Brothers in Arms

[amoama]

 Title:  Brothers in Arms
Author: amoama 
Characters/Pairings: Balthazar, Gabriel, Castiel, Job, 5 virgins.
Rating: Mature/R
Word Count: 3599
Disclaimer: Characters belong to the CW/Kripke et al.
Warnings/Spoilers: Pre-canon but you'll need to know about Angels. 
Summary: Balthazar and Castiel have been fighting together for a long time but while a battle rages in Heaven over Job's fate, Gabriel takes time out to do some extra-curricular training with Balthazar.
A/N: Prompted by spaghettitoes at the IJ Supernatural Fete and awesomely beta'd by her as well. Thank you!



Balthazar has always looked up to Gabriel. Of the archangels that command the battalions, Gabriel is the most elusive and the most dangerous. His strategies are always the most outlandish and the last to be used. You always know when Gabriel has masterminded a plan. Only Lucifer was better. Michael’s power and surge formulas are wondrous to behold. They showcase Heaven’s glory perfectly - fighting according to Michael’s command is something akin to dancing in the most perfect ballet; exquisite, spellbinding and devastating. Fighting with Gabriel is subterfuge. He commands the elite force, a smaller, tight-knit, unit that reflects Gabriel’s crafty mind.

Gabriel is the least recognisable of the archangels. He never struts around heaven demanding attention; he never holds ceremonial marches or presentations. He would never be chosen to drive chariots out of heaven to awe the prophets. Many angels don’t respect him because he doesn’t preen himself in their presence.
They say it is because he was so much like Lucifer that he now stays quiet. And it’s true, he was close to Lucifer and in a way this is why he removes himself from the attention of the other angels. He has seen where pride got Lucifer and he is heart sick at the schism of the angels. Lucifer was the brother that cared for him, taught him and relaxed with him. Michael was always too strict, too unforgiving of Gabriel’s playfulness; Raphael too indifferent.

Gabriel often walks amongst his soldiers. Those that know him - they love and honour him. His battalions are run on daring and loyalty. Outside of this, although many angels long for the prestige of his fighting group, few afford Gabriel the respect he deserves. Balthazar is not one of them. He sees Gabriel’s passion, his shrewd thinking, and he longs to be like him.

*

Balthazar and Castiel are both in a garrison under Michael’s command when Lucifer is taken to see God. The fall was so long ago, they can barely remember the Morning Star as he once was. He is Satan now, the Great Adversary, and he is coming before God with the ultimate challenge - or so it is whispered among the angels when the storms rage.

Balthazar and Castiel watch from afar as Satan walks between Gabriel and Michael, Raphael directly behind and many other angels surrounding them, making their way through the annals of Heaven to God’s throne room. Neither Balthazar nor Castiel have ever been near it, its magnificence and holiness they can barely conceive of despite their wealth of angelic knowledge and experience.

Satan is putrid with glee. Sin glistens on his being. His beauty is terrifying; violent and seductive. His brightness is still so brilliant it is hard to look at him but when they do they see line upon line of thin, black cracks, criss-crossing through the light. The sight of that shattered Grace, contorted by sin, is almost too much for the angels to bear.
 

When they emerge from God’s presence everything is different. Instantly the news is felt throughout Heaven. It has happened. Satan has challenged God and God has accepted. God’s servant Job is to be turned over to the Devil. God has forbidden Job be harmed but everything else is fair game.
 

Job is known throughout Heaven as a righteous man. Even before he was conceived Heaven held him up as a man so honourable and obedient to God that he made human beings worthy of God’s love and angelic attention.
 

Now all that is under threat; the Devil has accused Job of being righteous only because it is in his interest to be, that all his acts to honour God are actually self-serving and therefore sinful. Heaven shakes with the implications of Satan’s challenge. If being righteous is a sin then all humankind is doomed and bound to hell. Job is to be made to suffer as a test to his righteousness.
 

The Host knows doubt like it never has before. Suddenly God’s Glory, His plan, rests on a human’s ability to resist Satan. How could they think he will survive it without cursing God?
 

Balthazar turns to Castiel and watches the same tremor of fear wrack his frame. Castiel speaks first, “Come Balthazar, we must report to our garrison, we have work to do.”
 

*

The demons stream out of hell and surround Job’s land. They kill his children and his crops. They whisper to his friends who offer him bad advice and try to persuade him to curse the Lord. They infiltrate the townspeople who turn against him. Job is alone, broken, grief-stricken and poor. He is abandoned by God. The demons grow strong and confident, launching attack after attack on the heavenly Host. Many angels join them, convinced that no human can withstand this much suffering and not hate God.
 

Castiel and Balthazar fight long and hard against the enemies of God. Under Michael they move precisely, according to his intricately laid out plans, and they kill mercilessly. When they’re not fighting they wait together in the barracks of Heaven, focusing their minds on God’s glory, sustaining their Grace through worship. They consider Michael’s strategies together and watch the movements of the other battalions. The war is too close to call for now and Job is looking more and more like failing. The whole of Heaven is holding its breath it seems, waiting for the righteous man to fall.
 

*
 

Castiel is greatly interested in Job and seems to feel a great amount of pity for him; Balthazar doesn’t really like him. The war drags on for months and months and all the while Job blathers on and on, moaning at God. It irks Balthazar and more than that, he just finds Job boring. He spends his time trying to get Gabriel’s attention and get transferred to his unit.
 

*
 

Balthazar doesn’t know it but Gabriel has been watching him too. One day, when Job is busy weeping and woeing in long-winded soliloquies, Gabriel comes to fetch him.
 

“Soldier,” he calls Balthazar to attention, “Follow me.”
 

Gabriel tells Balthazar they are doing some training, which he calls ‘Gospel mission prep’.
 

The names of the prophets are written in the minds of all the angels and Gabriel has been quoting Luke for centuries already, or paraphrasing Luke, or preparing the words for Luke to quote – or something.
 

He confides in Balthazar, “This is what will happen: I will appear before the Virgin, and I will say to her: ‘The Lord your God seeks entry, prepare your body.’ This is how it will be written.”
Balthazar looks uncertainly at him.
 

“Oh alright, maybe it still needs work.” He grins at Balthazar, and Balthazar marvels at the sight of an angel ‘grinning’. He is being mocked but he catches on quick.
 

“So perhaps we should go practice.” He counters, knowing this is exactly what Gabriel is intending.
 

“Certainly we should.” Gabriel agrees. “Of course, I shall be able to reveal myself more fully to the Mother of God, but if we are to practice on regular virgins we should probably take human form.”
 

*
 

Ever one to value dexterity, Gabriel finds a small, wiry lad to be his vessel. The vessel agrees instantly. Balthazar is less versed in vessel-shopping so takes a while longer to convince his vessel to accommodate him. When he finally manages it he looks questioningly at Gabriel.
 

“So the virgins? Where are they?”
 

“The Well, brother, the women are always at the Well.”
 

*
 

As it happens the women at the Well recognise the vessels and they let them approach with no anxiety. Balthazar watches Gabriel’s lead closely. Gabriel pauses when they are in touching distance of the first couple of women. The air shimmers a little around him and somehow all the women stop working to pay him attention.
“I am Gabriel,” he intones, “And I stand in the presence of God.” His voice is low and powerful. The women begin to weep quietly.
 

“Who here is married?” He asks. Several women step forward. “Begone,” Gabriel commands. The women flee while the remaining girls cling together and sink to their knees. Gabriel smiles beatifically.
 

“Greetings you who are highly favoured. I have been sent to speak to you.” Then he adds, “I will look into your hearts and any of you that are unclean will be punished.”
 

Two of the girls cry out in fear. One girl looks at the floor, unable to face the angels. Balthazar pulls her from the group and hisses into her ear.
 

“Run home and do not sin again.”
 

She shrieks and runs from him terrified. Gabriel gives him a nod of approval.
 

Gabriel reaches out and touches the forehead of one girl. Instantly they all find themselves in a lush, green, garden. Everything is moist and soft, there is water flowing all around them in rivulets and streams, fruit hangs from fat trees, the ground feels bouncy beneath Balthazar’s feet. He kicks off his sandals and buries his toes in the soft grass.
 

The virgins look around in awe. One asks if it is paradise. Gabriel replies, “It is one kind of paradise -a paradise for us here on earth.”

The women look at each other in silent communication, hundreds of different, paradoxical thoughts racing through their minds. Where are they? What is happening? What are these angels planning for them? How beautiful are the angels. How glorious. How frightening.
 

There are five women in total. All are faithful, obedient girls. All are hardworking village people. They know a lot about surviving and about suffering. They know about drudgery and childbirth and pain. Even though they are virgins, not yet married, they know the men they will be married to, if not the exact one, they know the men of the tribe and so they know the life they will lead. They know that they have one burst of freedom and attention before a lifetime of hard work and caring for others. They all have mothers and they do not suffer from any illusions. None of them know why an angel of the Lord would appear to them but they don’t think to ask. No man has ever explained his actions to them before. Besides they are virgins and these are angels and they know what role they are supposed to fill here.
 

One girl speaks to the others, her name is Philomene and she is the youngest. “This paradise is beyond belief. We will never be able to speak of it accurately. They will not believe us. What is done here is for us to tell or for us to hide.” And the women understand that this will be another secret, another entry into the pact that binds all the women of the tribe, only to be spoken of alone in the tent where they bleed. Another girl, Felisiter, takes Philomene’s hand and squeezes it. “This is for us,” she breathes. With resolve they turn to face the angels.
Gabriel, although he hears their thoughts, does not understand their reasoning because he has not considered their lives. Instead he repeats, “I am Gabriel, and you are highly favoured.”
 

Felisiter speaks now to the angels, her heart beating wildly. “You are powerful and pure. We will most likely die because we have seen your glory. But if you do see fit to return us to our homes we too must be purified and returned as if you had never brought us here.”
 

Gabriel nods and replies, “As you have asked, so it will be. You will leave here virgins.”
 

The words release the girls and they swarm around the archangel, kissing at his feet and hands and hair. They run to the stream to wet their hair and their clothes and they return to Gabriel and wash his hands and his feet, pressing wet blessings into his body. Balthazar hears Gabriel chuckle lightly, but he also hears the slight hitch in the laugh, like he is having trouble breathing, even though he is pretty sure Gabriel doesn’t need to breath.
Gabriel reaches out for Balthazar and pulls him nearer. “This is Balthazar, an angel of the Lord, God’s warrior. He too needs your blessing.” Balthazar braces himself - almost like he would before a battle - as the virgins begin lavishing their attentions on him.
 

*
 

Balthazar has never felt anything like it. He has never known touch like this. This skin he is in is on fire. One girl bites gently all over him, moving up and down his body, circling around him. Another chases after her, lips pressing over the bites, tongue soothing the pain. There is so much sensation he doesn’t know what to feel. The girls push him to the ground which is wet and cool beneath him. They lie against him, breasts full and miraculous in his hands, lips still moving endlessly against his neck and jaw, collarbone and nipples. He groans desperately and looks at Gabriel.
 

The sight electrifies him.
 

Gabriel is lying back between the legs of Philomene, her breasts pressed into his back, her fingers tracing soft lines down his sides and over his nipples, raking down and round and up over his buttocks and back again. Her mouth sucks noisily at his neck and ear lobes. Felisiter lies between his legs, her head at his penis, lapping at it with tenderness, agonisingly slowly. The third girl is at Gabriel’s feet, kissing and sucking his toes, washing them with her hair, fondling them lovingly. Gabriel senses Balthazar’s gaze and looks back at him and winks. He rolls onto his side so he is facing Balthazar. The girls rearrange themselves around him, the third girl, Sara, moving up to slide her tongue between his legs.
 

Suddenly Balthazar feels Gabriel’s mind reaching out towards his, nudging his consciousness inside his vessel, blending their minds. “Relax.” Gabriel instructs him.
 

Suddenly he is everywhere and the sensations of Balthazar’s body triple. Balthazar can feel the pleasure of his own body and of Gabriel’s too. He feels Sara beneath him, tongue caressing his entrance. His head is surrounded by the warmth between Philomene’s legs and he nuzzles into it, licking desperately at the air. One of the girls, Meryem, responds by crawling up his body, sitting herself over his head, opening her body for him to delve into. He feels his own hardness and Gabriel’s as well. Urgency pulsing through their bodies simultaneously.
 

They can’t see each other now - it is unlikely either could keep their eyes open anyway - but they breathe together in long desire-filled stretches and Balthazar reaches out his arm to grasp Gabriel’s hand, needing to ground himself. Their hands clasp together with sweaty pressure and they both pour their angelic strength into gripping each other as pleasure racks their bodies, not wanting to harm the women. They clutch each other fiercely, a counter-point to their unrelieved cocks. Felisiter takes Gabriel’s cock deeply into her mouth and Balthazar feels the full lips twist around his own and tries to buck into her mouth as Gabriel does but his hips are held down by two firm hands. The fifth girl, whose name is Lucia, positions herself above Balthazar’s cock, grips the base tightly, and lowers herself onto him. Balthazar feels like he is being buried, he feels walls caving in around him and pictures himself sinking lower and lower into the earth. Pressure surrounds him. Lucia’s muscles tense around his cock as she twists herself up and down above him, still holding his hips as steady as she can. She rocks back and forth pressing him down and down and he lets her, still feeling the blissful movement of Felisiter’s mouth as it sucks strenuously on Gabriel’s cock. His left hand feels up Meryem’s body as he presses his tongue roughly into her, licking with a fast pace and a tireless rhythm that no human could sustain. He delights in the taste of her and reaches out with his mind to feel her pleasure also.
 

Above him Meryem supports herself on Lucia. The girls kiss deeply, swallowing each other’s shaking gasps as they move against the angel below them. They are sharing this experience and they know they will be left with each other afterwards, with these shared memories of this shared pleasure. Their kisses cement their joy, ensure that it lingers.
 

Felisiter and Sara have their hands inside each other, each rubbing at the other’s clitoris, as one swallows Gabriel’s cock and the other licks into his hole, surrounding him and filling him up as they reach into each other, opening their legs to the other’s hand, rubbing shamelessly seeking more friction.
 

Balthazar feels Gabriel pull harder still on his hand, his whole body shaking and he knows they are close. Lucia is bucking frantically above him now, slamming onto his cock harder and harder, no time for the delicate tightening of muscles around him now, she is loose and wanton and perfect, undulating her hips to the rhythm her body has dictated. Suddenly she clenches and shudders above him and Balthazar releases into her, conscious of nothing but endless spasms of ecstasy. He feels Gabriel come with him, and both orgasms shudder through them, leaving them weak with satisfaction. The girls begin to collapse around them, Sara pressing kisses all over Philomene as she comes last, shuddering against Sara’s chest as she calms.
 

They stay with the girls in the garden paradise until Gabriel signals that their time is up. He touches each of the girls, blessing and cleansing simultaneously and then immediately they are by the Well again. Gabriel assures them that no one in the tribe will remember anything unusual and finally asks if the girls would also like to forget. They all say no and the two angels watch regretfully as the girls walk away from the well towards the encamped village, holding hands and smiling at each other.
 

Gabriel touches Balthazar’s shoulder. “Time to abandon these vessels and return to Heaven.”
 

Balthazar nods and takes his chance to ask, “Will you assign me to your garrison?”
 

Gabriel shakes his head. “I would brother, but I can’t take Castiel, he is not like us, and I don’t think you would be happy leaving him to fight alone in Michael’s unit.”
 

What Gabriel doesn’t say is that he is not sure Balthazar would be such a good fighter without Castiel. Castiel’s presence allows Balthazar to be the more spontaneous, inventive fighter that Gabriel values while still keeping his energies focused on where they need to be. Without Castiel, Gabriel doesn’t trust Balthazar to stay on mission.
 

Balthazar hears the truth in Gabriel’s words and says no more. He has fought alongside Castiel for centuries and hardly knows how to fight without him protecting his flank and responding intuitively to his actions.
 

*
 

Gabriel leaves him at the barracks. “We will train again brother, there is still much time until my work is done.” 

 

He cocks Balthazar a little grin but he looks sad now and tired. Balthazar doesn’t understand how he can be so mournful when his own life has just become so much more wonderful. He feels like he sees the world differently now. Possibilities he had never considered are creeping into his mind. How could anyone be sad after what just happened?

Gabriel looks at him with understanding. “Yes, there is fun to be had but we must always come back to this. This fight is endless. The fight for Job is one more in an eternal struggle. I know my older brother. Lucifer will never admit defeat and we will always be drawn back into this war.” He smiles again slightly. “But luckily there will also always be virgins.” He puts his hand to Balthazar’s cheek, caresses it briefly and then winks once more. “I’ll be seeing you.”
 

*
 

Balthazar watches him fly away and then turns to the barracks seeking Castiel. He doesn’t know how much of his experience he is going to tell him, he doesn’t know how much Castiel could even understand.
 

*
 

No one in the garrison seems to know where Castiel is but when he reaches out with his mind Balthazar finds him sitting silently on the edge of the boundary to Job’s land, looking in towards Job with great focus.
 

“Castiel? What are you doing here? ”
 

“I am keeping watch.”
 

“That’s not your job, what can you do here?”
 

“That is not the point, Balthazar. He may think he has been abandoned but it is not true, I will not let it be true. I am here watching. I cannot give comfort but I can bear witness to his suffering and perhaps one day he will know it.”
 

Balthazar looks at his friend. He knows he won’t say anything of his time with Gabriel to Castiel but he knows as well that Gabriel was right - he would never be able to leave this angel to fight alone. There was no telling what he would do to get himself in trouble if Balthazar wasn’t around. So he settles beside him, arm resting on the other angel’s shoulder and watches Castiel watching Job. Tomorrow they will be called to battle again and they will fight in unison as they always have. Tonight though, for the first time, their thoughts are far apart, even as they exist here side by side; and perhaps, when a prophet finally comes to write it, this is the beginning of a road with two very different pathways.