Author's note: Thanks a lot to Ghastly Eternity for beta-reading and to Maknatuna, Mello18, Ghastly Eternity, tmmdeathwishraven, Tendencia, Jeanny, Darla M, BloodyRosie and Slashify for last chapter's reviews.

And to Slashify, platypi? I can totally picture Gabriel as a platypus!

6

Sam found that the silence was quite unsettling. Sure, he wanted to exercise in their hamster wheel and didn't want to be disturbed, but he had expected Gabriel to be there and talk to him the entire time. That, or decide that he really wanted to use the wheel right now – right the hell now – and get the taller hamster to leave it to him.

Instead, the golden hamster was sitting next to the food bowl silently. That truly was unsettling. Like the quiet before a really bad storm. Sam had not yet witnessed any big storms, but he had been told that they could get quite intense and he was familiar with the saying.

In the meantime, Gabriel was deep in his thoughts. He knew now that he had to take matters into his own two hands – or paws – and make his dreams come true. He wasn't quite sure how he could do that, though. To his knowledge, evil, meat eating lettuce didn't exist. That had been his dream, though!

Then again, there was a second part to the dream and he was quite sure that that was possible to make come true. So, what exactly would taking matters into his own paws mean? He could take it literal and just grope the hell out of Sam, which was a nice thought. He wasn't quite sure that he'd get the brown hamster to smile at him and like him that way, though.

"Don't hurt yourself with all the thinking you're doing," the taller hamster commented casually. He had decided that more exercise would not help against the anxiety he was feeling. Maybe if he just provoked Gabriel into babbling on and on about something, he could get back to the hamster wheel later on.

The golden hamster blinked at his companion and then gave him a wide smile. Sam was concerned about his wellbeing. That just had to be a good sign!

The smaller hamster stuffed another sunflower seed into his mouth and immediately reached for the next one. He had to think of something to say to Sam that would make him see that they clearly were meant to be! It wasn't like there were any other hamsters around, so clearly, the two of them had been brought together by destiny! Well, destiny and Castiel.

The taller hamster shook his head slightly and reached for a piece of broccoli. He had started to just eat the things Gabriel did not want. It surely was purely coincidental that the smaller hamster didn't like all the truly healthy things, but it didn't seem to do him any bad, so whatever.

Sam had to admit that he was a little startled when a sunflower seed was held under his nose suddenly. He looked at Gabriel uncomprehendingly for a few moments before he took the offered food very carefully.

"Uh…?" the brown hamster said ineloquently, because he still didn't know what to make of the situation.

"For you!" the smaller hamster explained, looking at his companion expectantly. Gabriel had decided that he absolutely loved and adored Castiel, because he gave him food, so surely that was one way to get Sam to feel the same toward him.

"Okay," the taller hamster replied very slowly, still waiting for the other shoe to drop, "But you love those!"

Gabriel nodded. Sunflower seeds were about the best thing ever. He wasn't quite sure if he would list them before or after Sam, though. He'd list them at the same level as Castiel and Dean, because he needed the two humans to give them to him.

The brown hamster decided to just be grateful and take the present for what it was. He had only just put the seed into his mouth and had started to chew when Gabriel spoke again, however.

"I love you more," the golden hamster stated seriously.

Sam promptly choked on the sunflower seed. He coughed loudly which immediately made the smaller hamster basically jump around on his back in an imitation of what the brown hamster had done when he had choked on water the other day.

"Get off me!" Sam wheezed once he could breathe again. The golden hamster was still practically sitting on his back and it was getting uncomfortable. Not to mention that he didn't feel like having him that close after what he had just said.

Gabriel complied, but still sat very close to the object of his affections and looked at him curiously and clearly expecting a reaction. Apparently, nearly choking to death didn't count as a proper response in the golden hamster's book.

"How could you say that?" Sam sighed deeply.

"I was thinking it and then the words came out of my mouth," the smaller hamster replied matter-of-factly.

"No, I mean why did you say that?" the brown hamster tried to get an actual answer to his question, once more.

Gabriel shrugged lightly. "It's true."

He might not have been the most intelligent creature on the planet, but he knew that he had a lot of love for the taller hamster. He knew what love was and he knew that there were different levels of intensity of the feeling.

"We've known each other for a week!" Sam exclaimed exasperatedly.

Okay, so maybe Gabriel was not as bad as he had thought at first, but that was as far as the taller hamster was willing to go. Heck, he wasn't even completely sure if he wanted to be friends, yet.

"But… you and I… it's meant to be!" the smaller hamster squeaked excitedly.

"Whatever gave you that idea?" the brown hamster asked in a tone that made more than clear that he couldn't understand why Gabriel would think something like that. Living alone, the golden hamster had never felt quite this rebuffed before. Sure, sometimes Castiel wouldn't pay much attention to him, but that was completely harmless compared to what he felt that very moment.

"But… the horoscope… I need to make my dreams reality… and you were in my dream!" Gabriel mumbled. He backed away quietly when he saw Sam just shake his head at him, though.