Death Be Not Proud

by landofthekwt

Inuyasha and Shiori cling to each other after their spouses die "The Long Goodbye" "Carry On My Wayward Son" and a "Life Well Lived ""The Bravest Man in the World" and "Educating Musushio" are prologues to Death Be Not Proud and an ending to Ten Years After Don't own it or make make money from it

14. Up in Smoke

Title Up in Smoke

Author landofthekwt

Rating K

Word Count 586

Prompt Love Letter (Valentine Day Challenge for unsung heroes)

A Prologue to Death Be Not Proud

Paring Kohaku/Shiori

Warning Character Death cremation

Summary Shiori writes a love letter to send to Kohaku in the after life

Beloved

We have come to the end of our journey together. I cannot join in this part of your , I must stay behind to tend the village, it's people and most of all our children until it is my time to see you again.

I only hope that I am worthy of you when I pass on, so that we can be together forever. I have no doubt that our souls are entwined so that having met in this life, and we will meet again in the life to come.

Until I met you, I had never known love. I dreamed of love, chased love, but never found it. In your eyes I became precious, because you wanted me and needed. Knowing that I strived to become worthy of you.

I hope that I was worthy of you. Remember me fondly as I shall always remember you. I could never tell you what I really felt about you while we were courting. Those thoughts I kept hidden in my pillow book.

Late into the night I would note everything I thought and felt about you into this book. The words I could never say to you. Ssaying them to my pillow allowed me to keep going when it seemed that I might burst with joy.

My joy was that you could feel what I felt. Understood my thoughts completely without my ever saying them. If not for your understanding, I would have completely failed to express what I felt for you.

Out joy never ended until the day you ended. Even when you did not know me at the end, it was such a comfort to be with you to the end. When you died, my life became empty again and I truly realized what I lost.

I leave to you my pillow book so that you can read the words I never said. May they comfort while death separates us.. Until then may the Kami watch over you and bless you and if I am worthy of you we shall meet again.

Yours always, Shiori.

Shiori looked up from the tear-stained epistle. She tied the scroll to the bundle with the ribbons she had always worn in her hair. Kohaku had always liked them. On the outside scroll she wrote Kohaku's name so that he would know that the letter and pillow book was for him.

She walked outside to Kohaku's pyre where the children had all assembled. Placing the letters on his chest she stopped and stared. She could not help herself from kissing him one last time. Her eldest son helped her back to her place.

Nodding to the priest, she watched as he lit the pyre using the letters as tinder. Late into the night it burned as the letters and Kohaku became nothing but ash. Shortly, before morning she felt a tug on her cloak

Looking up she saw a spectral Kohaku grinning at her. " Thanks for the letters. I shall treasure them always. Until we meet again, Beloved."

Shiori reached out to him, but he seemed to fade into the sunrise. Her son was staring at the place where Kohaku had been. She put her arms around him knowing that she would depend on him

"Come son. Your father has moved on. Lets go home and prepare for the rest of our lives. Your father has laid the foundation, but we must continue his work so that we will be worthy of him when we meet again."