That was the question.
Was the few minutes of laughter, food, and support enough to shake off the years of fear?
Due to his treatment, Arthur was afraid of others for a long time. That kind of fear was etched into his body, and it would not be washed out easily.
Afraid of being hurt because he wasn't good enough, that was Arthur's mindset from childhood to the present. And here Arthur was, being given the option.
He was able to put off everything, as he'd not seen his father in years, and it did really seem like he'd changed. Sure, Arthur was young at the time, too young to remember most of it, but he could still remember distinct events, and the constant fear from back then.
As stated before, that was the question.
'Can I find it in me to forgive him?'
Arthur looked down, not wanting to see his dad's eyes. If he did see them, he might very well be guilted, or scared into saying yes. The rain continued, and it would not stop, it kept getting louder and louder.
There wasn't any music to help, no heart wrenching orchestra. Simply the sound of the rain, and one boom of thunder.
"I—"
He gave his answer.
His dad looked surprised, and the lump in his throat got slightly easier, being met with the reality.
"I see. Thank you for letting me know," his dad said, reaching out. Arthur accepted his embrace, and it was held for quite some time in the pouring rain. When his dad pulled away, Arthur couldn't tell if it was rain or tears on his face.
"I'll always love you! No matter what, I'll always be rooting for you, Arthur."
"Ah, thanks..."
"Say, ya wanna do this again sometime?"
Arthur nodded his head with a small smile. He went away, before turning back and waving back to his dad. His dad waved back with yet another toothy grin, before Arthur turned back around and got in his car. He dried himself off with a towel his dad gave him, before driving back to his campus.
Arthur went back to his dorm, dried himself off properly before Tyler, who was with his girlfriend, looked at him.
"How'd it go?" He asked, and Arthur smiled.
"Much better than I expected, actually. But man, I'm stuffed, so I'm gonna go take a nap," Arthur said, before noticing Tyler's girlfriend. He groaned in his head, before turning away.
He left the dormroom, texting Sally. She gave the go ahead, and Arthur went to her room, seeing her roommate actually inside for once. Sally's roommate wasn't very important, though she was usually pretty busy.
She was a plain girl, nothing especially distinct about her, and Arthur didn't even know her name.
Arthur went over to the couch and plopped down. He was very nervous, the new woman being near him, but he trusted Sally wouldn't let her do anything bad to him.
Arthur closed his eyes, drifting to sleep.
…
He awoke in a white void, and then Lucy appeared again, looking around and changing it to a beach. Arthur had an open coconut in his hands, and he took a sip, liking the taste. They were both laying down on beach towels on the warm sand, and Lucy was in a bikini.
She stood up, smiling at him.
"So? How's it look?" She asked him. Arthur's face turned red slightly, before he immediately dismissed it, turning his heart numb and looking at her blankly.
"Whatcha asking me for?" He asked, his voice completely monotone, so much so that it was a bit surprising to her.
"Well, I just wanna know. It looks exactly like the one I bought just a few weeks ago, but I haven't been able to use it since the weather's been getting colder," she said, slightly irritated.
"You went shopping for a bathing suit near winter?" He asked.
"Well, yeah. It's not like weather has much of an effect on us dragons, and I just felt like it, okay?"
"Again, why me? You've got friends and family to ask, don't you?"
"Well, yeah, but I don't wanna ask my family cause they'll get all picky about the measurements and my friends always say I look stunning no matter what I wear. So, naturally, I want you to tell me, since you seem pretty genuine about this stuff," she told him.
Arthur sighed and took a sip from his coconut.
"Hm. It looks good on you, no BS," he said.
"You for realsies?"
"For realsies."
She smiled and Arthur was immediately given a volleyball on the court.
"You serve first!" She yelled. Arthur tossed it away, making her yell a bit. She teleported over to him, frowning.
"What was that for?! C'mon, let's play ball!" She demanded. Arthur turned his head away, backing up.
"What're you so hyper for? The one time I wanna vent or talk to someone about something, you wanna play volleyball."
She raised her eyebrows and they were immediately brought back to the towels.
"Okay, since you wanna vent, go on!" She yelled, pumping a fist into the air. Arthur sighed, leaning back and looking up at the sun. Due to the lack of pain in the dreams, the sun's rays didn't burn his eyes.
"No, you go first. I'd hate it if I shared something big and then when it was your turn, you say something nowhere near as good. It'd leave a bad taste in my mouth."
"Then I won't vent at all! It's only Wednesday anyways, nothing interesting happened!"
"Then why're you acting like you just clutched a 1v5?"
"What?"
"Nothing, nothing." He smiled and took another sip. "Well, I met my dad for the first time in a long time today. He used to be really, really awful, but he seems like a good person now," Arthur said. Lucy's eyes widened and she nodded her head.
"That's cool. Hm… but are you sure he's actually good now?" She asked.
"What do you mean?"
"What if he didn't really change, and he just showed you his best side? Or worse yet, made up a good side for you to believe in?"
It was a pretty fair theory. And one that Arthur couldn't concretely confirm nor deny.
"Hm. I mean, I guess… but, I mean… if that's the case, it's not like he can do much, can he? If worse comes to worst, I can beat him up. He's human, after all. I'm a dragon."
"Yeesh, you're thinking like a true dragon then, aren't you?"
"—"
Arthur refused to speak more. Once more, he hated monsters—and it was true. Violence was the thinking of monsters.
Arthur curled up, frowning.
"No, I'm not. Dragons torture and kill. All I said was beat him up," he told her. She shrugged her shoulders and accepted it, saying "fair enough."
The feelings from that night didn't vanish. Having taken such a horrible defeat—no, it went beyond defeat. Having been struck with such brutality hurt him deeply. So much so that he, truth be told, kind of wanted to just kill all of them.
But if he were to do such a thing, he would be a murderer. And murderers aren't "good enough."
If you aren't good enough, then people will leave you behind. He knew that very well, and no matter what, Arthur didn't want his friends to leave him because he was a murderer.
Under no circumstance could he allow that to happen. Because once you're not good enough, you never can be "good enough."
Those who don't accept you never will, or ever can accept you, even if you stop being yourself. That was Arthur's truth.
"...Now will you play volleyball with me?" She asked, trying to get the grim expression off his face, as it didn't fit on a beach.
"Sure," he replied, blinking a few times to bring the light back into his eyes.
They went to a volleyball court, and played. Naturally, Arthur sucked ass at volleyball due to never playing sports in his entire life, so she beat him six ways to Sunday.
After suffering a brutal defeat, Arthur sighed and asked her. "Why're you so insistent on playing volleyball?"
"I'm on the volleyball team and I gotta get my practice in!" She exclaimed.
"That doesn't make any sense, you're a dragon, why do you need to practice?"
"Does everything need a reason?"
"No, not really. Whatever," he mumbled.
And so, they continued to play volleyball, and Arthur got his ass kicked even more. After that, they went back to drinking from coconuts.
'It still is a scary world of dragons. I don't know all that much, so it might be useful to meet up with the Graves family to talk with them about stuff.'
"Well, I'm ready to wake up now," Arthur told her. She nodded her head, and left, with Arthur returning to true unconsciousness.
…
He woke up, getting out of the couch with a yawn. It was just a two hour nap, so it wasn't anything particularly energizing. With that said, he decided it would be a good idea to talk with the Graves family, perhaps on Friday.
That way, he could train and perhaps get to know more about the world he now inhabited.