The Candle in the Window

.
.

Laxus leant up against one of the kitchen counters while he watched the steam roll off Neirah's fresh cup of tea on the adjacent one across from him. His arms were folded and tense… too tense. They'd begun to ache with the pressure rising in his body and finally, the reminder forced a heavy sigh from deep within his chest. "What're you doin'?" he rumbled bleakly to himself. He shifted an exhausted peripheral gaze towards the window at his side where the snow fell like it had since the moment he'd arrived. He didn't mind the cold; he would have just preferred it stayed outside.
.

.

Laxus ran his fingers through his hair, a dismal sigh of defeat on his lips. 'She needed me… and I let her down…' He dropped his balled fist from his head to the table, the percussive bang reverberating through tired and numbed senses. 'Why does that hurt?' His next breath trembled upon its expulsion with his next devastated breath. "I didn't figure it out soon enough…"
.

Out of the silence, his fist grew so tight that he couldn't stand it. He stood swiftly, upturning the table in the process before throwing his fist out with a furious roar of anguish. "Why the fuck can't I remember her?!" He didn't wince until after he'd realised that he'd put his fist through the wall at his side, the blood falling to the floor slowly as he kept it still.
.

"Why me…?" He forced out his words unsteadily, tipping his forehead towards the wall as he slowly removed his fist from the broken boards. "I'm not invincible," he whispered meekly. "I can't be your hero…"
.

"She was so happy just knowin' that I remembered her from all those years ago." He looked down at his feet with a gentle scoff. "Just like… how she looks at that damn book…"
.

Makarov's brow furrowed dismally as he stared at his grandson's back. There wasn't an ounce of delicacy in the man's words as he spoke them. "I don't know what has sparked between you and Neirah as of late, but it must end now."
.

Chilled didn't even begin to describe the feeling overcoming Laxus before seething rage overtook it and had his wild gaze tipping over his shoulder. "What did you just say…?"

.

"I didn't think… it was gonna be this hard…" he whispered vaguely. He slowly opened his eyes, taking her saucer up in his hand as he moved to climb the stairs towards her bedroom.

.

.
"Is something the matter Laxus?" Mirajane's soft croon sang her concern from the opposing side of their guild's bar.

.
"I'm good," he dismissed casually.

.
Mira giggled sweetly as she shuffled around her workspace. "Liar."

.
He expelled a languid sigh and tipped his lethargic gaze over his shoulder to examine the bustling guild hall. "I just don't get it. I know the old man's hidin' somethin' from me, but I can't figure out what it is."

.
"This is about Neirah, isn't it?"

.
With his own, he directed Mira's gaze to the other side of the guild where Neirah and Gajeel were good-naturedly teasing each other like siblings tended to do. "Looks like the old man doesn't trust her..."

.
"Do you?"

.
Laxus turned his dreary gaze expectantly towards Mira. "I… I don't know what to think," he murmured distantly while down-casting his gaze. "It's not like him to just freak out like that."

.
Mirajane's smile was kind as she averted her gentle gaze to her polishing, her soft smile beaming appreciation. "Neirah fought really hard to protect you when Marionette attacked," Mira assured him softly. "She didn't have to do that."

.
"I know..."

.
"Erza said she was willing to give her life for her friends that night."

.
"I… know…"

.
Mira smiled sadly with the crack in his tone. "And I heard Gajeel say that you returned the favour when Karua tried to take her back with him." She laughed softly as Neirah folded one leg over her other after taking a seat on her brother's head. "He said that if it weren't for you, he might not have seen his er… bratty little sister again."

.
"He said that huh?" Laxus murmured hopefully.

.
"Well, sort of," Mira added sheepishly. She gently scratched the side of her face with a single finger. "Right before he made a big fuss about your motives involving something about Neirah's bed."

.
"Oh come on," Laxus growled impatiently. "When have I ever-?"

.
"I know the Master doesn't trust her," Mira interrupted softly. "But as someone who's seen her give everything to protect the people she cares about, I want you to really think about what I said."

.
Laxus diverted his gaze defiantly, even if it fell right back on the controversial presence in question. "Whatever..."

.
"I mean it," she argued encouragingly upon parting. "The Master's not the only one who can see right through you."

.
He flinched with her insinuation before his expression faltered once more and he slowly turned back to where the laughing girl was chasing Natsu down from her brother's shoulders. He still couldn't wrap his head around his grandfather's logic and figure out how something so small and fragile could bring Fairy Tail's guild master so much dread. Her radiant smile beamed devote affection as her rosy cheeks rose to her sealed eyes and kissed the smoky lashes framing them. 'After all the exceptions you made, how could you turn your back on that…?'

.
He chanced to shift his impatient glare towards where his grandfather loomed nearby, unmoved as he watched the same spectacle his grandson did. Laxus quickly looked away, a curt snort articulating his disgust. Unfortunately, the seeds of doubt had already been sowed and he had inherited the same fear that welled within the blood he shared.
.

.
"I don't know if I can keep this up…" He took a deep breath before stepping into her doorway, preparing to reapply his concealment. "I brought your stupid t-"

.
"Shhh…" She interrupted him swiftly before he could conclude his sentence. He watched her flail her hand to one side in direction and he took the hint to leave her tea on the nightstand.

.
He reclaimed his seat at her bedside, watching her furrowed expression from behind her Wind Reader glasses. It was strange to see her with her nose stuck in a book, but strangely, he thought the determined scrunch in her delicate expression was kind of cute.

.
Obediently, he remained silent until she expelled a languid sigh and laid her book back across her lap. It had given him a chance to guiltlessly indulge in her presence, learning all her involuntary ticks. It was something he had always taken enjoyment in, no matter how secretly; from the way she nibbled the polish off of her right index fingernail to the way she rolled her ankles from side to side beneath her bed sheets. It was becoming all about the 'little' things...

.
"I don't suppose you know any words that rhyme with shra'celia?" she unintentionally interrupted.

.
Laxus blinked back at her expectantly, trying to hide the flush in his guilty features that might stir her suspicion. "Yea, I'll just scan my ancient library of known demon words and get back to you," he teased dryly.

.
She didn't take insult. "You know, for what they consider a demon langue, it's actually really pretty," she mused. She slipped her glasses off to nibble on the frame. "Even Levy said so."

.
"Well, she is kinda the freak-speak authority around here."

.
Neirah winced lightly, one of her eyes falling closed with the sting climbing up her hip as she reapplied her glasses. "Yea, she kind of is, isn't she?" she outwardly mused. She climbed to her knees on her bed and approached him. "See?" She ignored his bewildered expression as she laid her book in front of him and guided his gaze with her fingertip. He at least put effort into appearing like he was paying attention to her lesson. "It's written in verse, kind of like poetry."

.
"You don't say…"

.
She smiled back at him despite his lack of interest as she slipped her glasses from the bridge of her nose. "Yep. The only way to make a dragon beheading sound romantic." She plopped back down by her headboard and laid her glasses against her nightstand.

.
Laxus watched her adjust and take a sip of her tea, concealing her pained hiss behind the excuse of her tea's temperature. Unfortunately, he'd know it had cooled because he had lingered so long in thought just watching the steam rise that it couldn't be that hot anymore. "You know, if you spent as much time picking a team for your S-Class missions as you do acting tough, we'd have less of these moments."

.
"I don't mind these moments," she chimed out joyously. She hugged her mug with a gentle smile as he shifted his suspicious gaze her way. "It's not every day Fairy Tail's mighty Laxus Dreyar brings me my tea."

.
"It's also not every day that you narrowly escape death by his hand either…"

.
"Wha was that?"

.
"Nothing," he muttered silently.

.
Her tone mellowed modestly. "I'm just saying… it's nice seeing a softer side to you. It's like you're actually human after all."

.
He turned his bashful pout away with an irritated grunt. "Gee thanks…" Desperate to change the subject, he quickly followed her motion to the book she'd laid back on her nightstand. "So, what does shra sella mean?"

.
"Shra'celia," she teased. "It's an expression of some sort of affection." She smiled back at him with his concern, like the subject made him even more uncomfortable than his humanity. "I'm trying to read the part where my mother started to have feelings for my father," she assured him. "But of course, she'd never actually say that she loved someone so I have to try and decipher all these lengthy synonyms. I'm stuck somewhere between the connotation of 'I love your eyes' and 'I love the sight of your blood on my hands'." Neirah melodically laughed with thoughts of what her mother might've been like when she was her age. "She's kind of a hot head."

.
Laxus caught himself smiling with her statement. "Well, y'know what they say about the apple and the tree."

.
"My brother says that the only good apple is an apple in his belly."

.
Laxus paled with the swiftness of Neirah's swing and miss. "Yea, I don't really think we're on the same page with apple analogies, little lightning."

.
"It's kind of ironic… Karua took me away at birth and raised me in the same Austalian cult my mother was trapped in," she continued solemnly. "She was a priestess; if you can believe that… Forced to worship a deity that she never believed in."

.
"So she was a little rebel just like her kid, huh?"

.
Neirah's cheeks warmed with the thought. "I guess so…" She swished her tea around in her cup and watched the bits of leaf dust at the bottom swirl into the liquid. "I guess this guy she met didn't really believe either. I'm really excited to translate more because I feel like somewhere in this book, lies my father's identity. He might… even still be out there… Somewhere." She turned and looked at him with an excited gleam in her eyes. "Whoever he was, he sure knew a lot about Ryverika."

.
Laxus followed her gaze to where she had spread some of her drawings out over the bed, knowing full well that they used to be across the room. "I told you to stay," he scolded.

.
Her cheek coloured guiltily. "I know… but when I read about Ryverika, it makes me want to see him again really bad." She groaned and started flipping through some of her illustrations of the dragon. "Here, come take a look."

.
There was that look again and a smile that lit the room.

.
Laxus leant over her bedside and examined some of the drawings on her comforter intently. "So that's what the old lizard looked like?"

.
Neirah smiled warmly and brushed her fingertips over the oiled surfaces. "More or less," she purred proudly. "His wings were really transparent though and it's kinda hard for me to paint." She laughed out loud in reminiscence. "It was even harder to hide on him there as a child. He busted me a couple times for that…"

.
He watched the solemn look of longing stain her expression even as she tried to remain spirited. "He really meant a lot to you, huh…?" Laxus murmured softly. He then took it upon himself to peek at some of the more mysterious images of the dragon.

.
"He was like a father to me." She whispered longing through her sad smile. "But I'm sure you've been bored with endless versions of this story by Natsu over the years. We all seem to be in the same sinking ship."

.
"Yea..." Laxus trailed off vacantly. "But strange as it is, it sounds way better comin' from you." He looked back at her wryly. "I don't wanna punch you in the face every time you bring it up."

.
Neirah laughed with his effort. "Well, that's a relief!" she brayed intently. "I don't know if I'd survive a Sparky super punch!"

.
Laxus cocked a brow with the twitch in his head as he returned to browsing her art. "Natsu has all these years, and anythin' he can do I'm sure infinity can do better." He rotated one of her pictures a hundred and eighty degrees in observance. "He always just… made it sound like it was somethin' to brag about… How great his damn dad was…"

.
When realisation struck her astonished expression, Neirah bowed her head solemnly and fiddled with her fingers in her lap. "That's right... I had heard you and your dad don't have the best relationship..."

.
"Tsk..." He turned away with his disgruntled scoff, distancing himself from the thought. "I know you were still in the hospital for most of the grand magic games, but I'd say you heard right." He expelled a heavy exhale, realising that he may have quipped a little too brashly against her remark. "Look at it this way; remember that old creep with Marionette pretending to be your dad? Yea well... our relationship's kinda like that," he grumbled softly. He adjusted his tone to make it sound less like her fault for even broaching the subject. "'Cept neither of us has managed to kill the other yet…"

.
Neirah found herself reaching her hand out to him for comfort, but before it could connect with his skin while his attention was diverted, she quickly drew it back to her chest with a disappointed sigh. "I never really thanked you for what you did for me when Karua came to take me away," she whispered gently. She couldn't help but refuse to meet his gaze when he redirected it her way. "I was reckless. You and the others worked really hard to bring me home..."

.
"Yea, well it's just what we seem to do around here," he dismissed casually.

.
Neirah smiled sadly, refusing to shy away from the situation any longer. "Remember what I told you when we first re-met?"

.
He cocked a brow and grinned with her insinuation. "Is that what we're callin' that?"

.
"Got a better suggestion, Sparky?"

.
"Nope, go on."

.
She continued with a grateful smile on her features. "Dark times find us all, but if it weren't for them, we'd have nothing to shine through," she assured him gently. "It's Fairy Tail's light that saw this Shadow home... and I'm really grateful for the role you played in that."

.
"It was nothing..."

.
That time, she did reach out and lay her hand against his forearm with a stern expression on her tender features. "Not to me, it wasn't..." The two of them shared a brief moment of connection before the confidence in their eyes fizzled out and she retracted her hand awkwardly.

.
"You're welcome, I guess," he murmured nervously.

.
Neirah's hands started to fidget restlessly in her lap as she meditated on her thoughts. "Maybe, to some extent, I'm delirious from the blood loss and cold but... I don't think Fairy Tail is the reason you always seem to be there when I need you," she whispered faintly. She timidly contemplated every word she spoke before it escaped her. "If I didn't know any better," she delicately pried. "I might almost suggest that you were looking out for me."
.

Laxus was swift with his response, his resolve notably unshaken. "I think your brother does enough of that for the entire guild but if you're takin' applications for his replacement, I got nothin' better to do," he assured her quietly. "But right now? I'm just a guy that finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time..."
.

"All the time," she corrected surely. "And I think your feet see you there more often than you'd care to admit." She ignored the pounding of her heart in her chest as he looked back at her like a child who'd just been caught sneaking money out of his mom's purse. It was a look she could have never consciously imagined on his hard features. "You don't have to hide anything for my sake," she whispered gently. "I'm not the type of girl to just go falling head over heels for the hero. You know... the apple and the tree?" Her spirited tease was followed by a reassuring snicker to soften the confrontation. "If you want to tell me I'm a reckless and clumsy kid, you don't have to be worried. I'm still going to think that you're... pretty great."
.

Laxus stared into the flicker of the candle burning on the window ledge, trying his hardest not to linger too close to her sentiment. 'She must have lit it because she was cold.' But as he watched countless snowflakes fall, he could offer a reason for each of them to explain why he shouldn't be next to her that night. The only problem was the candle, melting away every one of them before they could bury the last panel of his defence. "I can't-" He exhaled swiftly, not sure how to approach the situation. He didn't know why his grandfather's warning weighed so heavily in his chest, but it did. It was crippling him with doubt.
.

Neirah tried to draw her legs to her chest but caught a disdainful squeal behind her lips before adjusting herself to better accommodate the lash in her thigh. Noticing that the denial of her pain had attracted Laxus' attention, she clumsily brought up what was on her mind, no matter how inept the expulsion of her jumbled thoughts may come off as; anything to keep him from realising that she was in pain. "If you're worried about the Master, I understand," she whispered tenderly. For a long, guilty, moment, she just watched the warm candlelight break the waves of the sheets draped over her lower half. "I've been nothing but trouble since the day I showed up."
.

"That's not true," he defended strictly.
.

"It is," she argued as her gaze dropped with anguish. "Maybe if I just knew... a little more about my past…" She turned her wary gaze to her mother's journal as if its secrets would leap from the cover with the mere expulsion of her determination. "I could stop dragging the rest of you into my problems."
.

"Look, I don't see it that way," Laxus quipped back impatiently. His correction came swiftly. "None of us do. I've been in this guild my whole life and I've seen trouble ten times worse than you come and go. Hell, I was one of them."
.

Neirah flinched with his display of passion towards her defence, the tips of her ears warming with her travelling thoughts.
.

"Your brother wrecked up the place because of that celestial wizard girl-"
.

"Lucy?"
.

"Not important!" He dismissed her interruption edgily in place of his fierce command. "You had one nasty run-in with some creepy cult fanatics and you've been raking your name through the dirt for months. It's really pissin' me off."
.

Neirah recoiled uncertainly, diverting her gaze in apology. "I'm sorry-"
.

"And that's another thing." He was well on a roll to release what he'd been keeping inside. "Why are you always apologising? For everything. Even when it's not your fault." She simply remained silent, utterly astounded with his fervour and without a clue how to respond. "I don't know what that idiot of a brother did to bring you up like this, but I'm gettin' a little sick of bein' the only one who believes in you."
.

Neirah's whole face flushed with the words he'd offered her.
.

.

Laxus recoiled with Gajeel's strike before the iron dragon's sword became a lightning rod. "I thought I told you to stay down!"
.

"How can you just let your partner crash and burn like that!?" Gajeel raged through his pain. "This ain't two separate fights! And you don't seem to give a damn what happens to her!"
.

Laxus' gaze flashed as he threw his elbow into Gajeel's gut, winding the defiant man despite his struggle. He threw his leg into his side and beat him across the street with a brutal expulsion of electrical energy. "I don't have to," he snarled bitterly. With an impatient snort, he watched a struggling Gajeel collapse against the ground once more. "And neither do you."
.

Gajeel's gaze flashed defiantly as he glared up at the man who refused to help his ally. "You're such a scumbag," he hissed weakly. "I hope you know that."
.

"Yea well I'm not the one who's holdin' onto a memory," Laxus rumbled derivatively. "Look," he reasoned while watching Neirah struggle to her feet. "She's not a kid anymore. The sooner you realise that; the sooner she stops struggling to prove herself to you."
.

Neirah's ears rang with her own pained whimpers as she made it to her feet and threw her head back. She ground her molars together, fighting furious tears as Kairyn's voice echoed in her rattled mind.
.

"Come on Shads… you're kinda taking this a little too seriously," Natsu murmured softly. "Just let it go. No biggy. Maybe you'll win the next one."
.

"You don't get it!"
.

Natsu flinched at the swell of passion in her tone.
.

"This isn't as simple as winning… or losing…" Neirah whimpered softly, flexing her aching fists at her sides. "If I can't beat you… if I can't beat my big brother… How can I expect to beat the people that you can't?!"
.

"Uh… I just came here to fight," Natsu mewled distantly as he gave his jaw a humbled scratch.
.

"I can't!" she roared in answer. The intensity of her emotion forced Natsu to fall back a step with the flash in her golden eyes. "If someone is strong enough to threaten my friends, I need to be stronger than them to protect you! If I'm weaker than you then I'm useless!"
.

"Hey, I never said-"
.

Neirah's eyes flashed hot with amber flecks and her determined cry was piercing; causing the crowd to recoil with her sudden fit of determination. "Oh man! Did I miss something?!" Lucy whimpered with intimidation in her shuddering tone.
.

Gajeel grunted as Laxus kicked him in the ribs for encouragement, picking his head up out of the dirt with the tense palm on the back of the man's head. "You should watch this," he rumbled darkly. "You're about to get a taste of your baby sister's power."

.

"You spend all this time trying to be strong in everyone else's eyes, but what about your own?" Laxus reasoned. He couldn't help but drag her back into the reality they shared. "I saw it the first day you stood against me, I see it now." He lowered his tone realising that he may have talked himself into a corner unexpectedly. "The only one you should be apologising to is yourself for not believing in you."
.

.

She didn't know why she was acting strangely as she approached the sola tree in the centre of the park, but she was. Her heart was racing and her hands fidgeting in the fabric of her hood; a presence that had always been capable of making her feel comfortable before. She saw him standing alone by the base of the tree, his attention diverted across the park in the opposite direction of her approach. She tipped her gaze briefly in the direction of the setting sun, inhaling deeply like it might have given her confidence.
.

When she turned to face him again, he was looking back at her and she couldn't explain the feeling that washed over her. She wanted to sink into the shadows and retreat, but she had made the bet and he had delivered her to victory in their battle against Natsu and Gajeel despite her inadequacies. She couldn't turn back… she didn't want to.
.

She tried her best to act naturally as she made her way towards him, a casual smile on her lips. "I was starting to think you'd forgotten about our deal," she mused in trying to spark up the rivalry that she had always comforted in hiding her feelings behind. "Silly me for thinking I'd be so lucky."
.

He offered her a rather gentle smile as he spoke. "Glad to see our little brawl didn't damage that snarky attitude of yours. That would've been disappointing." He sighed, turning away from her as if their encounter was somehow uncomfortable. "How're you feelin'? Heard your brother gave you quite a beat down after the fact."
.

Her breath caught timidly with distress as she diverted her attention sheepishly to her toes. "Yea he was pretty mad… but I told him that he'd just have to get over it." She couldn't explain the ache in her chest as he turned and offered her a familiar expression, one filled with loneliness. "But… a deal's a deal... right?"
.

"You know he's just trying to be a good brother," he started slowly.
.

"I… well yea I guess but…"
.

"And it's not his fault that he lives to protect you. It's all the idiot's good at." She caught her breath as she looked back up at him with a dismayed expression. "It doesn't matter how old you are or how strong you get… You're always gonna be his baby sister. You don't have anythin' to prove to him."
.

"Why… are you telling me this…?" Neirah whimpered softly from behind glossing eyes, the feeling of tears gathering in the back of her throat and choking her gentle voice as he turned and looked her way with a deceitful smile.
.

"'Cause I think he's had enough harassment today, don't you?"
.

Neirah's expression trembled for a long moment before she lowered her gaze beneath the brim of her hood. "O-oh well… I suppose," she stuttered out delicately. "Then you're done with me?" Her gentle inquiry forced him to look her way with the desperate catch in her voice. "Because if you are… I'd… I would really like to go home now…"
.

His brow creased miserably as he tried to remain casual despite her not doing a really great job at hiding her tears. "Sure thing, little lightning." He offered encouragement, smiling down at her kindly. "We'll pick it back up tomorrow."
.

She didn't hide her tears as she looked up into the warmth that came to his expression when he called her by her silly pet name; and upon seeing him smile, she did the same.
.

"S-sure," she offered weakly. She felt her feet drag as she turned to start back home, whispering under her breath. "Whatever you say, Sparky…"

.

It hadn't really hurt her since that day; the day she learned about love and heartache in a matter of hours. But to her dismay, she was feeling it all over again. She cleared away the catch she'd felt choking her words as she adjusted her covers higher over her hips. "You know… my-" She cleared her throat a second time, her reserve shaking with reminiscence. "I'm sure my brother will be here any minute," she whispered meekly. The sudden shift in her demeanour caused Laxus to catch his breath with the force of regret making him eat his words. "It's late… and he did 'drag you out of bed'," she teased with a soft, lonely smile. "Don't worry, I promise I'll do what you said and stay put."
.

It was why he couldn't stay close to her, on any occasion; that disappointed smile. It had less to do with his grandfather's warning. But that smile, it was different from the one she displayed when she was reading her mother's journal, going through her paintings or even talking about her ill-tempered brother. That delighted beam on her face with that iridescent glow of joy smiling radiant beauty, it was there for everyone but him. "Yea," he murmured softly. He slowly climbed to his feet. "It is gettin' pretty late."

.
Neirah laughed feebly to cover her heartache. "I already offered you a get-out-of-babysitting-free card, Sparky. You don't need to make more excuses," she sassed. "I'll be fine…"

.
Laxus bowed his head and laid his hand against his coat that was draped over the back of the chair he'd set up next to her bedside. "Well, it's hard to argue with a night of uninterrupted sleep," he teased bleakly. He dragged his coat from the chair back with nowhere near the enthusiasm he'd tried to portray in his remark.

.
"Sorry again for being such a bother."

.
"If nothing else, can you at least stop apologising to me?"

.
Their gazes locked for another long, silent moment as they conversed beyond words. Finally, Neirah smiled back at him bashfully before nodding gently in agreement. "Let me try it this way then; thanks for not leaving me in a snow bank… or the canal."

.
"Or the fountain down by the beach."

.
"When was I in the fountain down by the beach?"

.
"You get drunk really easily…"

.
Her cheeks ignited with a tender flush of colour as her genuinely dismayed smile flashed his way. "Fair enough," she crooned with a warm laugh. "Then I guess thanks for that too."

.
He turned to offer her a parting grin. "Yea… no problem."

.

.
The click of her front door closing behind him was hollow, or maybe he was just far too vacant to process the sound clearly. He held onto the cool metal much longer than his palm would have liked before releasing it to stuff his hands deep into his pockets with a disdainful sigh.

.
Sinking back into reality, he turned and looked out into the shadows of the street around him; still and silent. Her brother was nowhere in sight. He took a couple of steps into the street, the wet snow crunching beneath his shoes. "It's not… what I wanted to say," he whispered disdainfully. Nothing but the pale cloud of condensation forming in front of his lips acknowledged that the words were ever spoken. He bowed his head with an exhausted sigh. "Damn it…"

.
He turned and stared up into the dim light flickering behind the glass of her bedroom window. Like before, he could name a reason for every fluffy snowflake to fall that he should turn and make tracks until he was at his own doorstep. His brow creased as he looked up into the warm flicker breaking the bleak and desolate landscape around him.

.
But he'd only needed one to stay.