Bingo. The fact that it had been encouraged made him feel all kinds of ways, one of them had his heart sinking into his stomach. With how sweet and gentle Joseph had actually been with him? It was almost easy to dismiss, but it still felt really not all that good. His fingers tangled together in his lap, focusing on a very specific spot on the floor. There was no need to focus on that, there really wasn't. "I'm glad..."
Would his family have seen him with another man? They wouldn't have wanted to, but it probably wouldn't have been any kind of surprise, if they knew he was interested in sex in the first place.
Finally, at the question, Rhys looked up again, centering his gaze on first Ariel before returning to Amadeus. The young Tremere set his jaw, but finally spoke up, trying to keep his body straightened up against the couch instead of slouching. "I should have... said it much earlier but-" A pause, a hand going into his hair for a moment. It was hard to not look away, to continue looking at the other man across from him. "I'm sorry. For lying, for not asking for your help when I needed it, for not being a better apprentice... for thinking I knew better, for endangering everything." There was a moment where he hesitated, his eyes drifting from the two of them for a moment before it came back, this time trying to look Ariel in the eye. "I'm sorry I growled at you..."
He managed to say it mostly out right, with little stuttering.