DISCLAIMER: i do not own any characters from the His Dark Materials series...although i do seem to own James....hehehehe

Authors Note: Thank you so much for those reviews! here's the update!!! something bad is about to happen! hahahaha MOOHOOHAHA!!!

The Silver Spoon

Chappie 2

When they woke up they were still snuggled in together but someone had come up, most likely Serafina Pekkela, and put them properly into bed, pulled the covers over them and such. They both seemed to wake up at the same time. At first their eyes were wide with wonder but then they remembered what had happened the day before and their eyes softened with love and contentment.

"Morning Will!" Lyra said enthusiastically.

"Morning!" he replied equally enthusiastic.

"What shall we do today?"

"I think it is up to you the reason being I have no idea what is around here!"

"Ok!" and she jumped up to get dressed. "Ehem! A little privacy please!"

"Oh! Sorry!" he said apologetically and left the room. After they were both dressed they went down to the dining hall for breakfast.

They ate heartily. Stuffing themselves with eggs and bacon, greedily chugging their juice. Then they set out almost right away.

The first thing that Lyra wanted to show Will was the rooftop. It took a little longer, thought Lyra, than when she used to go with Roger. She felt a twang of guilt in the pit of her stomach when she thought about Roger, but then she remembered her last glimpse of him stepping out of the land of the dead, that look of sheer joy he gave her and she knew she had been forgiven.

When they finally got to the summit of the building, the highest part of all of Jordan College, Lyra took up Will's hand in hers and turned her face into the wind, closing her eyes and letting herself be taking away to another land. She gently squeezed his hand and he followed her example, at first cautious not to fall off but gradually relaxing.

They must have been up there, exploring and re-exploring, for hours because when they finally returned to reality it was because the Steward's bell was tolling signaling lunch. They made their way down as fast as they could.

After lunch Lyra and Will returned to the rooftop. Lyra had actually been hoping to show him the basement and cellar area and where she and Roger had pulled the daemon-coin trick but she had to give in to his incessant whining and begging. The cellar will have to wait for another day.

And so they spent the remainder of their two weeks. Exploring and re-exploring. Lyra showing Will everything she loves about Oxford, and even everything she hates about it, which is not a lot. Those two weeks flew by.

On the 14th day they embraced each other warmly, kissed, and said one last goodbye.

"I'm going to miss you a lot, Lyra."

"I'm going to miss you too. But just think. Only 4 short months until we see each other again!" she said as happily as she could but she knew in her heart that they would be the longest four months of her life.

They hugged and kissed once more and then Will stepped through the whole in the air connecting their worlds. He smiled as best he could and then closed the window.

It was just as before. That horrid day two weeks ago, was it only two weeks ago? She cried, screamed, raged, and tried to get her Will back. She knew he would be back in a matter of months but she couldn't help it. She jumped and scratched at the spot where his face had been only seconds before. She was so full of sorrow that she failed to notice a young boy about her age watching her.

"Excuse me miss." He said tentatively. He talked with a bit of an accent. His voice was brusque.

She turned around abruptly and sniffled a few times. She hung her hair in front of her face, just as she had that day two weeks ago, to try and hide the tear-stained face. But there was no kidding the fact that he already knew; he had seen her tearing around the garden. "Yes?" she said in a slow slurred voice, trying very hard not to break into tears.

"Could you please not run over my vegetable garden? That's the only thing keeping food in my mouth and a roof over my head."

"Oh! I'm so sorry! I didn't even notice! I'm truly sorry."

"S'ok. Happens all the time. It's a pretty pathetic excuse for a vegetable garden. It's trying to get going but it just doesn't seem to be working out all that well. By the way, my name is James." When he finished he held out his hand.

"Hello James. My name is Lyra, pleasure to meet you," she said while pumping his hand up and down, "say, why don't I help you with your garden? Seeing as I ruined it."

"Sure, I'd like that." He said grinning. She suddenly got the impression that he was living by himself, left to survive on his own.

They worked the hours away, exchanging stories. Lyra was very careful with her story, not wanting to reveal too much to James. She found him to be a very talkative person once he got used to you, he was very shy at first.

She found out that he had a very hard life. His mother had died giving birth to his younger brother. His younger brother, who had been named Jonathan, died at the age of 9 from lack of calcium. His brother's death had left him and his father devastated. They lived as best they could for a while but it was too much for his father. He just took off sometime during the night, leaving a note and a small bag of various vegetable seeds. So James figured it was time to move on. He packed up what little possessions he had and set off. He had no idea where he was going at first so he just kept on walking. He finally made it to Oxford and found this garden. He decided that it was a good place to grow vegetables. He had planted them a couple days before this encounter.

When he finally paused long enough to emphasize the end of his story he looked up at Lyra. She was staring, jaw open, with wide eyes at him. She was intrigued by his story. He could not help laughing at her expression.

"Oh James! That's horrible!"

"It's not that bad." He said with an absent-minded shrug.

"Not that bad?! How can you say that?" She emphasized this by grabbing his shoulders and shaking him.

"Ok maybe it is bad but I made it through." He said with a complicated expression on his face.

Lyra could not stand this. Her heart was breaking. She looked at this scrawny little boy and wondered how he had made it through. She leaned over and gave him a big hug. And that's when he decided that he liked her.

DISCLAIMER: i do not own any characters from the His Dark Materials series...although i do seem to own James....hehehehe

Authors Note: Thank you so much for those reviews! here's the update!!! something bad is about to happen! hahahaha MOOHOOHAHA!!!