He saw it. He didn't want to see it, but he saw it.
Green strands of hair, unceremoniously strewn over the delicate, almost-feminine face. Long pale skin stretched over muscle, bone and little else.
The presence of such a form, though beautiful, would normally have brought a scowl to his face.
Not now. Not like this.
There was no dignity in the body, almost painfully crumpled on the floor. Hips twisted away, while torso and face looked over toward its astonished onlooker. Arm outstretched followed by its owner's frozen gaze.
Not like this, never like this.
Slowly he stepped forward. Towards it. Heart racing.
It couldn't be. Impossible. It couldn't happen. And there it was, plain as day.
Envy.
He knelt down and placed the back of his flesh hand upon the smooth white cheek. Staring at the body with an expressionless face.
He straightened the long limbs before him. It was cruel, how alive the body felt, still fluid and not much cooler than normal. Almost sleeping.
He bent and kissed the cool lips of the face still staring blindly past him.
Not the same. Never the same again.
He wrapped his arms around the form. Head limply tipping back as its torso was raised; the corps did nothing in response.
His face buried in the sin's neck, golden eyes tightly clenched, eyes that had seen so much pain and misery it would be cruel to preach the laws of equivalent exchange to the bearer of those eyes. What had he gained? In his fifteen years of hard work and commitment, he still found himself facing death.
The gate had cheated him.
And he was alone.
So he lay. The only person he had left to love held lifeless in his arms.