Look at him? Just to get his heart broken? Well, wasn't it already since this was all just some fantasy that could never be anyway? All because Dal was weak to... what? People who were nice to him? That's entirely true. The people at the shelter have always been nice to him. The lady at the diner who saved food that would otherwise be thrown away was nice to him. Was it because Gabriel bothered to get to know him? That he paid attention to the things Dal said and did and remembered them? Because he was gay and therefore a possibility, however improbable? Some combination of it all?

It took a few seconds and, oh is he trembling with Gabriel's hands on his shoulders like that, but he finally lifts his eyes first, then his head.