Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note. It belongs to its respective owners.

A/N: I've had the idea of Light meeting "Death" for some time after completing the anime. My use of the character personification of Death was inspired by Markus Zusak's "The Book Thief," however this interpretation seems a little more... "homey" than either "The Book Thief" or the "Grim Reaper"-type Death's I've seen.

Note: This is only one possible theory of any kind of "afterlife" that may or may not exist in the Death Note universe. I have kept it vague for the purposes of this story and I am using it for this fic only.

~Enjoy!~

I have encountered many souls over the endless passing years that have feared the end of their life, but none that have wished to escape from me at the terrible cost of others' lives more than Light Yagami himself.

I am only vaguely aware of the shinigami existence and the rules of the famed "Death Notes." Their laws and ways are unfamiliar to me; I am only the messenger, the collector who gathers the departed souls and carries them to their final destination. I have no purpose for the Death Notes; it matters not when or how the human was fated to die, but that in the end their soul must depart with me.

When I traveled to that lonely, abandoned warehouse on the waning light of sunset, I followed Light's determined soul stumble and shake with every exerted breath to his final resting place. I watched solemnly as his fervent resolve, fading away drop by drop, falter in pace and eventually succumb to painful exhaustion on the staircase. The shinigami known as Ryuk gently dragged a pen across a single page in his ancient book, scrawling out Light Yagami's name in black fatal ink: sealing his fate.

I counted the seconds, and waited.

His breath slowed. His body lay broken, bleeding and shattered with bullets on the stairwell of the desolate mournful building. Faded rays of sunlight shone steadily through the dingy windowpane above, casting his gaunt form in a gentle ethereal glow as he felt his life gradually drain away.

His eyes widened, and then closed. He died where he lay.

It wasn't easy, collecting his soul and departing from that eerily serene spot. He was frightened, I could tell. Barely out of his youth, much too young to have committed and suffered all he'd been through. His soul fluttered and quivered in my arms like a shaking little bird, terrified of me and cowering in fear at what he would face.

It was understandable; pitiable even. He thought himself a god; a mighty force of immeasurable power and nobility, his laws made as the only true form of justice in this world. He sought to rid the Earth of evildoers and crime, and instead was brought down and cast off his throne, left to drag his wounded body away and finally lay dying with only his slowly pooling blood as testament to his prideful efforts.

I could only recall the countless victims brought about from his ownership of the Death Note. I had all carried them in my arms one time and another, and each one felt the burden of a life cut short. Not by nature or consequence, but at the hands of a dangerous megalomaniac possessed in the body of an unassuming adolescent.

Even the mysterious L. Lawliet, a master detective who had come closer to revealing Light Yagami's secrets than any other individual in the world, eventually had to depart with me after his time had ended.

He came quietly. Not without regrets, I might add. He was human, was he not? He had planned for much in the event of his untimely death, but he carried lingering human sentiments that still longed for a life back on Earth. He accepted his fate, and I carried him away from the darkened building in peace.

Not so for Light Yagami. The part of him that had once been Kira had fled from his eyes as his death drew near. Kira had always been a coward; a sniveling, malicious coward who watched others die where they stood without a shred of empathy for them, even in death. I sensed something truly monsterous in Kira; a desire to rule and destroy so insatinable it burned from the depths his piercing gaze. I had seen only a seldom few posess that gaze, and all had perished once the ancient bells tolled their defeat.

Now it was only Light Yagami, the desperate boy who strayed between light and dark and who was terrified to die more than anything else, who remained in my arms tonight.
I comforted him the best I could manage while traveling with the setting sun. I had a job to do, but since his destination was slightly different than most I was reluctant to make any haste.

The humans may know it as either Heaven, Hell, or possibly neither of those in between. The shinigami may know it as mu. The place where all souls go to rest. I did not go there. I traveled on, far away from any conceivable measure of distance; rendering time immeasurable.

So rarely have I made this journey with a soul in my arms. The scattered handfuls of Death Note users across history have always met their end; burdened with guilt and suffering for the lives they have destroyed.

Light was no different. I could feel his soul, damaged and corrupted, stricken by what was probably one of the first periods of genuine remorse he had experienced in years.

"What will happen to me?" he pleaded, begging me for my forgiveness and grace more than my formal answer. I came to a stop.

"Here," I said, "is where you shall be."

A vast plane of existence stretched out before us. A low humming could be heard, vibrating the plane in soothing unison. Somewhere a distant melody played, soothing and comforting.

I whispered softly to the soul in my arms.

"Heal. Rest. You shall join the others in time, but for now your place is here."

I could sense his fear. He was afraid of me, afraid of this place, afraid of himself.

The little soul quivered. A moment of trust was all it took. It hurt him more than he had ever known, but at last, Light Yagami finally made peace in my arms and began to heal.

I set the soul down, and turned to leave.

Light Yagami, owner of a Death Note and died at the hands of another, had finally let go of Kira.

I went back to my work. All was well.

~End~

A/N: If you haven't noticed, this was written with me listening to cheesy music box lullabies the whole time. XD Thanks for reading! :)