Author's note: Thanks a lot to Maknatuna, Mello18, keacdragon, Maddy Love Castiel, InsaneNutcase2931, Darla M, RejectedShyRebel18 and Tendencia for last chapter's reviews.

Alright, one more chapter and this story will be over...

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

19

"Come on, Gabriel!" Castiel whispered urgently, looking at his little hamster friend, "I know you can understand me!"

The golden hamster had written a message for them before, after all. He had to have some understanding of their language, if he was able to spell!

"Okay, maybe we need to convince him," his older brother pondered, "What's his favorite food?"

The smaller hamster's ears shot up at the mention of food. Oh, he had been able to resist all of Castiel's pleas for him to spell something out or just show that he understood what the preschooler was saying this far, but the humans had decided to play dirty from his point on, apparently.

The two boys went to the kitchen to get a selection of foods the hamster should find irresistible and a handful of simple food pellets with which he should spell out the words. They had agreed that this absolutely had to stay between the two of them, but since both Castiel and his brother were already convinced that the hamster could write, they had also decided to team up. It also helped that the older boy could actually read.

"Sammy!" Gabriel whined, "Won't. Be able to. Resist!"

The taller hamster scurried over to his partner and cuddled him reassuringly. He knew this was hard for the golden hamster, but they both didn't want to end having to do tricks at some human's command. Who knew if they even got to stay with Castiel and in their comfortable cage if they displayed any more intelligence than what the humans thought they should have!

"You've got to, Gabe," Sam reminded his mate and cuddled him some more before the two children came back into the room with a small plate.

"Okay, rodent, here's how this goes," the human Gabriel began to speak as Castiel opened the door to the cage and dropped the food pellets inside, "You spell any word you feel like with the pellets and you get something dipped in honey."

Sam knew that the offer sounded all too good to his fellow hamster, but it looked like Gabriel was pulling himself together and tried to appear completely uninterested. His head snapped toward the plate his human counterpart was holding ever so often, though.

"Please, Gabriel!" Castiel begged and stared at the hamster with his big blue eyes, "We can talk and you can tell me when you need something! And I won't tell anyone, I promise! Only Dean!"

Well, Gabriel would know too, but that was obvious. If the hamster was intelligent enough to read and write and understand them then he'd clearly be able to figure that out on his own.

"No, no, no, Gabe!" Sam whispered urgently, because he could see his partner's defenses melting. Damn, he wasn't all too sure why they couldn't under any circumstances show Cas that they could communicate with him himself anymore.

"Okay, he is as stupid as he looks, after all," the human Gabriel shrugged and popped one of the honey covered pumpkin seeds into his mouth demonstratively.

The golden hamster squeaked in protest and grabbed a food pellet to throw at the mean human. Unfortunately, his little arms weren't strong enough to reach the boy.

"I think you upset him," Castiel whispered, sounding nearly a little fearful.

"Yeah? Why don't you tell me what you think of me, dummy?" Gabriel taunted the small animal as he popped another treat into his mouth.

Sam shook his head rapidly, but Gabriel had already more or less jumped into the pellets and carried them over to a free spot to arrange them to the one word that was all too clearly on his mind.

"Douchebag," the preteen read out loud and laughed while his little brother only stared at his hamster in complete awe, "I'm impressed. You could have spared a couple of letters writing 'jerk'."

The taller hamster sighed deeply and ran to destroy the patterns making up the letters again. You never knew when another human might enter the room, after all. This far they might get away with this without getting into trouble. He knew that they could trust Castiel and Gabriel was probably sort of okay, too. At least, nobody would believe them, if they talked about this.

The younger boy quickly grabbed a honey covered seed and handed it to his hamster. His literate hamster! How unbelievably wonderful was that?

The golden hamster devoured his treat happily. At that very moment, he had no regrets about giving in to the two little humans' demands whatsoever.

"Sammy, can you do that, too?" Castiel asked after a couple of moments. Both boys looked at the taller hamster inquisitively after that. It was a good question, though. Was Gabriel a freak of nature, or were there other hamsters like him?

Sam sighed audibly and hurried over to the food pellets. Hey, if they sold his partner to some circus or something he wanted to be sold with him, anyway! He actually considered writing 'I'm with stupid' and pointing at Gabriel for a moment, but then he thought of something he actually wanted to communicate.

"It's a secret," the blonde boy read out loud for his younger brother's sake, "Yeah, sure is. Who did you think who we'd tell, anyway?"

Gabriel knew all too well that everyone would just think they were crazy. He had already gotten into trouble, because 'the hamster did it' wasn't exactly a believable excuse, even if it was the truth.

"Dean," Castiel stated after a moment of consideration, "I want to tell Dean."

Castiel really felt like he needed to tell Dean about this at least, because the two preschoolers didn't hide anything from each other and that would be a pretty damn big secret! Dean wouldn't tell anyone, if Castiel asked him not to, anyway.

The two hamsters looked at each other and squeaked between them for a little while before they both began to collect and rearrange pellets again. This time the preschooler didn't need anyone to tell him what they had written either, because he was familiar with the letters they formed.

OK