Lyra has a father.

He's just not around very often, leaving her raising (or lack of) to the staff and professors of Jordan College, Oxford. She lives her life as if she didn't have any parents at all, running wild across the streets. She doesn't care - it's better to not have parents anyway.

(But she actually does, and everytime he comes home she hopes he won't have to leave again.)

-

AU where Lyra grows up in Will's world.

Lyra never wanted to see Lord Asriel again.

Yet when she does, her thoughts are more conflicted than she expected.

Back in Oxford, Lyra feels like nothing has changed since she went up North. As if her time away was a tiny moment in time.

But in reality nothing stays the same. She has to deal with what she left behind and her feelings of belonging, in a place she no longer considers her home.

Pan flicked his tail against her in irritation. “Don’t pretend you’re not waiting for one person to leave the library.”

“Hush,” Lyra pouted, tapping his nose gently even as her face heated up. “I e’nt waiting for anyone.”

“You so are,” Pan teased, eyes so smug that Lyra half wanted to throw him off her (but that would hurt them both). “You can’t hide anything from me.”

All Lyra wanted to do was kiss her friend, as they ran across the rooftops with cries of delight.

But she didn't know if her friend wanted that too.

It was as if a floodgate had been opened to let everything burst free. It crashed through her mind and ran down her face as tears slipped free.

And it was just Lyra and Pan, Pan and Lyra, as it had always been.