Leviathan's Breath (Early Access) (Patreon)

Throbbing throughout her body lulled Zephyr into consciousness. Behind her eyes. In her joints. Along her spine. At least that meant her heart was still beating, she thought drowsily, gritting against the throbbing in her teeth. It wasn’t possible to take stock of her situation without opening her eyes, since all she could hear and feel was her heart. They creaked open in small, painful increments.

Mismatched metal panels came into view, similar to the last sight she remembered before blacking out. Deathly afraid they weren’t going to hold against the collision of the escape pod hurtling towards her own. Apparently they had held, because she was still alive. To the best of her knowledge, at least. As a medic, it was pretty important to be able to tell these things…

A face dropped in, hovering over her own and scrutinising her with a scowl. A pair of dark blue braids swung either side of high cheeks, clanking with metal beads like a mobile to send Zephyr back to sleep. The rest of the shaggy tresses were scraped back into a high, fluffy ponytail with a mess of long bangs covering her forehead and framing striking silver eyes. Blotchy bruising marred her skin, but it didn’t keep Zephyr from recognising her.

“Leviathan,” Zephyr croaked. Her tongue felt coated in sand, even when she tried to roll it around her mouth in a desperate search for saliva.

Leviathan didn’t respond, her expression was grim. So was Zephyr’s life expectancy if this was who had found her first. Her mouth was too dry to even beg for her life. All she could do was try to fight. She wouldn’t go down without trying her best. Neve-

A tube was stuffed past her cracked lips. Zephyr screamed and pinched her lips closed over the hole to keep whatever dastardly solution that was approaching from entering her.

“It’s water,” Leviathan said dully. She gave Zephyr’s jaw a harsh flick and squeezed the container in time with her lips parting in pain. Her mouth flooded.

It tasted like water. It had the texture of water. But there was no way to discern if it really was water. Zephyr slurped hard on the straw. For science. Not because the sweet relief of hydration was the best feeling of her entire life.

A fist scrunched the front of her jumpsuit and dragged her up to a seated position. Eerily reminiscent of the last time she and Leviathan had been this close to one another. Last time, Cain had arrived just in time. With a few scrapes and bruises, she’d managed to walk away kind-of victorious.

Cain’s words came back to her from that night, over the beer she’d bought him in thanks.

“Don’t ever let that one sneak up on you again, Zephy, she’s not like the others. If she hadn’t had you by the collar, there’s no way I would have jumped in.”

She had reminded him that he was the only one in the room armed. He had said that didn’t matter.

Leviathan pulled back suddenly and Zephyr sucked in a shaky breath, choking a little on the water. After a pointed look of disgust, Leviathan loped away, and for a few moments Zephyr remained deadly still, straw hanging from her mouth and back against the metal wall of the pod. The first body part she gave permission to move was her eyes, hurriedly scoping out the surroundings.

The pod around them, definitely not hers, had been fixed by hand, with the plates not always joining neatly. There were crumpled dents all over and the ground was bare beneath them, the side that had landed torn up to be re-used elsewhere, she assumed. Directly ahead, thin streams of light entered around the door that had been left open a little. The atmosphere was breathable, then, wherever they were.

Apparently, Zephyr was not much of a threat in Leviathan’s mind, since she began to potter around the tiny space, shifting clutter around and inspecting metal pieces of all shapes and sizes. With her back to Zephyr, she went about her day as though she was not there.

A thin rod lay a few feet away, snapped off at one end to leave it sharp - almost serrated in its rough break. Zephyr kept her breathing low and slow, leaning back down as though to sleep more, the muscles that ran along her sides burning with pain, and grazed the rod with her finger. Not close enough. She winced and sat back up, watching Leviathan’s unbothered back as she separated nuts and bolts. A few preparatory seconds, and she shuffled along the makeshift bed in two quick hops and snatched the rod from the ground. Before she could swing her arm back to conceal the weapon, Leviathan’s furious gaze was upon her.

“Put it down,” she growled.

Zephyr’s fingers twitched with temptation to drop the rod.

“You can’t be serious.” Leviathan had a dangerous grin, one that promised punishment. “I saved your life and your idea of gratitude is to stab me in the back?”

“I wasn’t going t- I just wanted something to defend myself!”

“Against what? The water and shelter I’ve given you? Get the hell out before I kick your ass!” Her finger jabbed at the open door. “You couldn’t defend yourself from a dead rat with that thing,” she added with extra spite.

Zephyr kept her weapon, despite Leviathan’s insults of it, and dashed out the door, stumbling through the uneven frame.

Fooled by the light squeezing into the pod, Zephyr had been expecting bright sunbeams to hit her when she reached the outside. Instead, it was dim, and the air temperature mild. Not necessarily bad news for her survival, as long as this wasn’t the warm part of their orbit. The planet was puny, so small she could see the curve of the horizon in every direction. In the very far distance, two small moons were clustered together. High above, she squinted at a sun that seemed to be moving too quickly through the sky.

Zephyr dropped her gaze down to the local vicinity and wriggled her fingers through her hair to coax it out of her face as she peered around. She had to hurry, there was a merc without a single moral at her back, and if Leviathan changed her mind, she stood no chance in a fight against her - weaponized or not. Even worse, her body ached all over. As if she needed another disadvantage. Unless she was still flooded with adrenaline from the crash, though, it all seemed to be surface-level bumps and bruises. Nothing broken.

A short distance from Leviathan’s front door, another familiar face was watching her from the dirt.

The wisp of the Wayward Breeze couldn’t be discerned by a stranger - the image of a cheeky tear-drop-shaped spirit was burnt and battered and there was no part that wasn’t peeling. Only a crew member, someone who had seen the cartoon mascot in all its glory (scribbled on the communal toilet cubicle walls) would know to recognise it.

The Wayward Breeze, affectionately known amongst its crew as The Wayward Wheeze, was Zephyr’s home. At least, it had been for the last few years since she answered a scrappy hiring notice pinned to a bulletin board outside a pub. She wanted to say it was at least a respectable pub, but no pubs opened on moons were.

Half-buried in the ground ahead of her was the escape pod that had saved her life. She wondered, with a new pain in her chest, whether its parent ship was in better condition. Comparing what remained of her pod to Leviathan’s G.R.U.N.T pod, a sense of rapidly impending doom prickled the back of Zephyr’s neck. There were… bits… and pieces. Most of which appeared well embedded in the dirt.

Zephyr sighed, her only option was to attempt to rebuild. She peeked back at Leviathan’s shelter… something like that would be ideal…

Despite her best attempts, including lots of grunting noises, Zephyr couldn’t pry the few intact exterior sheets from the ground. She couldn’t dig into it, either. Her piece of metal frame lay twisted beside her, a pitiful reminder that she was no longer armed even with a piece of scrap. She was knelt amongst her debris when she heard a clunk from behind. The sound set her entire body tight with tension, awaiting attack. After a few moments, no sounds had followed. No footsteps or yells of threats. Cautious, bobbing her hands as though she were working on a very useful but fiddly task, Zephyr squinted over her shoulder.

Leviathan smirked.

Zephyr’s head whipped back round, hands still pretending to work. She was being watched. Balanced on a small metal cylinder, Leviathan was observing her efforts. Probably waiting for Zephyr to wear herself out so it would take less energy to kill and cook her. The mercenaries of the Galactic Representative… something something… Taskforce… Zephyr scowled, it didn’t matter. The G.R.U.N.Ts were just as heartless as they were dangerous, and she needed to keep alert.

The surveillance didn’t last long. A scraping noise announced Leviathan’s dethroning and departure. Zephyr watched her without shame now, crouched and careful. Leviathan ignored her, disappearing around the back of her shelter.

The sun didn’t so much ‘set’ here, as get blocked by a much larger planet meandering into their path, making it difficult to tell how long they had until the planet completely stole their sole source of light. Zephyr was more than happy to turn in for the ‘night,’ but her pod remained a disaster zone.

It was pointless to continue fighting with the puzzle of protruding pod pieces, she decided as the sky began to darken, better to source other materials to build her shelter. In the dry dirt clearing that their pods had landed in, there wasn’t so much as a sprout. There were sparse trees a short walk away, far too thick to be cut down with Zephyr’s eating utensils, and too tall to relinquish their branches. A little further and she found herself walking on patches of browning grass, but nothing she could twine. She returned to the trees and gathered the puny twigs that littered the ground beneath them. There was nothing big enough to use for a lean-to, but maybe she could make fire. She started a pile back at the remains of her pod.

The planet fell dark. Zephyr couldn’t generate so much as a spark with her twig twiddling. It didn’t help that after an hour of trying she couldn’t see her own hands.

Footsteps crunched the dry ground and Zephyr froze. This was it. The end, probably.

A scrape. A whoosh. A few puffed breaths.

Through low flames, Leviathan grinned. An orange tint had taken over her face, warming even her silver eyes.

Zephyr shuffled on her butt to turn her back on the other woman. It was probably a death wish, but if she was doomed anyway she might as well get the chance to sulk.

The night drew darker. And worse, colder.

In the very few instances that Zephyr allowed herself to glance over at Leviathan’s camp, she’d noted the appearance of a makeshift spit with an oblong shape speared in the centre, and a container with liquid, and-

Leviathan caught her looking. Again.

She forced her gaze to the ground and stilled, like a dog hoping to go unnoticed. Staring at the dirt, the realisation that she had no chance of surviving this desolate place by herself finally solidified. All day she had put the fact aside, ignoring the truth. But here it was, in the chill of her skin and the rumble in her belly, making itself very much known.

Every step upped the sting of humiliation, but the approaching warmth of the fire was heavenly. Leviathan’s silver eyes sparkled at her through the flickering flames, watching her shuffle over without pity. At least she would die quicker by Leviathan’s hands than from starvation. She kept the campfire between them, stopping close enough to feel the dry air frying the inside of her nose.

“Hello,” Zephyr whispered.

“Look who came crawling back,” Leviathan drawled.

“I didn’t crawl.”

“You should have.” She kicked a stone in line with the others that ringed her campfire. “It would have really improved the case you’re about to plead.”

Zephyr fought off fidgets. “My pod… it’s completely destroyed, and I don’t have the tools or the skill to rebuild it…”

“That’s what you get for travelling around in a rusty tin can.”

“The Wayward Breeze is a piece of history!” And only its crew were allowed to make fun of it.

“Exactly, it should be in a museum, not being pushed to breaking point in deep space. I’m surprised your escape pod didn’t burst into a cloud of dust when you landed.”

A flare of anger shot up Zephyr’s spine, she clenched her fists against the feeling. “If you hadn’t crashed into m-”

“Then your pod would have disintegrated before reaching a breathable atmosphere. I don’t know where that relic you call an escape pod thought it was taking you, but there was a perfectly good planet to land on and you weren’t aiming for it.”

“You did it… deliberately?”

“What else was I supposed to do? Let you float off into nothingness?”

Zephyr shrugged.

With a grumbling sigh, Leviathan threw up three fingers. “To recap for those of us who don’t seem to be capable of keeping up-”

Zephyr scowled and folded her arms over her chest with extra attitude, but stayed silent.

“-first, I knock your pod onto a safer escape course to ensure you don’t die a hideous death out in the cold, dark expanse of space.” A finger curled down. “Second, when your piece-of-shit pod broke into a million shitty pieces, I pulled you out and let you rest in my pod.” Another finger dropped.

The burn of shame was going to melt Zephyr’s brain any moment now, she was certain…

“And now, after threatening me in the shelter I gave you, you want… more help?” She waggled the final finger at Zephyr like she was a naughty child.

“I’m sorry.”

“Is that it?”

“I was an idiot.”

Leviathan raised a navy brow expectantly.

“And I didn’t deserve the things you did for me, but I’m really grateful that you did. I also… don’t deserve more help, but would really appreciate it.”

“You know, I hear appreciation has really gone up in value as a currency lately.” The words were all but snarled at her.

Zephyr had nothing to respond, because she had nothing else to offer.

The sigh that came next was Zephyr’s favourite sound. Ever. Filled with resignation and irritation, it was the sound of her life being saved. Again.

“Sit here. We’re having fish for dinner. Don’t ask what kind of fish, I don’t know. I tested the water for mercury and other shit, that’s as good as it gets.”

Zephyr hurried to her side and dropped her butt to the dirt. “That’s more than good enough for me!”

Leviathan passed her the water jug and she sipped at it over and over as they watched dinner cook. She expected to get told off for being greedy at any moment, but the admonishment never came, so she kept drinking until her tongue finally lost its sandpaper texture. Occasionally, Leviathan would turn the spit or prod at the firewood.

Zephyr wiped her wet mouth on her sleeve. “You’re getting way too near to the flames,” she warned her. She couldn’t drag her eyes from the fingers digging dangerously close to the embers that ringed the fire.

No notice was taken of her words, but a cracking noise and burst of hot ash made them both jump. Leviathan chuckled and immediately began poking at the wood with her bare fingers again.

“Leviathan!” Zephyr scolded.

Leviathan scoffed. “That’s not my name, you know.”

Zephyr tilted her head in question, but Leviathan said nothing more. She did pull her hands back a little from the fire, though. Zephyr would let it go, for now.

Warm, partly fed, and well-watered, they laid their heads back against the metal sheets of the pod that were embedded firmly into the ground and stared off into the sky. Leviathan had given up her stool to use as a table for dinner. The ground didn’t feel nearly as unforgiving beneath them as it had when Zephyr was crouched by her own pod. There were no animal noises, only gentle winds.

“Levi,” Zephyr guessed.

A short laugh. Incorrect, then.

“Ethan.”

A sigh.

“Tanner?” she peeked to the side at Leviathan’s profile glowing in the dark.

“Zephyr-” Leviathan started wearily.

“That’s not my name, you know!” Zephyr mimicked.

“Yes, it is.”

“How would you know?”

“We’re allowed to browse any records we can access,” Leviathan said simply, still staring into the sky. ‘We’ being the corrupt company of mercenaries that made up G.R.U.N.T.

Zephyr gasped. “You’ve been nosing around my personal records?”

“Sorry.” She didn’t sound it.

“That’s not fair!”

“I didn’t do it because I thought it was.”

“Leviathan!”

Leviathan laughed without humour. “Stop calling me that,” she said quietly.

“Tell me, then!”

“You don’t get anything for free in this life,” Leviathan advised her with a cocky coo.

A noise of disbelief squeaked out of Zephyr. “You take things for free all the time in your little group of crooks!”

“Stealing requires skill and effort.” A shrug knocked their shoulders against each other. “Just like any other art.”

“I would never take something that doesn’t belong to me.”

Leviathan scoffed. “You’d think from up on that high horse you’d be able to see the irony of your words.”

Zephyr scowled, refusing to ask Leviathan to explain herself. She turned away, folding her arms over her chest.

“You look down on me for taking,” Leviathan said slowly. “But you turn up in my camp looking for a handout.”

Zephyr swung back around. “It’s not the same-”

“You’re taking from me, and offering nothing in return.”

“I don’t have anything you want.”

“Yes, you do.” She didn’t give Zephyr the chance to inquire as to what she had that Leviathan could possibly be interested in. “And anyway, that didn’t stop you from coming here to take. You didn’t even make an offer.”

“I offered an apology,” Zephyr grumbled. “That should be worth something.”

“Value is subjective.”

“Can you please stop with the vague responses? Say what you mean for once. You said there was something I had that you want, so what is it?”

Leviathan finally turned. In the dark, a hand shot forward, snagging Zephyr’s ragged collar and yanking her forward. The memory of this exact moment, years ago, flooded back, bringing with it all the fear she had felt.

And then, in one touch, it was washed away. Firm lips pressed against hers, closed, but not for long.

Leviathan worked her mouth open in rhythmic increments, pushing forward and pulling back in a tempo that Zephyr could just about keep up with. She let herself fall into the rocking of Leviathan against her, eyes slipping shut, shy to the soothing sensation that came with Leviathan’s gentle coaxing. A total clash with her galactically-known heavy-handedness. The hands scrunched in Zephyr’s clothes were still a little too tight, but the kiss was careful. It warmed Zephyr from the inside to be treated as though she were both precious and delicious.

The kiss broke, but they remained nose-to-nose. Puffs of breath brushed her mouth where Leviathan was quietly panting. There was a pull between them, a magnetic pulse urging them to reconnect their lips.

“W-was that… worth taking me in?” Zephyr breathed.

Leviathan chuckled darkly. “That was a down payment on saving your ass initially.”

Zephyr bit her lip. “What about this?” She pulled back, and Leviathan’s hands dropped away.

The buttons of her jumpsuit were already undone, but she teased the collar down to her shoulders in a deliberate motion, watching Leviathan through half-lidded eyes. Silver irises burned into the bare skin, urging her to continue. She let the garment fall to her waist, shimmying it slowly over her hips.

Impatient hands yanked her thin tank top up under her chin and Zephyr’s own hands flailed a little in surprise. Exposed to the chilly night air, her nipples pinched and pushed out indignantly. Leviathan’s tongue trailed a bud before sucking it into her warm mouth with a groan. A breathy moan escaped Zephyr; it fogged in the air over Leviathan’s head. She sunk her fingers into the underside of Leviathan’s gravity-defying ponytail, encouraging the woman to continue the twirl of her tongue that sent tingles to Zephyr’s toes.

Leviathan unlatched, only to pull back by a fraction and tease the very tip of Zephyr’s nipple with her teeth. Not quite a nibble, but sharp enough to make her squeak and jerk under the much larger woman. On sudden release of the tender nub, Zephyr whined pitifully.

“Come on,” Leviathan chuckled. “It’s only going to get colder out here.”

Pulled to her feet by the elbow, Zephyr was directed inside the cramped cocoon of the crashed pod. She squeezed herself as deep into the back of the space as possible, and watched Leviathan check the dying fire before following her inside and jerking the wonky door shut. The leftover glow of the fire lit the edge to allow them to see just as far as the pod was wide.

The notion that she had just become trapped in a very small space with a very dangerous enemy didn’t seem so serious to Zephyr anymore, possibly because nothing seemed more important than returning Leviathan’s mouth to her tits. Leviathan rushed her, lifting her by the waist with enormous hands and slamming Zephyr into the metal sheet that curved over the makeshift bed. A grunt was knocked from her chest and she gave Leviathan an incredulous look.

“Sorry.” Once again, she didn’t sound it. “I forget you’re not a merc, you just patch them up.” The way Leviathan spoke held a heavy implication that combat medic wasn’t as good as mercenary. As though there was honour in being the one making the messes Zephyr needed to clean up.

“Never had the blood-lust for it,” Zephyr said, looking up and down Leviathan’s enormous frame with disdain. She had no real issue with mercenaries - she lived on a tiny, decrepit ship with a whole crew of them, for fuck’s sake - but the thieving, murdering, anything-for-a-coin mercenaries… that was different. That was G.R.U.N.T. “So be careful with my head, I actually need it.”

That dark laugh again. “You know who else needs head?”

It was Zephyr’s turn to laugh, although she didn’t sound nearly as intimidating when she did. More of an awkward snort. She pushed back at Leviathan’s shoulders, and there was a pause as Leviathan considered whether or not to acknowledge it. When she stepped back, Zephyr fell to the lumpy bed but quickly jumped to her feet. With jittery fingers, she worked at the buttons and zipper of Leviathan’s cargo pants. Silver eyes watched her, shimmering with amusement.

She fell to her knees, using the bed to raise her high enough to still reach between Leviathan’s legs with a tilted chin. Underwear and pants pulled to her knees, Leviathan stood over her without shame. Zephyr brought her mouth to the wet slit and traced the most delicate of lines, with the very tip of her tongue, along it.

“Zephyr.” A warning. Patience was not the trait Leviathan was known across multiple galaxies for.

“Whoever you are,” Zephyr replied in the same tone, ensuring her breath blew over the centre of her vulva, cooling the slick that awaited her. “Tell me your name.”

“You don’t get to make demands,” Leviathan growled. “You owe me your life three times over.”

“And I’ve shown I can make repayments, isn’t that how debt works?” Zephyr fluttered her lashes innocently. “You prove you can pay a bit back and they let you get even deeper into it?”

A groan, and a hand scrubbed through shaggy bangs. From under the hand, Leviathan mumbled something.

“Hmm?”

The hand lowered, snaking into the back of Zephyr’s hair. Leviathan’s face was flushed, moreso than it had been after the kiss or from the cold.

“Leif,” she said. “My real name is Leif.”

Zephyr let her mouth fall open. “Le-”

Her open mouth was crammed to Leviathan- no, Leif’s cunt. The hand in her hair pressed her so deep into it she could hardly breathe. Instead of being able to tongue and play as she pleased, Leif had taken back total control. Zephyr fisted the material of Leif’s cargo pants and squeezed her eyes shut as her tongue was ridden, Leif grinding herself into her mouth exactly how she wanted. Feverish shivers ran up her spine and her knees slid open on the bedding. She should have taken her own pants off first… tucked the pillow between her legs before this began to let her ride out her own pleasure as she dripped from having her face fucked. Zephyr stretched her lips until it pinched at the corners and felt her clit pulse when Leif groaned, “Good girl.”

She felt her come. Zephyr… felt the most dangerous woman in the known galaxies come against her tongue, labia fluttering and clit throbbing out of sync with each other. As the hand at the back of her head loosened its grip, she slumped back against the metal behind her.

Leif followed her down, flinging her clothes off as she did. She tugged Zephyr’s off with just as much vigour and threw Zephyr face down into the bed. Whatever it was made of had created an uneven surface that left her face down, ass up. Two huge hands were on that ass quicker than Zephyr could complain about the manhandling, pulling her cheeks apart to make way for a thick tongue to slide through and down to her lips. Zephyr shivered and tucked her head into the sheets, at the very least she could pretend she wasn’t hornier than a dog right now. The thought of Leif… the Leviathan, knowing how desperately she wanted to hump back against her face, it would be the final straw of an already disastrous day.

The tongue ground into her clit and Zephyr squealed, feet kicking and fingers twisting into the bedding. Leif laughed against her and pulled her further open, stretching every bit of her bare. Her tongue was so thick it felt like a finger was pressing into her, digging, writhing between her labia until she screamed bloody murder around the pillow. If there were any other creatures living on their puny planet, she’d definitely scared them away for the night.

Zephyr slumped her weight onto her face, trembling knees still propping up her behind, and whimpered as she slowly came down from her climax. A slap that rang through the room hit her ass so hard her legs gave out and she fell flat on the bed.

That dark chuckle that made her insides flutter filled the dark room. “Night, Zephy.”

Zephyr woke to wind rattling through metal sheets and the scrape of a pencil on paper. She rolled over and pointed a bleary pout at Leif, hunched over her small workspace. She glanced up from her sketches, face puffy but smirk remaining. Zephyr got the distinct feeling she’d be expected to start earning her keep very soon with whatever new project Leif was drafting up.

“What are you planning?” Zephyr groaned. “I need at least two days of rest before you put me to work.”

“If we consolidate the parts of both pods, we could build ourselves a nice… space.” Leif looked back down to her paper and trailed a long line from one corner to another. “More permanent.”

There was a pause, a weight falling on Zephyr’s reaction. Although Leif feigned interest in her perfectly-straight lines, Zephyr could feel the intensity of her anticipation from the opposite side of the pod.

“I’d love that,” she said. “A real home.”

Leif perked and returned to her blueprints with gusto. Zephyr returned to snoozing.