Author's note: Now betaed by the wonderful Ghastly Eternity.

Thanks a lot to Maknatuna, Maddy Love Castiel, Tendencia, Mello18, keacdragon, Darla M, Slashify and Creativity Incarnate for last chapter's reviews!

8

"They've been cuddling," Castiel told Dean as joyfully as the usually quite stoic preschooler would ever get.

He was very relieved that his two hamsters were getting along. The young boy had started to fear that he might have to give Sam away again, already. He couldn't have allowed Gabriel to be stuck with a companion he didn't get along with. After all, the golden hamster had been here first!

"Yup, yup, yup!" Gabriel agreed with the little human, "Cuddled the hell out of him, I did!"

And Sam had hugged him right back which made everything even better. Not to mention that he finally understood the taller hamster. He had been scared of getting close to someone only to have them taken away again. It had never been about Gabriel! Well, not only about him, anyway.

"Cuddling is for girls," Dean declared and looked at the brown hamster he was currently holding critically, "Are you sure he's a dude?"

Sam snorted so loudly that Gabriel could hear it very clearly from where he was sitting on Castiel's shoulder.

The two humans had taken the hamsters out of their cage to play a bit. Both animals enjoyed the change of scenery and the two little boys were handling them with care, so they were all having a good time. Until Dean had started with the gender discussion, that was.

"They said Sam was a boy in the pet shop," Castiel replied thoughtfully. He wouldn't have known how to tell, but when an adult said that the hamster was a male then surely they knew what they were talking about. Also, Sam was bigger than Gabriel was which spoke for him being a guy in Castiel's opinion.

"I am male!" the taller hamster insisted with a loud squeak, even though he knew that the humans could not understand him. But even considering that they were poor, big animals with dulled senses, he didn't like the way they were talking about him.

"Yes, you are, you are," Gabriel agreed cheerfully and climbed over to Castiel's other shoulder. He was closer to Dean and thus to Sam that way. "A big, strong, fearless male with the awesome ability to read!"

The brown hamster had to admit that it was cute how upbeat his smaller friend was now that they finally got along with each other. Gabriel was by far less annoying when he was really happy, too. Sure, he babbled on an on and he was very clingy, but all in all he was a loveable little pain in his neck. Also, it was hard to be unaffected by the adoring looks and little compliments Gabriel sent his way all the time.

"Guess we'll know for sure when they have babies," Dean commented with a shrug and let Sam climb up Castiel's sleeve and toward the other hamster.

The taller hamster was really glad that the little human had decided to let him go, too. He might have felt forced to bite the stupid boy, if he went on making comments like that.

"I'm not having his babies!" Sam squeaked his protest and sat down next to his companion. In fact, he wasn't having any babies, period!

"So, you're assuming that you'd be the one to have the babies, if we could have any?" he asked , waggling his eyebrows as much as a hamster could ever be able to and moved closer to his friend to snuggle against his side.

"I… uh…" Sam stammered, not quite knowing how he could answer that question without giving Gabriel even more to go on and on about. It seemed that he wouldn't have had to try to come up with a solution so hard, though. The smaller hamster was lost in his own thoughts already, anyway.

"They'd be pretty and intelligent. They totally would be the prettiest and most intelligent ever," the golden hamster sighed dreamily and leaned his head against Sam's shoulder.

The taller hamster allowed the contact to continue and tried not to think about what Gabriel had just said. He didn't want to feel forced to come up with a sarcastic remark that might bring his friend down. Also, the golden hamster didn't seem to see a difference between friendly affection and attraction, but Sam wasn't willing to open that can of worms unless he absolutely had to.

Dean frowned at the two hamsters snuggling up to each other. "Looks like they're both all cuddly. Maybe they're both girls."

"My dick says no to that theory, bucko," Gabriel stated completely seriously and was positively surprised when Sam just started to laugh. He had always known that the taller hamster had a sense of humor. It was just hidden most of the time.

"They are boys," Castiel replied matter-of-factly and took his two hamsters from his shoulder to put them back into their cage, "They just think that cuddling is nice."

The golden hamster nodded along with their owner. There was no doubt who of the two humans was the smarter one. None at all!

"Come on, Cas," Dean groaned before he pointed an accusing finger at his best friend, "You think cuddling is nice!"

Both hamsters looked at the boys curiously. It might be interesting to see how they were going to solve the conflict, after all. It surprised everyone when Castiel just stepped closer to Dean and threw his arms around him.

"Cas?" the little Winchester started to ask and then went on when his friend hummed questioningly, "Are you cuddling me?"

"He's not all too smart, is he?" Sam snorted amusedly.

Gabriel nodded as an answer to his taller friend's question. He too had observed that Dean was not the brains of the pair, even though Dean was the funnier one for sure.

"Don't ask stupid questions," Castiel replied, without letting go of the other boy. He might have asked if Dean really didn't like it, but the fact that his friend wasn't even trying to get out of the hug spoke for itself.