Andy waited for an ax to fall, dropped from Gabe's hands but to sever this thing between them or to make a barrier against the bonds of the mistakes of his past he couldn't be sure. He wasn't expecting Gabe to apologise though and that made him frown down at their fingers, mocking him with the ease in which they fit into Gabe's as easily as his body used to fit in against him too. He licked his lips to speak but he couldn't find words to be forced through the sudden lump in his throat as Gabe tried to convince him of a truth he couldn't believe anymore. He might have been salvagable before but not now, not with blood on his hands and little chunks of his heart hacked out.
He hadn't meant to get like this when he'd come to seek out Gabe but the conversation had gone places that provoked the lump in his throat to rise to his eyes as a burning heat of threatening tears that he fought to keep back: Gabe thought he had a heart. Maybe it didn't matter that it was cowardly and twisted. Maybe the point was that he still had one, and that either way, it was something Gabe believed in.
He couldn't hold himself back when Gabe said that though, piercing right into the decaying chunk that was his feelings. He slid his hands up from Gabe's hands to around his neck and pressed into a hug that he couldn't help taking, his face tucked in and away against Gabe's shoulder where he breathed hot and heavy and a little damp against Gabe's neck as he tried to keep himself from crying. "I love you." he managed back after a moment.