Author's note: Thanks a lot to Ghastly Eternity for beta-reading and to Maknatuna, Mello18, Maddy Love Castiel, Tendencia, Creativity Incarnate, BloodyRosie, Slashify and one guest for last chapter's reviews.
11
Gabriel couldn't have pointed his finger on what it was that was different, but something must have happened to Sam. The other hamster seemed happier and more content. The golden hamster didn't really know what had brought the changes on, but he approved wholeheartedly.
"Good evening, Sammy!" the smaller hamster greeted his companion cheerfully and immediately went to one corner to dig around in the sawdust until he could see the newspaper covering the bottom of the cage, "Still Friday's paper!"
Gabriel was just recognizing single words he had seen often enough in the past this far, but they were working on piecing short words together with the help of the alphabet he had nearly mastered.
"I hope it's not about the stock market again," the golden hamster frowned as he scurried over to the food bowl where Sam was waiting for him, "What's a stock market, anyway?"
The taller hamster shrugged lightly and handed his smaller friend a sunflower seed. "No idea, something with lots of numbers," he replied. The girl in the pet shop had never bothered to talk about any stocks however, so he didn't really know and there wasn't enough information on the page to figure it out between him and Gabriel.
The smaller hamster nodded enthusiastically, as if Sam had just given him information he could actually work with and stuffed the offered food into his mouth happily. If Castiel kept giving them pages with little text on them, then the golden hamster would have to figure out a way for them to show the little human that they wanted actual reading material! And all that in addition to somehow showing him that they needed a bigger hamster wheel!
There was a lot on their plates right now. Luckily, literally as well as figuratively spoken, Gabriel mused as he picked out a few more sunflower seeds.
"You should try to eat a little healthier," Sam blurted out suddenly and then added a little sheepishly, "I mean, I've noticed you always go for the sweet or fat stuff. A little more variation couldn't hurt?"
The taller hamster grabbed a piece of spinach and offered it to his friend, looking hopeful. He knew that he had been the one to hand Gabriel the first sunflower seed of the day, but he had stopped at one and had only become a little worried when he had noticed that the word 'moderation' didn't seem to ring any bells with his fellow hamster.
Gabriel frowned, but took the offered food and quickly swallowed the spinach, trying not to have to taste it. Anything to make Sam happy!
"Why the sudden concern for my eating habits?" the smaller hamster asked curiously finally and then added jokingly, "Worried that my butt will lose its marvelous shape?"
"Whatever," the taller hamster replied, clearly getting flustered, "Who was talking about your butt, anyway? Not everything is about your butt, you know?"
"Sure, sure," Gabriel stated seriously, but then just had to go on talking with a smirk, "I'm sexy from head to toe."
As if the conversation wasn't torturous enough for Sam as it was, the golden hamster stood on his hind legs and proceeded to shake his body in an imitation of a dance routine he had seen Dean and Castiel do, even if both boys would swear that they had only been mocking the girls from the movie they had seen.
"You're a nuisance," the taller hamster grumbled and tried to go on with his breakfast, ignoring Gabriel completely. It wasn't like he had ever been all too good at ignoring the other hamster, however.
"Oh please, we both know you actually love me," the golden hamster shot back jauntily and only realized what he had just said when he saw Sam stare back at him uncomfortably.
Gabriel stopped his dance and sat back down quietly, looking like he had just received an awfully cold shower out of the blue. Like he had needed the reminder that Sam didn't and quite possibly never would love him back! Yeah, he just had to taunt himself with the facts. And now the other hamster would be mad at him again and things would go back to the way they had been in the awful time when Gabriel had thought that Sam didn't like him even a little!
"I'm sorry!" the golden hamster yelled panicky and practically threw himself at his friend's feet, "So sorry, Sammy! Don't avoid me again! Please!"
Even if the taller hamster hadn't only recently discovered that he actually had a lot of love for his little companion in himself, the scene would have still tugged on all his heartstrings. He immediately cuddled the distraught hamster and tried to make soothing noises while babbling reassurances about how everything was okay and he wouldn't do anything alike.
"I actually love you!" Sam finally admitted when nothing else seemed to work.
"You do?" Gabriel's head shot up. The smaller hamster had calmed down in record time after hearing those words. If it had been anybody else, the brown hamster would have assumed that he had just been played, but he knew that this was just the way Gabriel was.
"Yeah… I… uh…" Sam stammered, trying and failing to find the right words to express his feelings and explain how they had developed.
"You think my little, hairy butt is awesome and you think I'm awesome!" the golden hamster stated happily and cuddled the other hamster back with so much enthusiasm that Sam felt like he was trying to crush his ribs.
"You really love your butt," Sam snorted amusedly and rubbed his head against Gabriel's affectionately. So, the cat was out of the bag and the taller hamster found that he was quite happy about it. Sometimes it was rather good not to get the time to overanalyze everything before acting.
"No, no, no," Gabriel replied cheerfully, "You do!"
The brown hamster cleared his throat noisily and then, looking embarrassed about it, admitted, "You might have a point."
The golden hamster had never been this happy about the fact that the cage had been moved out of Castiel's room before. Things were going to get not kid friendly very soon for sure!