Author's note: Thanks a lot to Ghastly Eternity for beta-reading and to Maknatuna, BloodyRosie, Darla M, Tendencia, Mello18 and Creativity Incarnate for last chapter's reviews!
3
Sam had to admit that living with Castiel wasn't half bad. The small human really seemed to care for them and he left them alone to do whatever they wanted most of the time. If he was there, he was mostly just watching them. Yes, as humans went, Castiel was a rather good specimen.
Living with Gabriel, on the other hand, was annoying and strenuous. The smaller hamster might have said that he was quiet in his sleep, but the truth was that he squeaked like a rusty door when he was dreaming. Alright, there was no way that Gabriel would know about that, but it still was annoying.
Not to mention that the golden hamster had taken up following Sam around and taking everything he wanted from him. The taller hamster tried everything to ignore that and the other hamster entirely, but he didn't always succeed.
Just now, he was mulling all these things over in his head while getting some exercise in the hamster wheel, but of course Gabriel had to disturb him.
"I want a turn!" the smaller hamster announced and tried to get in the wheel with Sam which wasn't all too easy while it was moving at the speed it was. Gabriel was nothing if not persistent and annoying, however.
Sam groaned and abandoned the wheel to the other hamster. He wasn't going to get into any fights with his roommate. He wasn't going to get into any fights with his roommate! He wasn't going to get into any fights with his roommate! He was so going to get into a fight with his roommate!
"What now?" the brown hamster yelled at Gabriel. The other hamster hadn't even gotten into the hamster wheel. Instead, he was basically glued to Sam's side.
"I want to…" the golden hamster started his answer before he cocked his head thoughtfully, "What were you going to do?"
The taller hamster tried to maintain his composure, but it wasn't quite that easy. He had been annoyed and crowded by the other hamster for two days and was reaching the end of his patience.
"I was going to do something without you!" Sam growled and started to climb up one side of the cage, so he could sit on the roof of their hamster-house. He had some hopes that Gabriel would either not manage to follow, or that he would be put off by having to actually work to annoy the taller hamster.
"Sweet, can I join you?" the golden hamster asked innocently, completely ignoring what his roommate had actually said. He started to climb after Sam immediately, but didn't get too far. Physical exercise had never been his strong point.
"I want to be alone!" Sam repeated and sat on top of the hamster-house and in the corner of their cage so he was out of sight of the other hamster. Maybe Gabriel would forget he even was there for a little while, if only he couldn't see him. It didn't look like the smaller hamster had a very long attention-span.
"I don't want to be alone," the golden hamster mumbled and sulked off toward their food bowl.
Sam would have felt bad for Gabriel, if he had actually heard or seen anything of that, but he had been trying everything to ignore the other hamster, so he hadn't.
"Oh food, you're always there for me!" the smaller hamster wailed dramatically and grabbed an apple piece to chew around on.
He just couldn't understand why Sam was showing him the cold shoulder!
He had stolen his food and pulled on his fur. He had pushed him away from the water bottle and woken him up by yelling into his ear. He had thrown him out of the hamster wheel and had generally been as loud as possible.
How the hell had the other hamster not seen that Gabriel really liked him, yet?
The brown hamster crawled to the edge of the roof very slowly and silently, so he could watch his roommate without being watched in return. Okay, Gabriel wasn't acting any different when he thought that nobody was looking. He was talking to himself and didn't sit still even for a second, even if he didn't run around too much. Something about the golden hamster was always in motion, even if it was only one of his legs that was twitching.
Somehow that was good to see. So, it wasn't about Sam that he was acting as obnoxious as he did. That was something, at least. A part of the brown hamster had nearly feared that his presence had somehow very rapidly changed the other hamster's behavior.
Sam huffed and climbed down to the ground level of their cage again. It didn't even take a second before he had the smaller hamster basically glued to his side once more.
"Hey Sammy, you feeling better now? Do you want to do something now?" Gabriel babbled on and nearly rubbed himself against the other hamster in his over enthusiasm, "Have you even seen all our playthings yet, Sammy? Sammy? You listening to me, Sammy?"
Oh yeah, the taller hamster was already regretting ever coming down from the roof of their house.
"Wait right here, I'll go get them!" the golden hamster added before the other one could even say anything. He hurried into the one storied, wooden hamster-house to collect a few little things he had always been keeping there. Since Sam had insisted on sleeping outside ever since he had been brought to the cage, he really wouldn't have seen those, yet.
The taller hamster watched with some fascination as his smaller companion hurried back and forth and piled up a few little balls, a very small teddy bear and two little bells.
"I love those!" Gabriel shook one of the bells to make it ring as loudly as possible, so he had to yell to be heard over the noise. That sort of behavior might have been a part of the reason why the hamster cage was no longer in Castiel's bedroom, too.
"Figures," Sam groaned and pressed his paws over his ears in a futile attempt to block out the noise. For all he knew, the average life-span of a hamster was somewhere around three years. Three years had never seemed quite as long as they did when faced with the possibility of having to spend the entire time with Gabriel.