Author's note: Thanks so much to Maknatuna, Mello18, Creativity Incarnate, Darla M, Maddy Love Castiel, gabe fan, keacdragon, yunakicksass, Tendencia, RejectedShyRebel18 and Jeanny for last chapter's reviews.

Okay, just to let you guys know, I'm going to finish this story with chapter 20, so we still have a few chapters in front of us ;-)

Edit: Now beta-read by the wonderful Ghastly Eternity!

16

"So, one of the women working with your mom is sick and she has to stay at work longer?" Dean asked, not quite believing their luck. It wasn't like they were left on their own to do whatever the hell they wanted all too often. Oh the possibilities! All the swearwords they could shout out loud without anyone scolding them for it!

"She said that Gabriel will be watching us," Castiel nodded and helped his friend to get all the books they could reach from the shelves. They were going to build a maze and make Gabriel and Sam race through it. Nobody had told them that they couldn't, after all.

"Where is Gabriel?" Dean asked as he began to build their labyrinth.

"I don't know," Castiel replied with a shrug. He had not seen his older brother ever since they had received the phone call from their mother saying he was supposed to keep an eye on Dean and Castiel. Maybe he had gone to get some sweets or something. They were less likely to do something stupid when Gabriel stayed away, anyway.

"Freaking awesome!" Dean exclaimed, "We're like totally unsupervised, dude!"

Sam had only just decided to get up and get a drink of water when he overheard the conversation the two boys were having. Now if that didn't sound promising…

"Gabe, Gabe, wake up!" the taller hamster called for his partner, keeping an eye on Dean and Castiel, because someone had to. There wasn't that much the hamster would be able to do if the two humans decided to act up, but he was surely better able to judge what was and wasn't acceptable behavior than Gabriel was and it didn't really matter if he was talking about the human or the hamster there. At least, there was a chance that the golden hamster would assist him with watching their two friends, however.

"I knew you were going to regret saying no to round four sooner rather than later," Gabriel stated, waggling his eyebrows as much as he could and bumping his head against Sam's side affectionately.

The taller hamster snorted and shoved his mate hard in exasperation. "There are children in the room!"

"Nobody said they had to look!" the golden hamster replied with a casual shrug, "What are they doing, anyway?"

Apparently, they were up to something. The thoughts of some sexy times didn't disappear from Gabriel's head completely, but they took a backseat to watching the structure Dean and Castiel were building. It looked rather complex and big and the golden hamster just hoped that they were meant to play a part in this. Oh, this looked like it could be a lot of fun!

Sam had the sinking feeling that he would be one hamster babysitting three children and that seemed like a damn near impossible task. This far it didn't look like the two boys were planning to do anything dangerous or stupid, at least.

"Ok, done!" Dean exclaimed happily, "Get the hamsters!"

The taller hamster was quite sure that the humans should have been able to hear him gulp, even over Gabriel's happy squeaks. He let Castiel get him out of the cage with his partner without a struggle of any sort, though.

The boy put Gabriel on the carpet in front of the entrance to the maze they had built first and kept holding Sam, so the two hamsters wouldn't distract each other. The golden hamster only sat there looking up to his friend, however.

"Go," Dean instructed and gave the animal a gentle push which didn't do anything to make Gabriel move, "Maybe we need to motivate him?"

Castiel put Sam down next to his partner and went to get the box of sweets his mother had left on the table after the meeting with her book club the previous evening.

"Why didn't you just go?" the taller hamster asked Gabriel with a small frown. Sure, they didn't exactly know what the exercise was all about, but it was clear enough that Dean had told the smaller hamster to go into the structure made from books. It didn't look like an unpleasant task, either.

"I was merely bargaining the price for cooperation!" the golden hamster pointed out and gave Sam a very smug smile when Castiel put a bright red piece of jelly on the other side of the maze.

The taller hamster watched with some fascination as Gabriel made his way through the path between the books in record time and picked the treat up victoriously.

"Do you think jelly is good for him?" Dean frowned slightly. His considerations didn't keep him from grabbing one of the sweets for himself, however. To be honest, the boy wasn't quite sure about the taste, but the fact that they were full of sugar and looked very tasty convinced him to eat a few more.

"He's an adult, he won't eat it if it isn't," Castiel stated, completely convinced that his train of thoughts was completely logical. Just to make sure, he decided to try one of the jelly things himself and then add some more when he saw Dean do the same. The other boy might not be jumping off any bridges at the moment, but Castiel was very willing to follow his lead in other things, too.

Sam shook his head with a sigh and ran through the labyrinth to get to his partner's side. He didn't doubt that their little human believed what he had just said, but he doubted that he was right about it. After all, Gabriel would eat anything if it was covered in honey. Damn, he had even devoured spinach after he had found out that there was some honey on it and he hated spinach.

"This is delicious, Sammy!" the golden hamster squeaked happily, offering a piece of jelly to Sam, too.

The taller hamster only sniffed at it and then put it aside with a disgusted expression.

"Oh well, your loss!" Gabriel stated seriously.

Sam was only a few minutes away from finding out just how right the other hamster was about that, too. Being the only sober person at the party was everything but funny, after all.