Author's note: Thanks to Ghastly Eternity for beta-reading and to Mello18, Slashify, RejectedShyRebel18, Tendencia, Creativity Incarnate, Maddy Love Castiel, keacdragon, Darla M and Maknatuna (who forgot to log in) for last chapter's reviews.
7
Gabriel had not come out of the hamster-house ever after the disastrous talk he had had with Sam. The taller hamster had not tried to talk to him either, though. They both were thinking about their situation, but could not come up with a possible solution, so they stayed away from each other.
Day came and they both went to sleep with the really bad feeling that they couldn't go back to the rather easy companionship they had shared while reading the newspaper.
It was early afternoon when Gabriel woke with a start. Lightning flashed again and the golden hamster squeaked, terrified. Thunder alone he could have dealt with, but thunder and lightning together scared the hell out of him. It wasn't even a minute since he had returned to the land of the conscious, but he was already a squeaking, shuddering mess.
Sam was not awoken by the storm. He only woke up when Gabriel started to screech and whimper. The sounds had the taller hamster on edge as soon as he heard them and he ran over to the hamster-house to check on his roommate.
It looked like the golden hamster had tried his best to burry himself under sawdust, but he hadn't quite managed. He was still shuddering and squeaking, especially when lightning flashed again, too.
"Gabriel?" Sam called cautiously as he stood close to the other hamster.
The smaller hamster sobbed loudly and pressed his face against the taller hamster's chest. He still shuddered, but he squeaked a little less, or at least less loudly.
The brown hamster patted his friend's back gently and let him cuddle up to him some more. He didn't quite understand what had brought this on, but Gabriel was quite clearly completely terrified, so he'd just do what he could to make it better.
"I know it's loud," Sam whispered into the other hamster's ear soothingly, "But no louder than Castiel and Dean playing cops and robbers."
Which the two boys did a lot, with Dean always being the robber, because Castiel refused to break the law. Gabriel had never seemed to mind that, though. In fact, he had seemed to like watching them and he had cheered Castiel on, even.
Lightning flashed again and the golden hamster did his best to disappear right in his companion's chest.
"It's the light. You're afraid of the light," Sam concluded and guided Gabriel to the darkest corner of the hamster-house and sat there holding the other hamster until he settled down a little bit.
They sat in relative silence for a little while. The golden hamster was still trying to calm down and get his heartbeat to return to normal levels, but he found that as long as he was cuddled up to Sam so much that he couldn't really see any light that wasn't too hard to do.
"There were flashing lights," Gabriel mumbled after a few more seconds, "When I was really young, I remember flashing lights."
Sam rubbed his paws against the golden hamster's shoulders absentmindedly. He realized that Gabriel was telling him something important and meaningful, but he wasn't quite sure he liked that too much. It wasn't like he had a say in this, though. Like it or not, they were having a moment.
"They were scary," the smaller hamster sobbed and fisted Sam's fur, "And it just wouldn't stop!"
He had been too young to realize that it had been the light bulb that had been defect and he did not really remember the humans that hadn't handled him all too gently, but the link between flashing lights and being very uncomfortable had stuck with him.
"It's okay," Sam hushed the golden hamster and held him a little closer, "You don't have to look at the lights. I'll tell you when it's over."
Gabriel sighed relieved and relaxed against the other hamster. That much for staying away from him until the smaller hamster forgot that he had ever liked Sam. It wasn't like the brown hamster had put too many hopes into that plan, to begin with.
"Y'know," the taller hamster mumbled awkwardly, "We were four hamsters in the cage at the pet shop."
He sighed deeply. He hadn't thought that he'd tell that story, but Gabriel had just shared something about himself. Sam could do that, too.
"The other two young ones got taken away first," the brown hamster whispered, "The older one was there longer and he showed me how to read. Then they sold him, too."
The golden hamster listened intently and gently stroked Sam's chest with his paws.
"You liked him a lot?" Gabriel asked silently, but did not remove his face from the taller hamster's fur.
"Yeah," the brown hamster breathed and leaned his head against the smaller hamster's shoulder.
"I'll stay," the golden hamster stated definitely and hugged Sam closer to himself.
"I hope so," the taller hamster replied and he really meant it, too.
Castiel got out of his thoroughly wet coat and kicked his shoes off quickly and ran up the stairs. The storm had started when his mother had picked him up from pre-school and the little boy had been worried for Gabriel, immediately. He knew that the hamster hated storms and he wanted to get home as quickly as possible so he could get Gabriel out of his cage and pet him until he relaxed again.
Castiel knew that his little hamster trusted him a lot. Other than Dean, the golden hamster was the little boy's only friend and Castiel was Gabriel's only friend. Well, they both had Sam now, too.
It didn't look like the two hamsters were getting along all too well, however. At first, the preschooler had thought that they were getting close quickly, but now it looked like Sam was avoiding Gabriel most of the time.
The boy entered the room and hurried over to the hamster cage, completely convinced that the golden hamster would be utterly distraught by this point. He was just about to open the door when he noticed that Gabriel and Sam were cuddled up to each other and seemed to sleep peacefully.
The little black-haired human smiled softly and decided to leave them alone.