Kawaii Cuties Clash! (for Oathkeeper)

Smiling at Cutey and seeing a smile get flashed back at her, Claire felt very strange indeed. She was mad at the Japanese girl, on some level, and wanted to make sure she put her in her place by the end of the night. At the same time, she wasn't really upset with her new rival. The two of them were dancing on the edge of fighting and flirting, and it was actually very enjoyable for Claire. She had never met a girl quite like Cutey Kanai before...and she already liked her a lot. She had a certain joie de vivre that Claire didn't possess herself, and she seemed to be able to bring something special out in the New Englander.

"Ninety-five pounds? That's fine, I guess. I thought we were going to go for a weight which was actually, you know, heavy. So of course I would be confident if that's all you think you can lift." Claire, of course, was exaggerating. She thought about how many reps she could do at ninety-five pounds. Maybe twelve reps in two sets...or eight in three? She didn't always keep exact track, so she wasn't sure.

She desperately hoped she could outdo Cutey in this contest.

To make things fair, as Cutey lifted one twenty-five pound weight onto one side of the barbell, Claire would lift its twin onto the other side of the barbell, clamping it in place to make sure that it would not slide off. "If you're so weak that you need the extra rest...then sure, I'll lift first," Claire would agree. Giving Cutey a smirk and a wink, she would lay herself down on the bench, sliding underneath the bar, shaking out her arms to limber them up, and breathing deeply to try to calm her nerves.

"Are you ready? Keep count, and don't stop until you hit one hundred, because I'll be doing at least that many." Then, she put her hands on the bar, getting a good grip. After one more deep breath, Claire would pick it up and bring it over her chest, before lifting it upwards for the first rep!

Cutey clamped her side of the barbell as well securing the plates, the two had worked rather efficiently. She wasn't sure if Claire was bluffing or not when it came to her statement. She had seen her friend Chizuru pump some serious iron despite not looking that big. The brunette had benched more than triple what she did albeit only for 1 rep. After witnessing Chizuru bench her personal 1 Rep max, Rei had dubbed her 'mighty mouse". At the time, she was both shocked and self concious by Chizuru's feat of strength. She always knew Chizuru was strong and in a different weight class but that was insane.

She didn't want to lose out to Claire either, the American girl really brought out her competitive side and something else but she wasn't sure how to decipher her emotions. When Claire implied that the weight was light, she felt her heart skip a beat.

"I just wanted to take it easy on you. Give you something you can handle." Cutey bluffed as she walked around to catch the bar if need be. "A hundred huh? Yeah okay, I bet you have a D-cup too."

Cutey sincerely hoped that Claire could not do a hundred reps.

"One." Cutey counted unable to hide a smirk. Based on how the bar moved, she quickly realized Claire was bluffing.

"Only Ninety-nine to go." She said her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Right before Claire started her first rep, she heard Cutey make that little remark about her bust, and the blush which had faded to just a very light pink suddenly showed up in a hoter hue once more. "H-hey, you're one to talk...but I'll save that little critique for another time. I don't want to wait another millisecond to school you, pinky."

Claire then performed her first rep, not going for speed, but methodically maneuvering the bar into the ideal location, just above her small, sports top-clad chest, before pushing up, holding the bar steady high above her for just long enough to count, and then letting it drop back down in a controlled motion. Claire didn't know what sort of tricks Cutey might pull during her single grueling set, but she wanted to make sure that every rep was indisputable and perfect.

Once she had gotten into a rhythm, of course, Claire could speed up some. The bar lifted a second time, the motion still very smooth and controlled. Claire found herself getting into it now, like rowing a boat. Three, four, five, six. Her muscles still felt good, though she knew that wouldn't last for much longer. Still, every rep counted, and she needed to eke out every single rep she could manage—she had a feeling this contest, like the one on the treadmill, would be decided by the slimmest of margins.

She also hoped that, with each smooth, perfect, seemingly easy lift she performed, Cutey would begin to worry that Claire's one hundred reps remark may not, in fact, be a bluff after all...

Not that Claire could actually do a hundred reps. But she thought it would be funny to see Cutey worry.

Cutey knew she hit a sore spot as Claire's face instantly changed hues at the comment. She counted each rep, at first she was cheerful but the more she counted, her tone of voice slightly became less hopeful.

"Two... Three... Four... Five...... Six......" She said watching the barbell travel up and down.

After her sixth rep, Cutey was slowly getting nervous as it was approaching her normal rep range but the dark haired kawaii showed no sign of slowing and no sign of braking form, each rep being slow and controlled. She felt a bead of sweat come down the back of her neck and bit her bottom lip. She hoped Claire would stop at 12. She was relatively sure she could handle that much, anymore and she wasn't so sure of herself.

She watched the other girl intently but focused on the weight instead. She remembered how Claire had put safety first ahead of their competition in the treadmill. She could at least do that much and began following the weight with her hands, not touching it but just underneath the bar in case her friend needed help.

The pink haired gulped after she watched Claire about to perform her seventh rep.

Claire watched Cutey's face out of the corner of her eye, not letting it distract her from her laser-like focus on performing these lifts as smoothly as possible, but catching what she thought was a nervous look on Cutey's face. She was looking at the girl upside-down, but...did Cutey bite her lip there? Was she nervous? Claire would smile to herself, unable to keep that grin off of her face as she kept on lifting that barbell up steadily, then bringing it carefully down to her chest.

Seven reps. Eight. Nine.

Claire noticed Cutey's hands hovering just underneath the bar, making sure that it could not come down and squash Claire's cute little chest underneath its weight. Claire was glad that the two of them were able to look out for each other even when they were teasing each other. And she needed the spotting, because, as she pushed the bar up for a tenth time, she felt her arms start to quiver a little bit. Her perfect form was starting to break down.

But, still, Claire would persevere, breathing deeply, feeling little rivulets of sweat dripping down around her ears, staining her cheeks and dampening her hair. She pushed the bar up an eleventh time, and a twelfth time.

The bar was now really beginning to wobble, as Claire pushed it up a thirteenth time. She was past her usual bench press benchmark now, so this was all unknown territory to her, and her arms threatened to buckle with each lift.

Fourteen. Fifteen.

Claire knew that she did not have much left in her, but she could not stop there. Every lift counted, and she needed to squeeze every last ounce of strength out of her arms—indeed, out of her whole body—in order to make sure that she set a mark Cutey could not reach. Her breathing was shallow and labored again, now, but, even so, she summoned up her strength, paused for just an extra second, and then, with a roar, she would very slowly force the trembling barbell up, locking her arms in for rep number sixteen, holding it high above her body! "Th-there!"

Cutey watched the bar go up and down, Claire did a great job of keeping her form which didn't indicate at all to Cutey if this was even hard for her. She tried to keep an eye out to see if there's a hint of weakness. She grit her teeth as Claire hit thirteen but noted that this time the bar was wobbling quite a bit. She hoped that would be her last rep and kept her hands at the ready. She knew it wouldn't be long now but stifled a look of shock as Claire managed to brave through all the way to fifteen reps. She reached forward thinking that was it but stopped herself as Claire got one more, hold the weight above her chest.

"Good work!" Cutey said as much as she wanted to taunt her, it was hard to find it in her heart after seeing Claire work so hard.

Cutey wasted no time in helping Claire support the weight of the bar and pull it over towards Claire's head before racking it.

Cutey let out a sigh as she contemplated the number sixteen in her mind, she thought it through but knew it wasn't impossible for her. It might be reachable but she wasn't too confident in herself. She gave a breath after Claire got off the bench.

"Too bad for you... " Cutey bluffed as she gave Claire a challenging smirk. "Sixteen might be one too short to beat me."

Claire appreciated the help she got from Cutey in returning the barbell to its rack, though she did try to do almost all of it herself, with just the tiniest bit of help from Cutey, so as to not force Cutey to use her muscles to any degree that might affect her ability to lift the barbell. Claire wanted to be sure that there was no way, no how that Cutey might be compromised before she did her set. Claire wanted to know that she beat her pink-haired opponent at her best.

Claire appreciated the kind words that Cutey spoke, too. She appreciated them even more than the physical help, as a matter of fact. "Th-thanks...!" Claire would gasp, still having trouble catching her breath after such a brutal series of lifts. But she was gradually regaining her strength, and, as she turned herself over and let her feet drop to the floor, she knew she would be steady enough to hold herself up, and strong enough to help Cutey in case the girl had trouble lifting the bar.

Which Claire hoped she did, of course. If Cutey didn't have trouble, then Claire's pride was going to take another big hit. She knew that sixteen was not an unbeatable number.

As Cutey began to tease her again, Claire would just smirk and step forward, bringing her face to within inches of Cutey's, staring into the pink-haired girl's big eyes. "Oh, yeah? Then why don't you prove it, punk?"

"Maybe I will!" Cutey said as she gripped the bar. She blushed seeing the other girl's face hover over her like that. She looked up at Claire's smirking face look down at her like that. It only motivated her to push herself harder.

Squeezing her shoulder blades together, she brought her feet closer towards her but creating a nice arch in her back. Cutey let out a slow breath before she unracked the bar. She let the weight rest on her palm before she brought it down. She exhaled as she pushed the weight up as easy as breathing.

One.

She let the weight fall slowly towards her chest before pushing it up again nice and easy.

Two.

Cutey made the third rep look easy as well as she heard the rattle of cast iron plates shift slightly as she moved the barbell.

Four. Five. Six.

The pink haired girl made it look easy but she could feel the straim in her arms and the muscles in her chest begin to burn from shoving the weight off her. Cutey told herself she was already a third of the way there all she needed was too push through.

Cutey did not have much of a comeback after Claire challenged her to step up and prove that all the smack she was talking was more than just talk. Claire hoped that meant the girl was nervous, and that she probably would not be able to beat Claire's total. The blush on Cutey's face as she laid down and looked up at Claire looming over her was not only adorable, but bolstered those suspicions in Claire's mind. The American was still smiling as she walked around behind the bench, getting into position to spot her new rival as she did her set. She had a good feeling about this. "Let's see it, then, pinky!" she would challenge, just as Cutey unracked the bar and began her set.

That good feeling did not last much longer. Claire was hoping to see falty form right away, but she did not get the satisfaction. Cutey's first rep was just as smooth as her own. Her second and third were, again, technically flawless. The barbell lifted up and down as smooth as if it were floating in water.

Claire counted out loud, just as Cutey had for her. "Three. Four. Five. Six." Cutey was more than a third of the way to matching Claire's total, now, and her lifts were still as smooth as if the bar was a knife sliding through warm butter.

Now, Claire was starting to get nervous. When did I start getting shaky? Nine reps? Ten? she asked herself, a little bead of sweat forming on her forehead as she watched over Cutey, her hands hovering at her sides as she waited to spring into action, if she was needed.

Cutey didn't break form but her breathing became noticeably more deeper and louder the more reps she did. She started to exhale through her teeth making a pund not unlike a kettle boiling over. The bar moved used to move at a steady rate but nowsome reps were faster and others slower.

Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten!

After the tenth rep, Cutey started shaking, she let out a shaky breath before squeezing the bar as hard as she could and through sheer force of will stop the shaking.

Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen.

The pink haired girl was about to bring the bar down for her fourteenth rep but moved a touch faster down than she wanted or antcipated. Luckily she caught herself and stopped the bar from pinning her chest down. With n audible effort, she pressed her back against the bech and forced the weight up.

"Haahh.. just th-three more... Claire and I win!" The pink haired girl said grinning but it was strained under the weight of the barbell. She told herself just 3 more and she'd have the bragging rights. Mind over pain, she told hersef and hoped that would fuel her.