Rhys was what some people would call content, for once. Pleased to see her smile, content to sit in the warm silence and ponder the mysterious that had just unraveled before him. He had solved her mystery, and was content to bask in that accomplishment for a little while, at least. It was quite the accomplishment, considering the odds. The fact that they didn't spend too much time around each other, and the fact that both of them had disliked each other before right now. Right now, he didn't know what was happening, but he didn't really want to go back. If they could hang in balance right here... like... trusted comrades. Not necessarily friends, but he wanted to be someone that she trusted telling her worries to, someone that she knew wouldn't judge her for anything she said. He was a good listener, even at the worst of times.

At her quiet words, another small smile touched his lips. He could, indeed, call it an accomplishment, but since he hadn't really intended for it to happen, he wouldn't. "I cared much more about what needed to be said than that." He replied simply, feeling a rather homey warmth settle in his chest at the sight of her bright smile. The real smile, the one she didn't show to almost anyone. That's what he wanted to see. What he took joy in seeing. Every day, every week, if the one thing that kept him going was seeing that smile, he'd be fine with it. He may not be her friend, per say, but that didn't mean he didn't enjoy seeing her truly happy. It was a rare enough occasion as to where he was glad he had Hyperthymesia. He could capture her smile in his memory forever. Misssion well accomplished.

Rhys knew that they couldn't stay here forever, much as he loved this moment, deep down. Eventually, people would come looking for her, and although they might not come over here, she'd still have to explain where she had been when she went back. He didn't really want her to leave... he enjoyed seeing her smile, her actually relaxing. However, he knew that she had to go. He watched her carefully with his dark yet colorful gaze, capturing every detail of her eyes and expression and storing it away in his memory before finally letting out a small breath. "... you should probably go... I'm sure someone is wondering where you are. Thank you for your help." He stated quietly, his voice slightly reserved, like he was trapping away emotions that he didn't want there. It was still gentler than his normal gruffness, however, so that was a win. He resigned himself to the fact that she had to leave, and stood from the stool, gathering up the med kit and starting to dispose of the dirty gauze, wincing slightly as pain shot through his shoulder. It would be mighty interesting trying to work with this ... hindrence, but he would have to get it done. There wasn't really anything such as an off day in the life of a servant. He'd still have to get up early, go out to the gardens, where he always requested to work, and complete his days tasks. However, instead of running off, he'd most likely go back to his quarters after his work was done. He'd need to rebandage his wound, and should probably rest it a bit before he disappeared into the woods again.

Rhys was definitely looking forward to resting tomorrow, after his work was done, and he may have been dreading the work part just a little. He always received his list of tasks in the morning, but he knew roughly what he had to do, and like most things, it was physical labor, including cutting down an old, dead tree that the royals didn't want anymore. That'd probably be the most labor intensive and problematic job, but he had a brain. He could strugge through. As he clipped the medkit shut, he really only had to wipe down the surfaces now, and the cleaning process would be complete. His muscles twitched as he turned back to Phoebe, awaiting her response.

Rhys glimpsed out of the corner of his eye that she frowned as he winced, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. There was no denying that a gunshot wound would hurt. That was the way of life. He tilted his head as he spoke, pausing before letting out a low breath. "I cannot slack off on my tasks because of a flesh wound." He stated lowly, his jaw tightening for a moment before he looked back at her. It was how life worked for someone like him. He was a servant. He served the royals. That was it. There was no avoiding it or getting around it. Unless someone in higher ranking specifically told him to go take a break, he would not be allowed to do so. However, he also knew that she was just that... something of higher rank. "I will do my best to stay in one piece." He added in an afterthought, gazing out the window for a moment, his gaze flitting all over. Not because he was uneasy, but because if anyone did approach the room, he wanted to be on high alert.

He didn't exactly want the moment to end, either, but he took comfort in knowing that this wasn't the end, entirely. He had told himself that he was going to not allow this to be the only kind interaction they had. Of course, she deserved someone much better than him telling her the things she needed to know, but if he was all she had, then he was going to fulfill that. He had decided to put in the effort to not act so cold, although he would also have to dance around the whole... servant to royal conundrum. He wanted to help and show her how amazing she really was, because she obviously didn't see it, but he also couldn't get himself fired in the process.

Rhys focused his gaze on her as she paused with her hand reaching towards the doorknob. Honestly, he would prefer if she stayed longer, but that couldn't happen. He would have to let her go someday. "To you as well, princess." He inclined his head respectfully... just because he had broken a couple rules in speaking to her like she was his equal- she wasn't, she was way more important than him, speaking in rankings- that didn't mean he had lost all of his training and hardwired respect. As she disappeared from view, he let out a low sigh, immediately feeling that warm feeling vanish, his heart crusting over with ice again. Hello reality, goodbye fantasy. He welcomed loneliness yet again, stalking over to the papertowels and slowly starting to clean up the rest of the mess, his mind racing.

A little while later, he had everything organized and spotless again. He had gone into his bedroom, and glanced at the time, a bit surprised at how late it was- far past midnight. He didn't look forward to getting up in less than five hours, and honestly, he didn't know if he'd even fall asleep within that time. He stripped out of the rest of his clothing and stepped into the shower, letting the hot water wash over most of his skin, though he avoided letting it touch the gauze. He focused on rubbing all the traces of dirt from his skin, and ended up staying in there quite a long time, just letting the water run over his bare skin for a while before he exited and turned off the water with a sigh. He dried his dripping hair and body, pulling on softer pants and flopping into his bed with a half groan of pain, letting his eyes drift shut. Today had been a long, hard day, and he was tired.

For almost three hours, Rhys was yet again plauged by his memories, reminded of his mental disorder.. the one he usually called a curse. Hyperthymesia was a special mental disorder that caused the person to remember everything down to the last detail. He could recall a certain date and time in his mind and tell you exactly what happened that day. It meant his mind was quite crowded, but it also meant that he couldn't forget any of the traumatizing events he'd been through, and it meant that every night when he lay awake he was haunted by nightmares... but the nightmares were real. They had actually happened, actually occured. It was horrible. The one thing his disorder had ever helped with, and the thing that eventually got him to sleep, was the memorization of how Phoebe's face looked in the low light with a smile on it. He had pushed all other thoughts out of his mind and had fallen asleep thinking of that one thing.

Only a little less than 2 hours later, his alarm clock shrieked, jerking him awake in a matter of seconds. He hated that noise more than anything else, but what was he going to do about it. A hiss of pain escaped his lips as agony immediately ricocheted through his shoulder. He lay back against the pillow for a moment, his closed, face taut with pain, but eventually, he had to get up. He dragged himself out of bed, gritting his teeth to suppress any more noise. It was 6:02, later than he usually woke up. Since he had taken a shower the night before, he went about getting dressed to start, pulling on faded blue jeans, and a light grey t-shirt, possibly the coolest outfit he had to wear, as he didn't wear shorts unless it was above 100 degrees. He didn't bother redressing the wound yet, knowing he'd have to do it after he worked. After he was dressed, he ate a very light breakfast- meaning a singular apple- and raked a hand through his hair as he headed out of his quarters. His work gloves were stuffed in his pocket as he headed to pick up his list where it was posted on a bulletin board at a back door. His gaze flit over what he had to do for the day, which included but was not limited to cutting down that tree, watering all the plants in the gardens, feeding the horses, and exercising Diablo. That last thing made him wince. Diablo was a helluva horse, a spirited 3 year old stallion. He wished he hadn't gotten that horse this day. He would've preferred Maple or something, the old draft horse. Every day, the other hands and him each got one horse to exercise, and of course... Diablo. How lucky was he.

Rhys took the list with a sigh and headed outside, wanting to start with cutting down that tree. He only had to cut it down today, not cut it up or load it up onto a truck to be moved out. Those were tasks for the upcoming days. Still, even with a chainsaw, it was going to be taxing work. Thankfully, the tree was relatively small. In the hours of the morning, it wasn't as hot and humid, hanging around 70 degrees. He picked up the chainsaw and a couple other tools from the shed and got to work.

After about 30 minutes of recovery, which was much longer than he usually would've wasted, but seemed far too short at the moment, Rhys headed towards the stables. He was glad to be fully outside of the sweltering sun, but the heat inside the stables was almost worst. Heaving a low sigh, he started arranging Diablo's tack. He had decided to stick with lunging for today, as he did not really appreciate the idea of getting bucked off. He got everything ready before entering the young black stallion's stall with a brush, starting the slow work of threading every bit of dirt from the majestic horse's coat. He used gentle, quick flicks with the soft brush, making sure to get the horse's ears and face as well. As he worked, he thought about the one thing that had been on his mind most of the day... Phoebe Nightlingale. Even now she managed to crowd his thoughts, smelling like lavendar, her light blue eyes with darker blue swirls engrained in his mind forever. So perfect, yet even thinking that could be considered treason. She would be the death of his life as he knew it.

He pulled himself from his thoughts and focused on the horse, finishing the brushing and starting with the hooves. After narrowly avoiding being stomped on twice, he managed to move onto swinging the saddle on, with quite a bit of pain. After pausing for a second to suck in a breath, he finished strapping the bridle on as well, then the lunge line. He led the stallion out, who was now prancing anxiously, to the round pen. Rhys pulled on his work gloves before letting the stallion out on a circle. The high-spirited animal immediately attempted to rip his arms out of their sockets as it took off in a circle, cantering as quickly as it possibly could while jerking outwards every once in a while. Holding on with his single good arm, slight scowl on his face, he waited it out. After Diablo was off of his high, Rhys went about actually working the horse.

Around an hour later, Diablo was finally ... worn out, you could say. It just meant he was acting like a normal horse instead of a fire breathing dragon. Sad to say, for Rhys, that meant he was absolutely exhausted. Wrangling the horse while trying to ignore the pain in his shoulder plus the lack of sleep and everything else didn't bode well for a nice pain free day. He let out a long, slow sigh and went about the last thing he had to do- some desensitization. His only goal was to get Diablo to walk over a tarp on th ground. That was it. Simple as can be. So, naturally, it took another hour to wrangle the horse over the slightly crinkly ground covering.

A hefty amount of time later, with half the day successfully gone, Rhys was just moving onto his next tasks. It had taken an insane amount of time to get the work done with Diablo, and by this point, he honestly was about ready to die. He wouldn't be surprised if the stitches were somewhat ripped out, and he could visibly see that the wound had been bleeding again- his shirt was slowly stained red. He was tired as hell, light-headed, and a bit lethargic, but hey, on the upside... he didn't have to touch Diablo again for another month. He was currently arranging all the food for the horses and bringing it out to them one by one. Once that task was done, he only had one more thing to accomplish, besides clean up. He first decided to take another water break before moving onto sweeping the barns, his last task of the day. Normally, this'd be a 20 minute job at most, but he knew it was going to take a little longer, considering he could barely move as it was. Apparently, blood loss did some bad things. Who would've known.