A/N: Ik this is soooooo late. I'm sorry, it's christmas and there's toooo much fromage to eat. A big thank you to je suis dementia for distracting me and to Merlyn101 for being a devoted friend. Anyway, here's Lyra and Will, for New Year's Eve. So yeah... Papaya is going to crawl into a hole while you judge this pathetic piece of fluff. Bye! :)

Lyra held a broken Will in her arms. She could never have imagined her brave and brilliant Will so lost, but that was the sad truth. One can only take so much before they crack. He had already gone through a lot, with his mother and those mean people who teased her, with his fight for the knife, dealing with the pain of losing two fingers. Was it really to much to ask to be reunited with your dad?

The atmosphere was silent, a bird of some sort hooted. Lyra rubbed circles on Will's back, both of them crouching in the shade of a rugged facade.

When Will had started walking off to the mountain pass to look for his father, Lyra had been asleep. But she had soon woken up. She woke up to find the place he was sleeping empty. Panicked, she had asked the alethiometer where he was. She remembered rushing doggedly up the rocky terrain. And then she heard it. A terrible shout filled her ears, a voice crying "NO!" And the worst thing was that it was Will's voice. Her Will, in trouble. She rushed of immediately in the direction of the shout. But she was too late. She saw him, crouching over a body, shaking. It took her a while to realise that it was a dead body, and that Will was crying. "Will?" The strangled question left her throat, but he hadn't heard her. She walked a little closer, her heartbeat picking up. "Will. Will what's wrong, it's me." She had touched his shoulder and turned him around to face her. "What is it?" His bloodshot eyes took a while to register the fact that Lyra was in front of him, and asking him a question.

"M-my father. My father." He stammered. His eyes were wetting up with tears yet again. Lyra looked over his shoulder at the dead body. So that was his father? What had happened to him? But Lyra was more preoccupied with the mess of tears in front of her. Without giving it a second thought, she protectively wrapped her arms around her dearest friend.

Will tucked his head into the crook of her neck, and Lyra felt her heart genuinely ache as she felt his body tremble under her arms. "Shhhh... Will, I know it hurts. But you've got to tell me what's happened, otherwise the only thing I can do is sit here and hold you."

Will looked at Lyra, his eyes wide and haunted. It was a look she'd never seen on his face, and it was a look she never wanted on his face again. "I - he -" He paused. "The witch. She shot him. She shot him." He just carried on repeating that hurriedly, his sound muffled by Lyra's shirt.

"Did you get to talk to him?" Pan asked. "What did he say? What witch?" Lyra silently told Pan to shut up. Will already had enough on his mind.

"I - I did." Will shakily replied to Lyra's surprise. "That was the worst part. I got to talk to him, and before I knew it, he had to leave me." His gaze locked onto Lyra's. "He promised me Lyra, he promised. He promised that once this was all over, we'd go back, we'd be with mum, everything would be alright." A sort of wild rage contorted his features. "But nothing's alright, is it? Either everyone lets me down, or I let everyone down."

Lyra stroked his hair, choking back the painful lump in her throat. She couldn't cry in front of him. Not now. "You haven't let me down. You hear me? Not ever." She spoke urgently, looking so deep into his warm brown eyes that she felt she was sinking. It felt intoxicating and scary at the same time. "None on this is your fault." She stressed every syllable.

She had both her hands on Will's shoulders, and she was so close to him that his nose touched her forehead. Will leaned forward and placed a kiss on Lyra's forehead. Lyra felt her insides do a somersault. Of course people had kissed her face before, but the fact that it was Will... His lips still hadn't left her skin.

"Thank you." He murmured. Lyra gulped as she felt his warm breath tickle her. He drew back to look at her properly, with a smile on his face. A smile that told her all would be fine despite how topsy turvy everything seemed. She couldn't help but respond in the same way.

"Thank you." He said again.

"You know..." Lyra began in order to fill the welcome silence. "Everything Pan said on the hill, about you being my best friend, and everything you said, it left me thinking. I've felt myself changing."

"And the more she changes the less I do." Pan added.

"I don't know if you know what I mean, but I'm feeling older. I used to never want that. Now I want it more than anything."

"You think Pan might settle soon?" Asked Will, not unfamiliar with the concept because Lyra had talked to him about it before. She nodded. "What do you reckon he'll settle as."

Lyra didn't say anything for a while, but he could see she was thinking. The way her forehead crinkled and the way she bit her lip. He'd seen it so many times. She looked so determined at times, it made him want to back down for fear of her ferocity, but it also fascinated him. A lot of things about Lyra fascinated him.

"A flea I hope." Pan said eventually. "That way we can go into your world without me having to hide in a rucksack." This earned a chuckle from Will. Lyra giggled too.

"Well... Kidding aside. I don't know. Maybe a bird. After all the gyptians said I had witch-oil in my soul. But Pan thinks he'll be a smaller creature, like a beaver or something. Personally, I think that's a bit boring."

She looked at Will in an odd way. It felt like she was inspecting him. "Will, if you could see your Daemon, what do you think she'd settle as?"

It was a good question, and it left Will pondering. "Probably something that looked ordinary." He said after a while. "I dunno, like a cat or a dog. Something that blends in. I don't like being noticed. Maybe my Daemon wouldn't either."

Lyra shook her head. "I'm not sure. I mean you probably know yourself better than I do, but I think she'd settle as something brave and fierce, something good and honest. Like a lioness maybe. Cos that's what you are. A brave honest person. Anyone would be lucky to have you care for them."

Will felt his cheeks heat up. Almost to return the favour, he said, "Well you must be calling yourself a very lucky person in that case. I know I said this to Pan last night, but I'll say it again. You're the best friend I've ever had."

Lyra had to look away to hide her blush. She opened her mouth to say something, but faltered.

"Why do you feel like you're changing all of a sudden?" Will asked, curious to know the answer.

"It's not all of a sudden, it's been gradually coming on." Pan started. "Yeah. I suppose it's just the whole fact that I can't mess around any more. Before, me an' Roger could just run wherever we wanted, on the roofs even. I didn't care about the fact that if I'd slip the fall could possibly be fatal. But I've made the same mistake too many times, being reckless." She stopped for a second, moving slightly away from him, and Will thought she was waiting for him to speak. But than she carried on. "And there's you as well I suppose. Pan thinks you're the main reason I'm changing." Lyra felt her body visibly tense as she talked. Just to say the next word was a battle, between embarrassment and the want to speak out.

"M-me?" Will spluttered. "But how, and why?"

"Well for starters, your whole grown-upness has rubbed onto me. Do you think that before I met you, I was the sort of person to pay for a random bottle that a random girl shoved in my hands? No."

Will nodded, but he was perceptive enough to know that this wasn't the real reason.

"There's more." Pan said.

"Yes." Lyra carried on for him. "I don't know how to explain it. I've had a best friend before. I know what it feels like to be best friends. And sure, I share that with you too." She bit her lower lip and played with the hem of her shirt. Her eyes looked back up at him, distractedly. There was almost an air of agony to the awkwardness. Her gaze fixed determinedly on his.

"I can't describe it. I can't put it in words." With every word it seemed her gaze lowered till it fixated on his lips. She studied them, almost memorising every crack and swell. It gave her a giddy feeling. The same feeling she felt when she was sinking in his eyes. Scary and intoxicating. Pan warbled nervously, his footing unsure. He gradually crawled towards Will. Will knew what she meant. Despite her not having said a word he knew exactly what she meant. It left him exhilarated. He grabbed her jacket and pulled her close. It took one desperate look from Lyra to tell Will what he needed to do.

In one moment his lips were on hers. It wasn't rushed, it wasn't slow either. But it was still a kiss. His mind was blank. But she returned it and that made him feel more alive than ever. Every single sense of his was amplified, he was painfully aware of the softness of her lips, every single heartbeat, the way her hands clutched onto his hoodie. And he relished it. He didn't care about the fact that he had no idea what he was doing. Lyra was here kissing him, and that was all that mattered.

They broke apart, breathless yet delighted.

"I have the words." Will said. "I love you."

Lyra knew then that she would never let anyone else touch her heart. "I love you too. I love you with every nerve and fibre of my soul and body. I've loved you since the first moment."

Will was almost at a loss of words. But who needed words? He leaned in and kissed her again, savouring the taste of her lips.

Then he quizzicallly raised an eyebrow. "So you claim you were in love with me when we first met and you attempted to murder me?"

In reply, Lyra lifted her very heavy rucksack and bashed him over the head.

-THE END-