Work Text:
The cat wasn't a foe he defeated, but a friend that he lost.
Werner, one day in a junkyard, finds a rather large kitten asleep in an almost immaculate tin can. The furball didn't seem threatening in the slightest, if the gentle little bats from its paw were anything to go by, so Werner decides to take it in and give it some food for a bit - It looks to be without a home. Why not help it out for a little while?
...
A little while became a long while real fast.
Before Werner knew it, he had a pet cat. A huge one too. Werner had already made an automatic feeding station (Or AFS), mainly from the tin can the cat was found in - it was just two arms that came out to do the work, but it worked fine. The cat was well behaved, though it scratched at the boards of the house sometimes and... Nibbled his ear a bit /too hard/ in affection from time to time. The feline wasn't that bad - It even attempted to curl up at the foot of his bed, its head resting on the bottom half of said bed and over his legs. The purring it gave was fairly comforting. This huge cat was a huge part of the little rat's life now and... He wouldn't change it for the world.
Then there was the war.
Werner was confident the cat would be fine - They were capable of protecting themselves, and he knew his house meant safety to them. The AFS was still fully operational, and well stocked, so food was no issue. After dragging out goodbyes longer than he should have, Werner was off. Off to defend his country, his friends and his family. His cat /was/ basically family.
Werner didn't come home until he was told to. He fought bravely, did his duty and more in the battles.
Upon coming home, he noticed his cat was likely to be out exploring, as they weren't in the house. Though their food was creating a rather large pile... Was the AFS giving out too much? He'd have to make adjustments.
...
It had been days. They hadn't shown any sign of being around... For goodness' sake, where was that pesky feline?? How do you lose a gigantic cat?! Werner had asked around a bit, but there hadn't been any sightings for a good while now according to the others on Isle 3. Had... Had the cat ran off to go somewhere new..? Had Werner been gone too long?
No. He knew this cat, they enjoyed his house a lot and he knew it - Plus, this cat adored him. He had the holes in an ear to prove it.
...
Werner had never cried so hard before.
Not once in his life, not even when the flashbacks of war hit him square in the face, turning him from confident rat to curled up mess.
His cat - his family - was dead.
He'd had no idea he was so attached to this huge furball, but here he was. Bawling his eyes out before his poor cat, their eyes closed and breath stopped since long before. It was a miracle, they seemed untouched by nature's usual decomposition. As if they could just be asleep.
But they weren't just asleep. Werner knew that. And he wept.
He wept as he stroked the cat's rough, scratchy fur; He wept as he curled up beside them, the roles switched as he was at the foot of their bed - As if they'd start purring again and lull him to sleep; He wept, alone and upset, until he tired himself out and there were no tears left.
...
Werner had been able to immortalise his dear friend this way. It had taken a lot of work and materials - and reluctant assistance from a certain crackpot scientist - but it was refreshing to see the cat wandering by from time to time... It wasn't really them, but he would rather do this than bury it. Like this, he'd never be able to forget. He'd never want to. After all, this cat had been a big part of his life!
And he wouldn't have changed it for the world.