Author's note: Thanks a lot to Ghastly Eternity for beta-reading and thanks a lot to Maknatuna, BloodyRosie, youstupidRats, Darla M, Mello18, MissSaraLovely and a guest for last chapter's reviews.

2

To Gabriel's great annoyance, that day and the following night ended in silence between him and Sam. Well, not exactly silence, because the golden-brown hamster kept talking to himself, but his new companion wasn't talking back. He was a rude thing, yes he was!

To top all that off, Sam didn't even come to sleep in the hamster-house, but stayed outside close to the hamster wheel instead. That also led to Gabriel spending a rather sleepless day, because he just had to go and look if the other hamster didn't want to come in after all, every other minute.

Dusk was still some time away, but the golden hamster couldn't sleep anyway, so he decided to share his annoyance with the animal that had caused it. He scurried toward the hamster wheel as silently as possible and then jumped in and started to run at full speed.

Castiel kept saying that he wanted to oil the thing, because it creaked too loudly, but this far the little human had always forgotten again. That suited Gabriel just right, since he wanted to give Mr. Stuck-Up-And-Annoying a wake-up call he wasn't going to forget anytime soon.

The taller hamster jumped in surprise and fright. He took a few moments to even realize what had happened, but when he did he glared at his roommate. If looks could kill, Gabriel would have dropped dead immediately.

The golden hamster was completely content with himself and just kept running in the wheel with a very satisfied expression for a couple more seconds before he jumped out and nearly landed on Sam. Not that he had done that on purpose, of course!

"Rise and shine, Sammy!" Gabriel squeaked and flounced by the younger hamster on his way to the water bottle. Now that he was awake already, he was in the mood for breakfast.

Castiel should have been back from school for a while and he'd surely come and bring them their food soon. For all his faults, the little human wasn't a half-bad caretaker and his best friend was great for getting some extra treats on the side. Really, Dean was so easy to manipulate it wasn't even funny anymore. Well, okay, it was.

"You're a jerk," Sam complained and pulled a bitch-face that should only have a place on… well, a bitch.

"And you're a killjoy, impolite and so pigheaded I'm starting to think you're a guinea pig," Gabriel shot back casually and went on drinking from the water bottle, determined to make the annoying prick wait for his turn for as long as he could.

"What's your problem a-" the golden hamster started to ask, but since he was still trying to drink at the same time he suddenly jumped back and coughed loudly.

"Talking and drinking at the same time. Not such a hot idea, is it?" Sam asked smugly and completely ignored his roommate's coughing until it grew even louder in volume. It didn't sound like Gabriel was still getting air into his lungs in between coughs, either.

Okay, so maybe the taller hamster was panicking a little, but he basically threw himself at the other hamster's back and kneaded and squeezed until the coughing stopped.

"You still alive?" Sam asked when Gabriel didn't move for a little while. Hey, that the small rodent was annoying as hell didn't mean that the brown hamster wanted him dead!

"Not sure," the golden hamster wheezed and after a few moments of silence added, "Thank you."

The taller hamster didn't reply and simply moved away, seemingly interested in the content of their food bowl, even if only a few leftovers from the other day were still inside.

This time Gabriel wasn't annoyed by his roommate's behavior, however. The guy had just saved his life! He was allowed to act however the hell he wanted and would still be a hero in the smaller hamster's eyes. Besides, he did look good and Gabriel had been alone the entire time he had been at Castiel's family's house. Some hero worship combined with loneliness made for a great crush.

"You sure you're okay?" Sam asked over from the food bowl when Gabriel just kept staring at him quietly, "You're not talking."

"Huh?" the golden hamster asked ineloquently, "Oh yeah, I talk too much, you said so. I thought you didn't like that. Now you don't like it when I'm silent. You don't make much sense, do you know that, Sammy?"

The taller hamster blinked a couple of times, but decided that he had provoked that outburst. He didn't get to reply before the door to the room was opened and the black-haired boy came in with another bowl of food he exchanged for the one Sam was sitting next to.

"Oh, great, great, great!" Gabriel exclaimed and immediately hurried over to look at the things they could choose from that day. Unfortunately, there weren't all too many sunflower seeds. Dammit, those were Gabriel's favorites! Well, he might have preferred popcorn, but he had only got to eat that once, thanks to Dean.

"You leave some for Sam, too!" Castiel told the smaller hamster sternly when he begun to pick out the sunflower seeds and stuffed them into his mouth in quick succession. The little human didn't stick around for long, however. He might love his hamsters, but watching them eat was a little boring and he still had to do some drawings for pre-school.

Sam looked at Gabriel and his well filled cheeks and shook his head exasperatedly before he reached for one of the last sunflower seeds so he'd at least get one for himself.

"Look, over there!" the smaller hamster suddenly yelled, as well as he could with his mouth full of food, and then took the moment Sam was distracted to steal the seed straight from his paws.

The brown hamster glared at him and reached for another, but that one was taken from him immediately, as well. Sam narrowed his eyes and took a peanut half instead which Gabriel seemed to ignore. So, it was about the sunflower seeds, was it? The taller hamster very quickly tried to grab another one, but his front paws only grabbed air when the golden hamster was faster.

A short, but intense struggle ensued. In the end, Sam had Gabriel pinned to the ground and maybe the smaller hamster was enjoying that more than he should, but it wasn't like the other hamster would know about that. As soon as Sam realized what he was doing, he let go and scurried to another part of the cage, however.

"You didn't have to stop for my sake! I was only waiting for the right moment to finish you!" Gabriel stated nonchalantly and secured the last three sunflower seeds for himself. He had basically won this struggle (if only because his opponent had given up) so he deserved a prize!

Sam just snorted and stayed away from the food bowl until Gabriel was gone, however.