Kawaii Cuties Clash! (for Oathkeeper)

Claire saw the look in Cutey's eyes when the two of them turned to look at each other again. The pink-haired girl was hurting, the same as she was. And, boy, was she hurting. Her lungs were barely even able to process the oxygen that she managed to draw in through her aching, throbbing throat. Her mouth was dry and was only going to get drier the longer she kept running. Her legs were numb, though there was a distant, incredibly painful burning sensation, as if she was trying to run through wet sand, with each grain skidding along her skin to irritate her, and the overall effect building up into something truly...dreadful. Her feet hurt just from hitting the tread at such a high speed. Even her arms were aching, their swinging becoming more and more erratic and sloppy.

Claire knew she had to stop the treadmill. It was either stop it, or fall off, going flying like this was some bad comedy where she would end up face down, ass up in a pile of dirty laundry. Claire would have to reach the stop button first, of course, and she didn't know if she could. Desperately, with all the strength and courage she had left, she would pick up the pace, inching slightly closer to it, stretching out her arm...

She could see Cutey reaching for her own stop button. Both of their hands were nearly on their consoles, just inches away from hitting the button that would lose the race...Claire hesitated, pleading with her eyes for Cutey to press it first.

But she couldn't breathe. She could feel herself falling back. Claire knew she had no choice. She tried to hold off for another few seconds, knowing how close Cutey was to stopping it, but her body could no longer keep up the fight. Her knee began to buckle, and, when it did, Claire would practically dive and hit the stop button, ending her suffering at the expense of losing the contest.

Unfortunately, the treadmill did not stop immediately. Claire fell down, and, though the tread was coming to a halt, it didn't stop completely before it conveyed Claire backward and dumped her, rather inelegantly, on her cute butt on the gym floor. Dizzy and half dead, Claire would not try to get up right away. "Haaaah...owwwie..."

Cutey blinked as she heard some tumbling to her side, she immediately jumped forward to hit the stop button and braced herself as she grabbed onto the bars of the treadmills with a death grip. With a start, she turned back to find the treadmill empty beside her. She then found Claire who was on her butt

"A-are you alright?" The japanese girl said before pressing the stop button on Claire's machine.

Taking her water bottle and taking Claire's which she was assumed was the one on her machine. Turning back, she took to step only to find her legs cramp and her knees turn into gellatin. She lay on her front and crawled her way to Claire before rolling onto her butt facing her. With a smile, she offered Claire her own water bottle before taking a long chug from her own. She was tempted to pour the water on her head but refrained from it. The cold water really cooled down her burning body as she took long breaths unable to speak just breathe in and out.

"Gah! This is my fault. I'm sorry. I made this a competition and this happened. It's my bad Miss... uhh! Oh! Cutey gave a smile as she used a small white towel to wipe the sweat away from her brow and neck. "I'm Mika 'Cutey" Kanai."

Claire was a little disoriented, and her butt hurt, but luckily she had managed to avoid bonking her head or skinning her knees or anything of that sort. She had hit the stop button before falling, so her machine was only on half speed, if that, when she took her rather dramatic tumble. It was a lucky thing, too, because otherwise she would have been sailing halfway across the gym into the wall.

She was too busy trying to deal with the ramifications of her tumble—steadying her breathing again, and trying to gingerly paw at her suddenly aching rear end—to really pay attention to what Cutey was doing, but she did notice when the girl crawled up beside her, turning over onto her own butt and handing Claire her water bottle. The black-haired girl would gasp, looking at her new acquaintance with much appreciation in her eyes. "Th-thank you!" Claire would whisper, before opening the water bottle and letting its contents sooth her aching throat. Oh, it felt so good—the water seemed to instantly heal all her ills! When she had taken her drink, she would press the ice-cold surface of the bottle against her cheek, sighing as the cold helped to stop the production of sweat, which had been getting a little out of hand.

"I-it's not your fault. I wanted to make it a competition, too. I'm fine...really, I am." Claire would reply, with a smile. And then, at last, the two got to introducing themselves. Claire giggled when she heard her new friend Mika Kanai's nickname. "Heh heh...you call yourself Cutey? You are really cute, so I suppose it does fit you! I'm Claire...Claire St. Clair." Claire would reach out a shaking arm to shake hands with her pink-haired counterpart.

"I actually wasn't the one who chose it. It was a nickname that just stuck. People use it so much people think it's my first name. Uhh.. thanks, I think you look really cute too. Cutey flushed scratching absent mindedly at her cheek before accepting the handshake. "Claire St. Clair? It's catchy and kind of charming.

Cutey giggled as she got to her feet cautiously before smirking at Claire.

"So, how did my dust taste by the way loser? " Cutey teased putting her hands on her hips as she narrowed her eyes. "if you want some more, you're welcome to challenge me anytime."

The pink haired girl grinned and offered a hand up to help her get to her feet. Cutey would then stretch out her legs and massaging the sore parts of her leg.

Claire blushed when Cutey complimented her back, both on her cuteness and on how charming her name was. This pink-haired girl was really leaving a good impression on Claire. "Ahh...thank you, you're too sweet," Claire would say, obviously very flattered by her new friend's words as she brought a hand up to her face, feeling her cheeks heating up again—though this time it was not because of overexertion.

Cutey's next move honestly surprised Claire. She had been expecting some taunting from her victorious foe, but she had let her guard down when Cutey had been so considerate, bringing her her water bottle and checking to make sure that she wasn't injured. Now, after getting to her feet, Cutey began to tease Claire as she loomed over her like a colossus, her hands on her hips, a devilish smirk on her lips. Suddenly, Claire felt very small as she was still seated beneath the winning kawaii. Her cheeks turned bright crimson, but not for the same reason she had been blushing before.

"H-hey, as if you weren't about to collapse, too!" Claire would reply, with a pouty expression on her face. She accepted Cutey's helping hand, grabbing it and pulling herself up onto unsteady feet. But she was not done arguing with the pink-haired girl. "In fact, if I hadn't tripped, you would have collapsed of exhaustion first! If we were jogging around a track...there's no way you would make it further than me!" She would put her hands on her hips, too, mirroring the pose her new friend was in, their two bodies just inches apart and easily comparable. From their small breasts, to their smooth tummies, to their cute, petite little toes, they were very similar indeed, with each body part even lining up near-perfectly with its rival!

Cutey smiled as she got a rise out of Claire, she chuckled at her new friend's protests. To be fair, Cutey knew she was right and their contest was won by a razor thin margine. She knew she was really pushing her role as the supperior of the two. Standing over her like that with her hands on her hips, she couldn't help but put on a smug face. Claire was clearly taken by surprise expecting Cutey to be nicer and less cocky.

Standing toe to toe with her, Cutey was tempted to step closer and really get in Claire's face just to see what would happen. She felt a restless and competitive urge to put Claire in her place. The raven haired girl looked adorable especially with that pout of defiance on her face. The look of desperation she gave her in the heat of their competition really didit for her.

"On the track, the results would be the same only I would start to slow down and you'd trip on your cute butt but like I said I'm open to any form of rematch." Cutey would say giggling before leaning in close to Claire's ear. "Maybe next time, I'll have to put a foot on your cute chest and count very slowly to three."

Pulling away, she wanted to see how that mental image would affect Claire before giving her a light shove.

"Unless you think you can stop me..." Cutey said folding her arms across her chest, her eyes gleaming with mischief.

Claire was surprised by Cutey's sudden about-face, taunting her like that instead of continuing to try to help her, but she could tell that the girl was not trying to be mean about it—at least, not in a mean mean way. She was trying to get a rise out of Claire, and, well, it was working. If Cutey wanted to stoke the flames of Claire's competitiveness and goad her into an all-out contest of wills between the two of them, then she had succeeded. She had Claire itching to compete some more, even while her legs were still aching and she was still covered in sweat.

As the two of them stood toe to toe, Cutey was not the only one who felt that pull to step closer and really get in her counterpart's face. Claire felt adrenaline restoring her strength, and she did not want to let Cutey think that she had gotten the better of Claire permanently. Claire kept her hands on her hips, and refused to take the defiant look off of her face as she plotted how to wipe the smug look off of Cutey's. Unfortunately, she couldn't do anything about the blushing, which was still very...pronounced.

"Well, if you want to be humiliated, then that can be arranged," Claire would say. If Cutey wanted to pose on top of her, then Claire would turn that situation right back around on her cute little pink-haired rival. "I can stop you anytime, anywhere. Like..." Claire would glance around, then point over to the bench press, with the barbells and weights stacked beside it. "Like right over there, loser."

"Hmm? Are you blushing?" Cutey let her smile go from ear to ear as she saw the blush on Claire's cheeks, narrowing her eyes conspiratorially. Getting that reaction out of Claire was totally worth having Claire a little mad at her. She giggled giddy with excitement as she stared Claire down before taking her challenge seriously. She put her hands behind her back as she went off her heels to peer at the bench press. She looked at the barbells and then back at Claire, Cutey wasn't exactly the strongest but Claire seemed to have an edge in terms of weight or build. The pink haired girl shrugged and walked towards the bench press before bumping her hip into Claire as she passed Claire.

She flashed Claire a flirtatious grin as their eyes met and giving her a wink. Cutey obviously was having a lot of fun being on her high horse after her small victory on the treadmill.

"Sure just don't come crying when I beat you a second time." Cutey said in a confident and easy voice. "Let's do this!"

"Of course I am! It's perfectly natural to blush in a situation like this one...or didn't you know that, you dummy?" Claire would fire back, her cheeks not growing any less red. Unfortunately for her, the torture just kept getting worse, as Cutey would not let up with the teasing! Claire was flustered, for sure, but she was still in a position to retort and respond to anything that the pink-haired sweetheart said. But, when Cutey bounced by her, thrusting her hips out to give Claire's hips a bump, then looked over her shoulder at Claire with that flirtatious grin, Claire had trouble keeping her head on straight. Her cheeks turned even redder than before, and she buried her face in her hands.

"Gosh, come on...gosh, seriously..." she would mutter, obviously having trouble gathering her thoughts. "I...am going to kick your cute little butt so hard..." Grumbling, then, Claire would hurry forward to catch up to Cutey, then swing her hips to her side, returning the bump to her new rival! She was excited—very excited—but also a little nervous. The two of them were very evenly matched, with neither having much of an advantage in build. On the treadmills, Cutey had turned out to have ever so slight of an edge over her. But in the bench press...who knew? Claire just hoped she didn't get embarrassed again.

Though some small part of her wouldn't mind being embarrassed again...

No! Enough of that! "Yeah, let's do this! We can make this nice and easy...maybe pick one weight and see which of us can do more reps, huh? Unless you wanted to go weight by weight. I'll beat you any way you want to do it."

Cutey blushed and let out a yelp when Claire returned the favor catching her by surprise. She would smile back at Claire before clicking her tongue against her teeth. As the two made their way to the bench press, she took a moment to contemplate how they would go about this. She grinned at her new friend's challenge.

"Oh? So confident are we, here I thought you'd be busy licking your wounds." Cutey remarked much more confidently then she felt. "We'll do max reps, 95 pounds. Since you feel so confident why don't you go first? I'll spot you if that's too heavy for a weakling like you."

Cutey thought 95 was a good round number. The barbell alone was 45 lbs which was nearly half her weight. She began putting on a 25 lb plates on both sides. In her expierence, she was able to do around 8 repetitions in sets of 3. She wasn't exactly sure how many she could pump out in one go. Cutey also hoped Claire would just laugh at the 95lbs and do like 25 reps with ease. Claire didn't look that strong but looks had decieved her before.

"W-well whenever you're ready!"