Author's note: Thanks a lot to Ghastly Eternity for beta-reading. Many thanks to Maknatuna, Creativity Incarnate, Mello18, BloodyRosie, Tendencia and Darla M for last chapter's reviews. You guys seriously make my days with your reviews!

5

"What is it?" Gabriel squeaked excitedly. He was completely focused on the other hamster and was basically shaking with anticipation.

"Confused penguins swam all the way to Rio de Janeiro," Sam informed his companion after he had read the part of the newspaper they had just uncovered.

The smaller hamster had liked the picture they had seen, so he had wanted to know what the description said. He nodded very seriously a couple of times after hearing the information he had been waiting for. Then he hurried to another part of the cage and started to dig around in the sawdust until he uncovered another part of the newspaper.

Sam was a little fascinated by Gabriel's changed demeanor ever since he had found out that the taller hamster could actually tell him what the paper was saying. He wasn't talking nearly as much as he usually did, only made a couple of questions and then shut up to listen. Actually listen!

Okay, Sam had wanted to stay away from his roommate as much as possible, but this was something they both equally enjoyed. There was no harm in sharing that one hobby, surely. That didn't mean he'd have to spend entire days with Gabriel and it didn't mean that the other hamster wasn't an annoying little dweeb.

"Sammy, Sammy, here, look!" the golden hamster yelled and jumped up and down, pointing at the paper he had dug out, "There are little drawings! They look funny! What does it say? Tell me, please?"

As if Sam would have seriously denied that request. Then again, he might have been acting like a jerk toward Gabriel ever since he had arrived. Well, the other hamster hadn't made things easy for him either, though.

The taller hamster took a long moment to look over the section his companion was so fascinated by and realized that he had seen something like it before.

"It's a horoscope," Sam told the golden hamster slowly, "It says so right there. I think it's one of those things that tell humans what they have to do, you know? You find the category for the day you were born and… it tells you what to do."

The woman working in the pet-shop Sam had come from had read them out loud daily before she had changed the newspaper in the cages. She had put that one page in the cage the brown hamster had been in once and he had drawn his conclusions from reading it for himself and from listening to the woman discussing the horoscope with a little plastic box later on.

"Okay, look, I was born at the beginning of May, so I'm a Taurus," Sam explained patiently when Gabriel didn't seem to get it, "And it says right here 'Your mind may seem rather cloudy today. Try to bring more magic into your life. Don't think that everything in life has to be completely rational.'"

Well, he had stopped thinking that everything, or rather everyone, in life had to be rational the moment he had met Gabriel, so that shouldn't be too hard. He wasn't quite sure how to bring more magic into his life, however. His mind also didn't seem all too cloudy to him. Okay, he was a little surprised by seeing this new side of his roommate and it somewhat confused him, but things were still pretty clear. Gabriel was a little nuisance that wasn't all that bad once you got to know him, that was all.

"What do I have to do? What do I have to do?" the golden hamster squeaked eagerly and shook Sam gently in his enthusiasm.

"I don't know," Sam replied, trying not to let the constant shaking get on his nerves too much, "When were you born?"

Gabriel stopped shaking the taller hamster and sat down, curling as much into a ball as he could while sitting.

"Don't know," he mumbled unhappily. He had only wanted to know what the paper said he was meant to do today! How was that asking too much?

Sam cleared his throat awkwardly and carefully bumped his side into the smaller hamster's in a try to soothe him.

"We'll figure it out, Gabe," the brown hamster promised, "How long have you been here?"

Gabriel gave Sam a look like he was the greatest thing in all of existence – second maybe to sunflower seeds – and thought about the question for a moment. He could remember the day when he had first seen Castiel and his new cage. He had still been very young then, but he knew that there had been lots of lights and decorations and bows and something the little human had said repeatedly.

"I was a Christmas gift!" the golden hamster finally announced.

Sam frowned, deep in thought. "That's the end of December."

He had been told repeatedly that he would probably never be sold, if nobody bought him before Christmas. In the end, Sam had been bought long before that deadline, but it still was a reference point he could work with.

"I was really young then, too!" Gabriel added, getting excited again now that it seemed like he could get his instructions read to him, as well.

The taller hamster moved around to look at the different zodiac signs for a while and finally found the one that should work then. Clearly, the golden hamster wouldn't have been only three days old when he was given away, so he couldn't be a Capricorn, but him being a Sagittarius seemed very likely with all the information they had.

"Okay, you're a Sagittarius then," Sam stated as if there was no doubt whatsoever that this was true. To be honest, he just didn't want to see the crestfallen expression that had been on Gabriel's face just minutes ago ever again. "Your dreams won't come true unless you believe in and act on them. You need to take matters into your own hands."

The taller hamster wasn't quite sure if he liked the very thoughtful look on his smaller companion's face either, though.