GabV1el Headcanon:
I'd like to think that, at the start, they get blown away by the smallest acts of kindness given by the other, and will forever be touched by them.
I mean, for V1, it's a whole new experience, a new feeling. Because they are a machine, a decommissioned war machine at that (Not much interactions with good natured humans), I don't imagen they experienced thoughtful small gestures. So when Gabriel does something small but kind for them (and back then probably not knowing if it would be appreciated), it's just so foreign, but also so welcomed because it makes them feel acknowledge as living being.
Gabriel? He's no stranger to kind actions (giving or receiving them), so you'd think he'd be unfazed, but no, he's very taken a back (in a good way). Because, at the start at least, I don't think he'd expect it from V1 (given their history and while he knows that they're alive and capable of expression and personhood, he also knows that machines are different from anything he encountered and shouldn't put expectation of the familiar on them even if there are some overlaps here and there) or at least he won't expect a heartfelt, thoughtful, kindness, and, most importantly, I can see Gabriel coming to terms that once he's cut the Council down, he'd be cut from everything associated with Heaven, and that's involved kindness. So to receive it after the fact, from anyone, and for this person to be the machine that beats him twice in battle and started the domino effect, yeah, it was a surprise. And it's genuine, not an act of worship, no a care for his status, and not something that comes naturally by design. Just V1 wanting and making an effort to do something nice for him.
V1 is given something new. Gabriel is given something he fully believed he lost forever.
