess based on her tone. A look and a guess.

This time, Alicia didn’t hang around either. It wasn’t the ultra-aggressive move of the first round but she still closed the distance fast, her long legs immediately lashing out at her opponent’s ribs one after another like whips. She knew not to get too close now, but she could still make use of her striking game and her longer limbs to nudge Eka into making a mistake.

A nod signified that the final part of the duel began. It was all that was necessary. The time for fancy words and Mithradates had come and passed, and Eka was on the proving ground once again. It was like back in high school, with an incredulous coach asking if she really wanted to be on the wrestling team. Except, this time, she was the coach. Do you really want to get down and dirty? Eka took a half step forward in response to a question that no one actually asked.

And she instantly regretted it. Alicia went hyper-aggressive, as was her right, and swung in kick after kicks towards the raven-haired girl. The first one plagued her with terrible pain in her ribs and threatened to knock the wind from her. The second one she saw coming and peeled back just in time. She dodged the third one similarly, which meant that she was slowly losing territory to the redhead.

And real estate was at an absolute premium. There was only so much ground to give in a literal and figurative sense, which meant that Eka was going to have to do something drastic. She tried to time it so she got hit with one of the kicks, as unpleasant as it was, but could safely ensure that one of her arms was around Alicia's firm legs.

From there, she would try to spin and toss Alicia to the ground. There were easier ways to get the Brit onto the ground, but Eka was trying to make a point. What the point was, exactly, and whom she was making it to were total unknowns, but Eka was going to be damned if she bowed out of this tussle without making Alicia pay.

Alicia’s kicks were, not to put too fine a point on it, lethal. She could knock people out with a single kick and, given Eka’s ribs hadn’t had that long to recoup, having one of her kicks slam into them had to hurt. That didn’t stop the big redhead from following with two more in rapid succession, choosing to sacrifice some power for a speedier delivery of her attacks.

Eka clearly didn’t enjoy taking the first one like a sledgehammer to the ribs but she retained her presence of mind sufficiently to just sidestep the second and then the third. It was a near thing both times and Alicia kept up, kept firing the kicks. She was confident – she had the Georgian wrestler on the back foot, Eka had shown little ability to stand up to her in a striking match and she was going to run out of ring to dodge into shortly.

And it was anyone’s guess how many more hits she could take.

The fourth kick missed too but the fifth smacked home just under Eka’s ribs with an ugly sound.

Nothing new there. What caught – both literally and metaphorically – Alicia’s attention was the speed with which her opponent dropped her arm down, temporarily trapping that leg. Temporarily because, in a contest of strength between Alicia’s massively powerful leg and Eka’s arm, there could only be one winner.

Also because Eka, too smart to play that game, dropped and twisted, forcing Alicia to go with her or risk serious knee damage. The twist still hurt, as did the slam to the ground. Briefly stunned, Alicia lay still for a critical moment, blinking at the lights.

Eka was out of her head. She wasn't quite sure what it was. All the pressures she had been feeling were only exacerbated by the feeling of losing. And she certainly felt like she was losing. Her ribs may have been broken by kick after devastating kick. Mentally, she was tired of trying to pick through Alicia's strong armor. Emotionally, she was just all over the place. Overwhelmed didn't even begin to describe it, then she would feel happy, and then harangued again.

If someone took a picture of them right now, Eka would not have recognized herself. The look on her face was completely blank, not showing anything. A flip had been switched within her, and she was in kill mode. For a girl as clever and methodical as Eka, this was the worst possible place to be. She saw the body of the redhead on the ground in front of her, and she dropped to her knees to her task.

A fist rose up. Eka's single pale arm was extended upwards. Her sweat reflected the light of the AFW gym, and showed how toned it was. Well, no. Not toned. Thin, even. Practically nothing, especially in comparison to Alicia's legs. And when the arm descended, it was going between those thighs of Alicia's.

The Georgian girl didn't really know what she was doing. She could not have even guessed why she was going for a crotch shot. The glaring lights of the gym illuminated her dark act, and there was no hiding.

If Eka had put a bit more hurt on the redhead before going for that, she’d have landed her blow and had Alicia practically at her mercy. But, as it was, the kickboxer might have been down but she was far from out – luckily for her, because Eka’s vicious low blow would certainly have been extremely painful even for someone as big and used to pain as Alicia.

In retrospect, it was instinct that saved her combined with no little amount of good luck. Not wanting to stay on her back any longer than necessary, Alicia had begun to roll to her side, looking to get away and then up. But, in doing so, the movement of her legs meant that the fist intended to go between her limbs had instead smacked hard into the side of her hip.

Blocked or not, though, it was immediately obvious what Eka had been going for. Alicia’s wide eyed glance went from the fist at her side to the woman to whom it belonged, caught entirely off guard. It just hadn’t crossed her mind that Eka would resort to something like that, let alone in a totally meaningless spar. Sure, the Georgian hadn’t been pulling her punches before but there was a world of difference between that and going for the low blow.

If she hadn’t moved…

Regaining her voice, Alicia scooted back, suddenly angry.

”What the hell?!”

Her eyes were narrowed to furious slits as she shoved her way to her feet, looming over Eka like an oncoming storm.

”What the hell was that?”

Eka was floating above the world. Like Icarus who flew too close to the sun, she lost sight of all the earthly things that constrained normal people. And when she came crashing down, she crashed down hard. Her blue eyes turned upwards towards the raging redhead descending upon her, and her heart was completely wracked with guilt. In a real match, Eka would hardly even consider a move like that, and this was nothing but a meaningless spar. This wouldn't go down in the record books, this wouldn't be on TV, no one would write about this in the newspaper. Yet of all the tricks she could pull, she opted for that one.

The enormity of the character shift was not lost on her. Eka was still sitting and her eyes were cast down now. She looked at her hands, as if they were to blame for the misfortune that she had caused. But they weren't. Only she was. Eka had let her integrity slip, and she hadn't even won this meaningless spar. As a matter of fact, Eka thought this meant that she had lost it. Everything was starting to unravel now and big dollops of tears began to form in her eyes.

She looked back up at Alicia, as much as it pained her to do so. "I am sorry, I am so so sorry. I have been under a lot of stress recently, and nothing has been going my way at all for the past while and I was out of my head and I am sorry and I didn't mean it I just thought this was going to be another thing that slipped away and I am so so sorry." The flood that came out of Eka's mouth was as pathetic as it was fast. Eka's tone displayed her fragile emotions, and the tears began to truly flow. She grabbed two handfuls of her own dark hair in frustration with herself. "You win, ok? I am sorry. I have never done that before and I don't know how it happened."

She curled up a little bit and began to rock, all the while holding on to her hair. Whatever Alicia did to her, Eka would deserve it. "I am so so sorry," Eka spat out between sobs. The raven-haired girl just wanted to disappear at the moment, moreso than when she had loss after loss. She had dishonored herself in front of someone who could be her friend, in the worst way possible. Eka was not very proud of herself then and there, to say the absolute least.

It hadn’t even crossed Alicia’s mind that Eka might cheat. She knew that wasn’t the first time that thought had crossed her mind in the few moments since it had happened but really. It hadn’t. Not just in a ‘this is only sparring’ sense, but in the sense that nothing Eka had said or done with her or in her matches had made Alicia think that was her style.

Ok. Sure. She didn’t know the Georgian that well, and even less well than she’d thought. And the more she thought about it, the angrier Alicia found herself getting. And even Eka’s sudden reversal of mien from merciless attack to almost catatonia failed to soothe her.

What the Georgian wrestler had done had, on some primal level, changed the dynamics between them. Fundamentally altered them. Where before Alicia had been happy even in defeat, now her face was stormy with her anger.

Glowering down at Eka, she watched as the other wrestler disintegrated in front of her.

There was really no other word for it, how she went from cold eyed opponent to a puddle of tears and excuses. That was all Alicia heard between the sobs. Excuses.

She shook her head sharply, sweat drops flicking around her.

”No.”

The word was barely gone before Alicia stooped down and went to yank Eka back to her feet, grabbing at her biceps and pulling hard.

Staring the other wrestler in the eye, she shook her head again.

”We’re not done. You don’t pull a stunt like that then just quit. So stand up so we can finish this.”

Taut anger buzzed in every word, Alicia’s eyes dark with fury – that was just one more thing that had changed. This wasn’t just a sparring match any more. Now Eka was going to get a taste of what it was really like to face the big redhead in the ring.

Eka honestly didn't know what to expect. Maybe she would get beaten up, and she almost certainly wouldn't resist Alicia anymore. She detested women who had to resort to those sorts of things. The raven haired girl idly wondered if that meant she loathed herself. But the redhead was not one to let Eka wallow in her despair. The British woman was a wrestler, and a fighter, and a sport. None of those facets of her would allow the Georgian girl to quit. Two clamps latched on to her biceps and pulled her up in the air.

The raven-haired girl teetered for a second before catching herself. Her opponent, probably not friend anymore, was mad. No, livid. The Georgian girl had never felt that level of blind rage before, although she had seen it a few times. Part of her wondered if she could still do something to back out of it, but the sheer rage on Alicia's face slammed that door shut before it got even half open. Her blue eyes could not match Alicia's, not in the emotional and physical state she was in.

Eka was at a crossroads. All of her college and all of her wrestling experience could not train her for something like this. Her breaths were long and drawn out, and her dark hair concealed her face from the world. The Georgian wouldn't mind being anywhere, anywhere in the whole wide world, except here.

But it was time to face the music. Her tearful eyes went up once again, and she wiped the snot from her nose. A long trail now glimmered on the arm that was now coiling with fearful anticipation. She sniffed one more time, and wiped the tears from her eyes. Whatever was going to happen, was going to happen. Eka had done something wrong, and it was time to deal with it, like a big girl. She crouched into her wrestling stance.

"Ok," she said in a half tone louder than a whisper.