Author's note: Thanks a lot to Ghastly Eternity for beta-reading and to Maknatuna, Mello18, RejectedShyRebel18, Maddy Love Castiel and Tendencia for last chapter's reviews.

13

"En… enter… entertainment," Gabriel read out loud slowly, looking over to his partner for the confirmation that he had put the word together correctly. Long words were hard, after all! He was very pleased when Sam nodded at him, though.

"The Dark Knight Rises," the golden hamster went on reading and then turned his head to look at the taller hamster confusedly, "When did he fall? And why is there something in the newspaper about it?"

Sam just shrugged and nestled up against his smaller friend, proud of his ever growing reading skills. Sure, Gabriel was reading headlines and single sentences mostly, because everything else took too long and the sense of what he had just read got lost along the way. Considering how he was just getting started with his reading, he was doing incredibly well, however.

"The guy doesn't look all that dark to me, anyway," the golden hamster mused when he had uncovered the picture that came with the article he had looked at, "Castiel's mom before her first cup of coffee and without make-up, that's dark!"

Sam chuckled and nodded his consent. Compared to Cas' mother on a bad day the guy who was even smiling in the picture didn't look dark at all. He also didn't look like a knight, at least he didn't look like the little figures Dean brought along for playing sometimes.

The two hamsters hurried to cover the newspaper with sawdust again when they heard footsteps approach them. Gabriel didn't quite understand why it was so important that the humans didn't catch on to their activities, but Sam had been rather adamant about that, so he didn't argue.

"Hello Gabriel, Sam," Castiel greeted his two pets, "Dean said he had something to show us!"

The taller hamster wasn't all that sure if that mean anything good, but their little human seemed to be rather excited – for his standards – and that was nice. Oh, Sam liked Dean pretty well, but compared to Castiel he just was a little too wild sometimes. Gabriel, of course, loved him all the more for that.

"I hope he brings that little car again!" the golden hamster squeaked excitedly, "That was fun!"

"He made you drive into the wall," his partner pointed out with a snort, but since only the toy had been harmed a little he wasn't too mad at the boy for putting Gabriel into the car to begin with. Actually, the smaller hamster enjoyed stuff like that, so Sam was just glad that he hadn't been the designated driver.

"Cas! Cas! Cas!" Dean yelled as he came running toward them. The little boy made a dramatic stop when he reached the doorway and slung the black cape around him for a moment, before he threw it backward again. "I am Batman!"

The two hamsters cocked their heads simultaneously. The cape was one thing, but the strange hat with ears Dean was wearing was another thing entirely. The preschooler seemed to love it, though.

Castiel ran up to Dean and eyed him from head to toe in awe. There was something about the outfit that Gabriel and Sam just didn't understand, obviously. Humans were confusing like that sometimes. Well, more often than not, really.

"I got something for you, too!" the preschooler announced and put a headband with cat-ears on his friend's head, "You're Catwoman!"

Castiel tried to look at his own head by turning his eyes upward, but when that didn't work out he hurried to the cupboard with the glass front to check his reflection out.

"I am no woman, Dean," the little boy pointed out in a serious tone, after seeing himself.

"It's your secret identity, Cas!" Dean explained excitedly and with all the logic of a five year old, "Nobody is going to suspect that Catwoman is a boy, think about it!"

"But Catwoman is one of the bad guys," Castiel stated thoughtfully. That was his only objection after the explanation he had already received. To be honest, the little Winchester could have sold just about everything to him. That was why the two of them always got into trouble for doing things Dean thought were going to work out perfectly for sure. It also was why Castiel's mother's favorite saying was 'And if Dean jumps off a bridge, you'll jump right after him!' or a variation of it. Castiel agreed with her there. If Dean jumped off a bridge, Cas would follow him without a second thought, of course!

"No, no, she's teaming up with Batman now, they're like a couple and stuff," Dean replied in all seriousness. Judged from movie trailers he had seen anyway. Thanks to the stupid PG-13 ratings the movie itself was off limits for another few years. Damn.

The other boy accepted that easily enough and the pair went to build a bat-cave behind the couch.

"Humans are so strange," Sam decided, scratching the side of his head. He wasn't quite sure what had just happened, but it had been seriously odd.

"Do you think Castiel knows that he just accepted to be the female in the relationship?" the golden hamster asked his partner thoughtfully. Humans were strange indeed!

"Castiel is the smarter of the two. I'm wondering if Dean knows he just made Cas his female," Sam snorted amusedly. The two humans seemed a little too young to discuss things like that, but maybe that was how humans did it, who knew?

"It makes sense, though. They've always been glued to each other and they are cuddling and Dean is Castiel's only friend. It's just like with us," Gabriel pondered and snuggled up to his partner with a content sigh, "It's really romantic, if you think about it."

Ignoring that it was two little boys who were just playing around they were talking about, Sam could agree with that.

"Death to all bad guys!" Dean yelled and jumped back over the couch, running toward the stairs, Castiel hot on his heels. From the sounds of it they had already found their first enemy, as well.

"Romance is dead," the golden hamster corrected his former statement, "But at least they are having fun."