Return to the Mountains

Prophecy of Unicron

Summary: The continuation of Dragoon Galaxy's Blooming Mountain Love. Coby and Lori's parents don't take the news of their new relationship too well. To escape the tension, the couple leave for the mountains again, only to find out that Coby being absorbed into the Matrix carries a price.

Chapter 4: Coby's Worst Memory

"Honestly, Red Alert, we'll be fine," Lori said. "If something goes wrong, we'll call you."

The medic finally sighed. He had volunteered to bring Coby and Lori back to the campsite they came to last time to keep watch over Coby and monitor any changes. Now that they were here, though, Coby and Lori were asking him to leave. He understood their wish to have some time to themselves, but he needed to keep watch. "Very well, but I will be close by. If I hear anything I don't like, such as an explosion, I'm coming over whether you want me to or not."

"That will be just fine," Coby said, finishing setting up the tent. He had been setting up the campsite for him and Lori while she argued with Red Alert. He stepped back to admire his handiwork. He felt a lot stronger lately. Normally, it would have taken a while for him to set up an A-frame spring bar tent on his own. This time, he had done so in minutes.

I must be getting stronger, he thought.

"Well, now that he's gone…" Lori let her sentence trail off as she peeled of her tank top, giving Coby a seductive smile. He returned the smile and scooped her up in his arms, carrying her over to a grassy, comfortable area before setting her down and crawling on top of her. They shed their clothing and made love slowly.

They lay there in each other's arms, letting the sun make its way across the sky, both of them glowing from the pleasure they had just experienced. After a while, Coby broke the silence.

"Lori, what do you think about us?" he asked, his face serious.

"What do you mean?" Lori asked back, confused.

"About our relationship," Coby clarified. "Do you love me?"

"Of course I do!" Lori insisted.

"But is it love that you feel, or just physical attraction?" Coby asked. "I don't want to look back on our relationship and see it as only physical."

Lori smiled, understanding why he was worried. "Coby, I love you. You protected me at the cost of your own life. You saved me from Megatron. But there's more than that. I really like having sex with you, but not just because you're physically attractive. Remember the school dance, when those boys were hitting on me?"

"Yeah," Coby smiled, remembering how he got in a fight with them. He lost, but it kept them away from Lori.

"There are other things too," Lori continued. "You make me laugh when I feel down. You go to the arcade with me. You've promised to teach me to race. Most of all, you treat me like a real person, not just some item to be won."

"Thanks, Lori," Coby smiled. "Do you know why I wanted to save you from Megatron?"

"You didn't want him to rape me," Lori answered.

"True, but there's more to it than that," Coby said. His expression darkened and grew sorrowful, "I feel really guilty for not telling you this before, but I wanted to save you because before I met you, I wasn't a virgin. I was raped."

Lori gasped in surprise. She could tell that Coby was exposing one of his worst memories to her, a scar that ran deeper than she realized. "Coby, I'm so sorry."

"It happened when I was five years old," Coby said. "I was walking home from school when a group of female high school students grabbed me and dragged me into an alley. I don't remember much of what happened anymore, but I do remember the feeling of being violated. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner."

"Don't be sorry, you didn't do anything wrong," Lori said. "I'm sorry it happened to you, but you don't need to feel guilty about it."

"Thanks for understanding Lori," Coby said, moving closer to her. For a while, she held him while he cried, his head buried in her chest, his salty tears running across her bare breasts. "Sorry, it hurts when I think about it."

"Then I'll give you something new to think about, something happier," Lori said, and pulled him into a passionate kiss.

That night, Lori continued to comfort Coby as fragments of his worst memory haunted his dreams. She knew, without a doubt, that he needed to tell her, and was glad that he did. It strengthened their relationship, bringing them closer than ever.

By morning, Coby felt better, the memories now locked away in his past to never haunt him ever again.