"Really?" His father would have cried to know he was interested in learning how to fight instead of run and hide. Of course, they would have been way too rough and probably would have broken him in more than one way, but this was a different time. If he fought them now, he'd win without trying. "I'd like that."
That was hard to believe, even with everything else, but he was trying. If the past him, the one walking all the back alleys for the Ivory Tower, could see the person he was right now, laying in Joseph's lap, what would he say? Then again... going by that example alone, he knew that he had grown. Was continuing to grow. He had broken some of his habits and had gained more. "Thank you."
Rubbing his thumb over the other man's cheek bone, he almost got distracted looking up like that. "There were other things... too."