"You need one thing, if you admit it or not." Gael said in a surprisingly gentle manner as he looked at Carlos. He didn't imagine it was a ploy on Carlos' part, mostly because for all that Carlos was a cunning and devious man...'making someone fall for you' did not seem to be something in his wheel house. Instead, Gael thought as he watched the other man, there was resignation. Or....he couldn't put his finger on it.

"I do....care for you, you know that?" He said, turning slowly before move to slide one leg over Carlos' and straddling the man's lap. Reaching out he cupped Carlos' face in both his hands, searching the man's features for something to help explain this...vulnerability that Gael was so unaccustomed to seeing. It let him focus on someone else, too. Someone that had problems as real and desperate as his own... Giving him the excuse he needed to try to shove his own back into a closet and jam the shut.

"Wh-" He started, not even sure what question he had poised on the tip of his tongue as he looked over Carlos' face. But he wanted to erase that pain in Carlos, he thought. He wanted to wipe the slate clean. "Why do you look so....." hurt, pained, sad, he couldn't put a finger on the word he wanted, so he left it hanging in the air as his eyes searched over Carlos' face.