Lyra had done her own research last night, mostly on Reddit, to supplement the research she'd been doing with Rosario. To the question what do you do when you meet your birth dad for the first time Reddit had a few things to say. Lyra wanted normal-people advice, cuz like... some days it felt like the biggest thing about her and Rosario's bio-dads was their legendary status, and yeah, that was huge, but that didn't meant the simple fact that he was her dad was also huge.
They offered advice like don't have expectations and try to be friends but don't hope for more or you'll just get hurt and just get the medical history and get out and forget everything you wanted when you were a kid and other things she didn't really know how to follow. She'd closed down the tab not too long after opening it, not sure there was anyone, actually, who had the right advice for her.
Lyra didn't know how to forget what she wanted as a kid. She didn't know how to stop herself having expectations. She didn't want to get the med history and get out (though she was very fascinated in what that med history might turn out to be.) "Yeah we hug," she said, with imperfect confidence and a whole lotta nerves, cuz yeah, she wanted a hug despite all the anxieties, and 'sides, it wasn't like Rosario wasn't here to have her back if things went pear shaped.
Lyra didn't want things to go pear shaped. She stepped forward and, for an awkward second, tried to work out where her arms were supposed to go without bumping into his cuz he was doing the same thing, but then she had her arms around her father, and this'd been like, so incomprehensible this time a year ago that she couldn't stop herself breaking into a nervous laugh.