Title The Taste of Death

Author landofthekwt

Rating PG-13

Prompt "What is food to one man is bitter poison to others." by Lucretius

Word Count 688

Pairing Inuyasha/Shiori

POV Shiori

Warning Character deaths

Summary Shiori sets off to bury her mother's ashes

She snuck out of the taijiya village with no more than the clothes on her back and her mother's funerary urn. Kirara joined her as she waited for Inuyasha. She was surprised to see the nekomata

The cat had been her constant companion at Kohaku's bedside for the past year. She assumed that it was due to her devotion to Kohaku. Somehow she thought that Kirara would stay with their family or perhaps go back to Sango and Miroku's family

Her thoughts were scattered. Inuyasha had been surprised when she asked him at Kohaku's funeral to accompany her to return to return her mother's ashes to her home, but he had not refused her. He told her to wait for him here while he settled his affairs.

The family would be furious when they learned that their mother and grandmother had taken off with a strange hanyou to parts unknown only a month after their father's and grandfather's death. They would blame her. A bat hanyou. Not a true taijiya like the rest of them.

She needed a break. The strain of Kohaku's illness had sapped his spirit. A road trip was just the thing. Time to travel back down those roads she and her mother had taken to find Inuyasha some

sixty eight years before.

Then she and her mother had left the village to find Inuyasha, the man she wanted desperately to find. She had grown from a little girl to a young woman on that journey while her mother's health had declined.

Now she was returning to the place where she was born to put her mother to rest. This time Inuyasha would be accompanying her. Her quest to mate Inuyasha had been a failure. Inuyasha and Kagome were married with children.

Her destiny lay with Kohaku instead. Their children and grandchildren had rebuilt the taijiya village. Sango and Miroku were buried there. Their children were strong allies of the taijiya. Sango was proud of what Kohaku had done to rebuild the taijiya.

Her family wanted her to stay here, but she could not. She had buried Kohaku. If she stayed, she would have to bury her children and grandchildren. She could not face that prospect. The scent of death was too much for her.

Now she understood why so few youkai mated with humans. To youkai death was unthinkable. To see the ones they loved shrivel and grow old was painful indeed. Humans talked of growing old together, but hanyou and youkai were practically immortal. Any human mates they took would inevitably die within a few short decades.

Those who did outlive their youkai mates like her mother and Inuyasha's mother lived short lives

Seperated from both societies by their choice of spouse and the fruit of that union.

Someday she would return to the village. She did love her children and grandchildren, but today

she needed a break from the day to day grind of watching her loved ones grow old and die.

That was the real reason she has asked Inuyasha to accompany her. For a short time at least they would be together, two hanyous trying to make sense of a world in which they were required to go on without their mates for untold centuries. A chance for a new lease on life.

"What are you sitting around moping for? We are burning daylight I want to be in Kamakura by nightfall."

Inuyasha stopped and bent down offering her his back. Shiori smiled. She had always been envious of the fact that Kagome rode on Inuyasha's back. A place that she had secretly wanted to be when she had arrived in the Sunset Village .fifty eight years ago.

It was not by chance that she had asked Inuyasha to accompany her. He had been the object of her quest. Her first crush. Now that she was returning to her roots, she wanted Inuyasha with her because he was her hero. The one who saved her from her grandfather and gave her a reason to live. If she had to go home again, she wanted him to with her.

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