Prompt : Hello!! Can you write a piece on Krishna and Balarama? They are as underrated as siblings:)))

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Sankarshana Balabhadra they called him.

Of fair skin like the butter churned in Vrindavana's boulevard, a warm absinthe gaze and raven hair thick and serpentine coiled around a massive frame which stood tall like the mighty Hindukush mountains.

Wielding a massive gold gilded, jewel encrusted plough on one powerful shoulder and a perennial garrulous countenance that bespoke of a tornadic temperament.

It would be needless to say that a man of such dynamic and commanding presence could hardly go unnoticed.

Yet what can one do if their younger sibling was God?

But, the first born of Rohini remained contended in the gigantic shadow of his younger brother.

Vasudeva Krishna was the incarnation of the Preserver.

A living God.

His mischievous multihued gaze burned with an ancient power that transcended time and space. With the complexion of the inky cosmos, a teasing smile and curly hair, his magnetic charm had ensnared the entire mortal realm in a chokehold.

For who in existence and beyond has ever been able to resist the clever, smooth skinned cowheard of Braj?

But only Balarama would know the grief just as timeless and ancient, which his baby brother hid behind that disarming smile and aquamarine eyes.

The time spent apart from their birth parents.

The pain of losing a carefree childhood.

The separation from the parents who had nurtured them since infancy.

The agony of a time ripped asunder from the beloved queen of the gopikas.

The demanding ruckus of a burning Bharatvarsha.

The unbearable burden of advancing the age of dharma, manipulating the hot-headed kshatriyas who have lost their way.

His Kahna's plate was overfilled to the brim.

Yet all the Lord of Revati could do was wrap his powerful arms around his trembling dark skinned sibling and let him rest his heavy head on his muscled shoulder.

And sometimes, let his cheeky brother get away with his conniving machinations; those which almost always ended up making him look like a fool.

"Do not think I did not realise what you just did", Balarama retorted ruefully.

"What? Saved you from humiliation?", Kahna answered innocently, looking at his finger nails.

The Yadavas led by Satyaki had already left to bring back Subhadra and Arjuna with all the necessary hospitality and ceremony hailed of by the ancient clan of Vrishnis.

"The Yadavas would have been forced to ally with the Kauravas had Subha married Duryodhana like I had planned", the older man groused.

Krishna's eyes twinkled.

"You let your favourite cousin run away with your sister so that you could turn this your way. You always were more inclined towards the Pandavas."

Krishna's smile widened and a hint of dimples appeared on his butter smooth cheeks.

"Why do you hate Duryodhana so much? He is respectful and loving---", Balarama began only for the peacock feather clad god to interrupt him suavely.

"Yes yes. He is a saint. The warmth of his love very nearly toasted the Pandavas and our aunt Kunti in Varnavarta."

Balarama looked away discontent.

"That is a conspiracy theory, Kahna. It hasn't been proved. No one knows who hired Purochana. It can very well be a rumour spread by the Pandavas themselves to garner sympathy for Yudhishthira's position."

"You think the Dharmaraja would allow his brothers to spread misinformation?"

"Maybe he didn't know..."

Krishna raised an eyebrow and Balarama huffed, knowing how weak his argument sounded.

Everyone knew Yudhishthira would rather die than allow a lie to be told. That also for his sake.

And his brothers hardly breathed without the oldest Kaunteya's permission.

"Dau, political expediency aside, I really did this for you too..", Krishna began.

"Me! How does this help me exactly?", Balarama asked dubiously.

"Subhadra would have hated you, had you gotten her married to Duryodhana", Krishna replied nonchalantly.

"She---"

"She loves Partha. Didn't the guards tell you? She took the reigns from him while driving the chariot away."

"And you knew about this?"

"Of course. This was the only way where your honour won't come into question. They eloped. You had no idea. Simple."

Balarama shook his head exasperated and then slumped on the chair, his expression a mixture of mutinous and defeated.

"Trust me, Kahnaiiya, had you not been half in love with that Pandava upstart, I would have torn the head off his body."

Krishna laughed aloud, delighted, throwing his beautiful head back, knowing he has gotten his way, yet again.

There was no question of it anyway.

His older brother could hardly refuse him anything. Despite the chaos he caused often.

Krishna grinned at Balarama and laid his head on his older sibling's shoulder, eyes twinkling upwards at him, affectionately.

"You know how much I love you, Dau."

"Yes, yes... eat the butter you are trying to put on me. You know you've gotten your way. Again"

"It is your love, not my wisdom which makes all my plans successful."

"Yes yes.. totally. It was me. I did everything. You are just an innocent babe."

Krishna pouted like the infantile adult he was, and Balarama laughed, his mercurial temper melting away like the frigid winters on the onset of a glorious summer, like it had always done when facing his little Muralidhara.

Krishna could slaughter the entire universe with the snap of his red dyed fingers.

And Balarama would follow behind, wiping the blood from his brother's face with his rough earth laden hands.