For kc creation

On Your Marks

Izaya Orihara came in first again.

"Dude, you're too fast!" an out of breath classmate complained.

"Yeah," another chimed in, "it's totally not fair to race against you!"

Holding his head high and accepting the many cheers from the surrounding classes with a waving hand, Izaya simply stated, "I'm not cheating, so my winning and your losing is not something that should be classified as 'not fair'."

It was all true. Izaya Orihara, a junior at Raijin High School, was one of the best runners that the track team had ever seen; and Izaya was not even on the track team. He had put all of their records to shame, coming up with astonishing times and unbelievable standards. He wasn't a part of any team, and as many concluded, the slim, raven-haired adolescent was a part of his own team, a team that never, ever lost. Ever.

Izaya never practiced and he never really cared about the rewards and pointless trophies that winning his high school's 100-meter dash every spring brought to him; all he cared about was seeing the many smiling faces of the "human beings" that came out to watch him run, applaud for his victory, and chant, "We love you, Izaya-kuuun!" to which Izaya would always reply, "I love you, too! All of you! I love you!"

Izaya didn't love winning. He loved the humans that returned his unconditional love by winning.

The ring of the dismissal bell snapped Izaya out of his thoughts and he jogged his way over to his PE duffel bag to pack himself up and get ready to go home for the day. Tomorrow was the 100-meter race after all, and everyone was going to expect him to win it for the third year in a row.

"Hey, Izaya!" a familiar voice called out, and when he turned around to see his close, rather dorky, friend Shinra waving over to him, Izaya quickly slung his duffel over his shoulder and trotted over to see what was up.

"Something the matter?" he asked, not particularly interested in anything that the brainiac would have to tell him anyways.

"I just wanted to wish you luck on the race tomorrow! The good kind! Not the bad kind, that would be...bad," Shinra said, his expression wrinkling as the four-eyed brunette started having a verbal battle of words with himself.

"Don't need it," Izaya replied, turning around as if to walk away.

"Well that's rather cocky of you! Maybe this will be the year that that ego of yours gets in the way of your legs!" Shinra lectured, raising the volume of his tone as Izaya walked away from him.

Izaya simply waved, readjusting the strap on his PE bag as he made his way off of the track field.

As he was closing his shoe locker and stepping into his personal footwear, Izaya heard a rather loud, metallic churning from the school yard and darted to go see what, or rather who it was.

But of course, it was none other than Shizuo Heiwajima.

With the high school's flag pole in one hand and the Raijin High "welcome" sign in the other, Izaya could only wonder who was stupid enough to set the blond off.

"I don't give a damn if I don't win that stupid race!" he shouted, his voice booming across the campus and causing a few girls that were close by to screech and cower in fear.

"Oh yeah?" came another voice, a voice that was very unfamiliar to Izaya's knowledge. Shifting his eyes to find its source, Izaya was utterly surprised to see that it was a bunch of freshmen that had irritated Shizuo into damaging school property. "You sure look like you care. You ripped up those things from the freaking ground!"

Shizuo's brow twitched. "Yeah? So what if I did! How about I throw them at your faces!"

The smallest boy of the group spoke up. "Hah! I'd like to see you try!" but when Shizuo came darting toward them with his over-sized non-weapons, the students ran faster than Izaya could remember ever seeing them run in PE class.

"Stupid kids," Izaya scoffed, walking past the forgotten battle ground after Shizuo had been called to the main office and all of the bystanders had fled from the scene.

Before going to sleep that night, Izaya began to wonder why Shizuo had gotten so worked up about not winning some pointless race in the first place. It wasn't the Olympics, nor was it ever going to be, so what was the big deal? At times like this, Izaya wished that he could have been there for the entire conflict. Nonetheless, the raven-haired teen flipped over onto his side and instantaneously fell asleep.

The morning of the 100-meter dash brought many faces from many grades to the track field of Raijin High. New faces, old faces, graduated faces, and professional faces all showed up to the event, each and every one of them awaiting the most anticipated outcome: for Izaya Orihara to come in first once again.

"Don't choke!" Shinra cheered, handing Izaya a water bottle.

"What was that for?" Izaya yelled, anger filling his voice as Shinra swiped the canteen from his hand just as he was about to take a sip.

"Well, telling you not to choke made me nervous that you actually would choke, so I think it would be better if you don't drink anything until after you win the race!" Shinra explained.

Grabbing the water bottle back from Shinra in a swift motion, Izaya replied, "And risk dehydration? I don't think so." Just to pull some fun at his friend, Izaya held his throat after swallowing, pretending to strain and struggle, causing no amusement from the already very antsy Shinra. "You're just a bag of smiles," Izaya said sarcastically, handing Shinra the bottle and wiping his mouth on the back of his hand.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" the announcer-who was also the principal of Raijin High School-began, gaining everyone's attention. "Welcome to this year's 26th annual 100-meter dash! At this time, I would like to ask that all of the competitors line up into their designated lanes so that we can get this show on the road! Literally!"

Izaya rolled his eyes at the principal's lame sense of humor. "Looks like I'm up," he said, waving to Shinra as he made his way over to the track field.

Izaya was number 13, just like every other year he had competed. Getting into his lane and stretching, the raven-haired adolescent was pleasantly surprised to find that Shizuo was number 14. "Looks like you decided to run after all," Izaya sighed, stretching his left arm over his head.

"Shut up, flea," Shizuo growled, stretching his legs in preparation.

"You know, with your inhuman strength, I'm actually kind of surprised that you haven't won this thing before. I mean, couldn't you just focus all of your strength into your legs and tear up this track?" Izaya questioned, touching the tips of his fingers to his toes.

"Strength and speed are two completely different things, you idi-!"

"Racers! Are you ready?" the principal shouted, cutting Shizuo off mid-idiot.

Chuckling as he crouched down to the ground, Izaya sincerely stated, "May the best runner win."

On your marks.

Get set.

Go!

The race was a blur. The race was an absolute blur. Not just to the audience, but to the runners as well. Once that gun popped, everyone and anyone was blindly and instinctively running toward the finish line.

Izaya Orihara had crossed that very finish line...second.

The crowd was confused, unsure and unable to understand why now, why today, on one of the most important days for Izaya's popularity to thrive, why he had chosen this day to screw up.

None of his humans chanted or cheered for him. They didn't scream, "I love you!" and Izaya didn't shout back.

For the first time in two years, a new name was being called, shouted, praised.

"Shi-zu-o! Shi-zu-o! Shi-zu-o!" was what the audience chanted, loud and proud, in celebration of their school's new champion.

"Izaaaaya! Izaaaaaaya!" Shinra shouted, waving as he ran over to his friend, the confusion and perplexity that was racing through his mind clearly all over his face.

Out of breath and heaving for air when he had reached the raven-headed teen, Shinra asked, "What...what happened? I thought...I thought you were...were gonna win!"

Izaya shrugged his shoulders and took the towel from Shinra's shoulder, knowing that it was for him, to rid his forehead of its glossy sweat. "I dunno," he replied, uninterested in their conventional conversation.

Turning away from the crowd that was now gathering around Shizuo in celebration and congratulations, Izaya gave the excuse that he "was hungry" when Shinra asked him "just where in the world" did he think he was going.

Ruffling his hair and slapping his sweaty towel over his shoulder, Izaya couldn't help but chuckle, truly happier than he had ever been...and he didn't even win the race!

"May the best winner win, Shizu-chan..."

'May the best winner win...'

Hello there! Chappy here!

Guess. what. Today is my and kc creation's one year anniversary!

Haha, we're not dating or anything like that. In fact, we refer to each other as "cyber sisters"!

Anyways, anyways, onto my point! A year ago today was the day that I read and reviewed one of her stories, and lo' and behold, we started talking through PM!

Kelsey has become one of my biggest inspirations and motivations to write and have confidence in what I write, so in honor of knowing each other for a whole entire year, I wanted to write her something super special! I know it's not very long or very extraordinary, but seeing as Shizaya is both of our OTPs, I just thought, "Hey! I should write her this!"

I really do hope that you liked this, Kelsey! It was all for you! Thank you for being the best cyber sister I could ever ask for. (:

- Chappy