Written for the TPE BINGO Challenge. Mega spoilers for Mastiff, if you haven't read it then don't read this.

Disclaimer – I don't own anything yadayada.

Tunstall had loved his roses, tiny thumbnail roses.

Sabine walked into the dark townhouse and saw those pretty little roses lined up along the windowsill. The tears threatened to flow again but she blinked furiously and swallowed hard. Tiptoeing as though she expected the house to attack her she made her way to the window. Eyes wide with almost disbelief she traced the edge of a soft pink petal with her fingertip. How was it that even though he was gone his presence could linger in everything.

The roses were drier than she remembered and she went to the sink and picked up the cup he had always used to water his precious flowers. Holding it she could almost see the dreamy smile on his face as he would move from pot to pot, putting just the right amount of water into the soil, picking dead buds and leaves and tossing them out the window, murmuring softly to the flowers like they could hear him. Sabine sank to the ground, "Why Mattes, why?"

Predictably there was no answer and she sobbed uncontrollably. The old house seemed far too dark and those flowers far too cheerful. Crying out her anguish she kicked the cupboard once, twice and a third time. She opened the cupboard and pulled out the plates smashing them one by one on the floor. Then the glasses, then the cutlery thrown around the room. She grabbed his flower cup and raised it to throw across the room, and then she paused. His name was inscribed carefully on the bottom, and then the little rose drawing he used to inscribe on his flower tools. It was a simple little etching but it was enough to stop Sabine. "Oh Mattes you loved them so much."

She quietly filled the cup with water and crossed to his roses. In her mind he was standing there with her watering the flowers, telling her just how much water to put in. For over an hour she tended them, until her tears dried up. Then she moved around the room, silently sweeping up the broken pottery and placing the cutlery back in their cupboard. She dusted off the cabinet and straightened the cushion on the couch and the bed. The curtains were pulled back and the room looked almost as if it had the last time they were here together.

It was time for her to go and get some food, but before she did she went to look at the roses one last time. There was that one right near the end, that he had been so proud of breeding, a perfect creamy gold. It had a single drop of water on a petal, almost like a tear. Sabine dabbed it gently and then pressed her finger to her lips. "I miss you Mattes, and I always will." Then she turned and walked out the door. The house stayed quiet, but even though he was gone Tunstall's blooms sat there, full of life on his windowsill.