Chapter Text
⟡⟡
They end up at a bar and grill not too far from the shop. It’s nice, not too swelteringly hot, and they’re sat on the patio overlooking the lake a few yards off. It’s a beautiful view but the entirety of Adora’s focus in on the woman sat across the table from her.
Catra is so pretty. Like seriously, Adora has got to have the prettiest soulmate in the world. Her cute little freckles alone, gah! She’s been studying the menu for a few minutes now and Adora just can’t seem to stop marveling at her. It blows her mind just how cool Catra’s been about the whole ‘you’re my soulmate and I didn’t say for the better part of two months’ thing. Naturally there’s been a bit of a giggling awkwardness between them since they left Greyskull and made their way to the restaurant. Still-
“I can feel you watching me you know.”
Adora starts, registering the smirk that has slowly unfurled along Catra’s lips. “Sorry.” She tells her bashfully.
Catra’s eyes flick up, looking Adora up and down. “It’s fine, stare if you want. I know I’m hot.” Adora fights the instinct to fan her own cheeks at the sheer confidence rolling off Catra in waves. “Might wanna look at your menu before the waitress comes back though.”
“Right.” Adora says, making no move to break her gaze or open her menu.
Her inaction earns her a roll of Catra’s eyes. “You’re an idiot.”
She props her chin on her hand and smiles across the table. “Yeah, I know.”
“Your menu, Adora. I’m hungry, I don’t wanna have to ask for more time when she gets back here because you have no self-control.”
Adora laughs and tears her eyes away with herculean effort. As she does so, she can’t resists teasingly murmuring, “Your fault for being so cute.”
“An idiot.” Catra volleys back. “And I am not cute.” Adora doesn’t bother rebutting. She’s pretty hungry too truth be told. Her focus pays off and she’s able to choose something in time for the waitress’ return. They place their order and the moment she walks away Adora is back to staring.
“So…”
Catra looks amused. “Yes?”
Adora props her chin up again and drums the fingers on her other hand on the table. “Soulmates.”
Catra presses her lips together, pinching a laugh between them. “Mm hm?”
“Us.”
“Adora?”
“Yes?”
“You going somewhere here or just rambling?”
The gentle ribbing makes her laugh. “I’m not sure. I feel like I should be. Guess I’m just curious…what you think?”
“About our being soulmates.”
“Duh Catra.”
“Shut up!” she laughs. “To answer your question, I don’t know, Adora. I mean, you know I’m into you.”
Adora can’t possibly let that pass without comment. “You’re into me?” she verifies with a waggle to her brows.
Catra is only so amused. Or at least, she makes a weak attempt to appear unamused. “I asked you on a date, Adora.”
“Yeah, but you never did call.”
“You were being all weird!”
“Hm, was I? I don’t recall…”
Catra snorts. “Shut up.”
“Anyway, you were saying. You know, about how you’re into me and all.”
“Starting to think I should take that back.”
“Ooh…” Adora sucks her teeth and winces theatrically. “No take backs, sorry.”
“Adora.” She chides around a smile.
“What? I don’t make the rules.”
Catra crosses her arms and leans back in her chair, resting her right ankle on the opposite knee. “So, what do you think of all this? The whole-“ she uncrosses her arms to gesture vaguely at nothing. “soulmate thing.”
“I-“ Adora’s curious if her cheeks would feel as warm against her fingers as she thinks they would. She resists the urge to check. “Good.”
“Good?” Catra checks, an even mix of humor and doubt in her voice.
“Yeah huh.” She takes a gulp of her water.
“Adora, come on. That’s not a fully formed thought. Don’t ask a question you’re not willing to answer.”
She winces because like, that’s such a fair rule. She blurts out her answer. “It’s really weird, okay?”
Catra looks taken aback. “Oh. Weird.”
Adora scrambles to clarify, going so far as to lean slightly over the table. “Just-it’s a surprise first of all. Like, only so many people find their soulmates under normal circumstances and add to that the whole marker thing…. I never really counted on finding you is all.”
Catra softens and Adora follows suit. She hadn’t registered the tightness in her chest until she felt it release. “Makes sense, I never did either.” Adora shoots her a grateful smile, then hesitates. Catra doesn’t miss it. “There’s something else.”
It’s not a question. “Maybe.”
“You gonna share with the class?”
“I don’t want to freak you out.”
Catra laughs a bit darkly and tips her head back and up to the sky. When she looks back, she levels Adora with a look. “Listen, I gave you a pass on keeping this whole not telling me we’re soulmates for weeks thing, okay? Even though all you left me with was ‘I can’t’ and ‘it’s complicated’.”
“Catra…” She holds up a hand to stay the interruption.
“I’m not down with this becoming like, a thing though. If we’re gonna explore this, no cryptic shit. Lies of omission are still lies, Adora.” Adora purses her lips and twists them to the side, warring internally. “Adora?”
“Right, yeah, totally fair. Sorry, I’m just trying to figure out how exactly-“
“For shit’s sake, Adora! Just say whatever it is you-“
“I’m in love with you!” She rushes out. Immediately, Catra’s eyes go wide. “Look, look, okay, I know. I know! If a woman ever told me she loved me on a first date I would-shit, run for the hills? It’s totally bonkers. But, well, extenuating circumstances?”
Catra clears her throat, looking no less caught off guard, and asks, “Extenuating circumstances?”
Adora scratches a phantom itch on the back of her neck. “I…I made a soul connection with you, Catra. I know…I know we still don’t know each other that well but I know you-your soul. And now I just want to know everything else. If that’s okay.”
Catra’s smiling, a hint of mischief in her eyes. That’s a good sign, right? “Of course, it’s okay, dummy.” Okay, yeah, definitely a good sign. But then…the smile falls. “You know…you know I can’t say it back right now, right?”
Adora actually rolls her eyes at that. “And I’m the dummy?” Catra scoffs but visibly relaxes. “Of course I don’t expect you to say it back right now. And I don’t want to make you uncomfortable here. I’m not gonna be like, all up in your face and overly effusive or something. I like you, Catra-“
“You like me? How embarrassing for you.”
Adora points an accusatory finger in her face. “Hey, don’t start stealing my jokes there, babe.” Catra raises her eyebrows at the term of endearment but leaves it alone. “As I was saying, I like you, Catra.”
“See and here I thought you loved me.” She teases.
“You’re insufferable, are you gonna let me finish my sentence or not?”
Catra fakes a pout. “You’re no fun. Whatever, what were you saying?”
Adora huffs around a smile. “I wanna date you, and I want to see where this goes. But I don’t want the whole soulmate thing to color this.”
“Well, that’s stupid.”
“Wha-what?” That was so not the reaction she was expecting.
“Come on, Adora. What? Are we just gonna pretend like we don’t know we’re soulmates? Like you haven’t seen and apparently fallen in love with my soul?”
“That’s not what I meant! I just don’t want there to be pressure…”
She rolls her eyes. “Of course my soulmate would be an overthinker.”
“Hey!”
She raises an eyebrow in challenge. “Am I wrong? Remind me again how long it took you to fess up about our mark.”
Catra calling it their mark really distracts Adora from the rest of her point for a moment. “Okay, you may have a little, tiny bit of a point. You get what I mean though, don’t you?”
She sighs and smiles kindly. “I get it.” Any further response is cut off by the arrival of their food. They thank their server and settle in. Adora digs right in but Catra hesitates, causing Adora to pause with her fry halfway to her mouth. “Adora?”
“Yeah?”
She doesn’t speak at first, so long Adora decides to just go for it with her fry. She’s washing it down with a drink of water when Catra finally speaks up. “Do you remember that night at the shop?”
She doesn’t need to ask for clarification. “I remember.”
“I told you I have this feeling…”
“You never said what it was.”
“It’s…it’s a big feeling. I don’t really know how to describe it.”
“Intuition?”
She nods. “I think so.” She reaches across the table to take one of Adora’s hands. She squeezes once. “I don’t think there’s any ignoring the pressure. If I manage to fuck things up with my soulmate whose already in love with me…”
Adora frowns, this is exactly what she didn’t want. “Who says you’d be the one to fuck it up?”
She shrugs and pulls her hand back. Adora regrets making the comment to instigate that. “That’s really neither here nor there. All I’m saying is…well, it feels like I have something to lose here is all.”
Adora melts entirely. “Yeah, yeah me too.”
Catra sits up properly and picks up her fork. “Weirdest first date ever.”
It makes her laugh and effectively breaks the tension of the moment. “Oh please, this isn’t even in my top five.”
Catra laughs. “Okay, well now I’m gonna need a countdown.”
Adora shakes her head, smiling fondly, and indulges her. And yeah, this date might not make it into Adora’s top five weirdest dates, but it definitely makes it into the top five best. She has a nagging feeling that Catra’s gonna take all five of those slots in no time.
In the end, it takes Catra two months to return Adora’s sentiment. Adora herself doesn’t say it often but she has no doubt that Catra knows. Mostly because she teases Adora about it often. Nothing hurtful, usually it’s as a lighthearted reprimand when Adora gives her shit. (“Is this how you treat the woman you claim to love?”)
By two months in they are well into U-Hauling. At least, that’s what Adora considers it. Catra says hanging out a lot when they work three steps away from each other and she lives right upstairs isn’t the same thing. Usually a smirk and a short, “Yes dear.” is enough to make Catra roll her eyes and move onto a new topic.
Whatever you want to call it, they’re spending a lot of time together. Adora usually swings by the apartment before or after work, if she doesn’t just wake up there-but that’s a fairly recent development.
The night before Catra says it, they lay with their legs tangled and heads together. Just minutes before, as Adora slowly returned to earth, Catra was sat cross legged at the end of the bed and had Adora’s foot in her hand. She pressed lingering kisses reverently along their mark on her ankle. Adora watched for several minutes, mind and body nearly ready to shoot out into the ether once more, before she could resist the temptation to have Catra closer no longer.
“Hi.” She whispers once Catra is settled.
“Hey hottie.”
Adora scoffs. “Me hottie? You-you’re the,” Catra makes her smug little face of amusement. “…you’re hot.”
Catra laughs at her and pulls her somehow closer without breaking eye contact. “Don’t hurt yourself there, babe.”
“Hm...okay.” Adora sighs contentedly and snuggles her head under Catra’s chin. “Thank you. I love you.”
The sudden stiffening of Catra’s posture makes her heart seize. It’s a new reaction to I love you. Typically, she smiles fondly and tells Adora she’s an idiot. Other times she pulls her in for a kiss and tells her, “You’re alright as far as soulmates go, you know that?” Her displays of affection are always coated in a layer of sarcasm and self-preservation but they’re constant and Adora hears them loud and clear.
So, for her to not respond at all…. Well, she does. Eventually. “You don’t have to thank me, dummy.”
Evidently, they’re just going to ignore whatever happened. Adora tilts her head to kiss Catra’s jaw. She teases, “But I appreciate it.”
“Whatever. Just repay the favor sometime.” She teases right back.
“Now?” Adora moves to pull away so she can look at Catra’s face, serious about her offer.
She’s pulled right back in and Catra’s voice is soft when she answers, “No, not now. Just…stay. Please.”
“I can do that.” Adora whispers back, relaxing fully into Catra’s chest. Catra’s hand in her hair pulls her toward drowsiness. Before she loses herself completely, she manages to ask, “Hey Cat?”
“Hmm?”
“Are you…happy?”
Catra sucks in a breath and holds her tightly. “So much it scares me.”
Adora has to fight her fatigue by this point. “You don’t hafta…I’ll take care of you.”
Catra presses a kiss to the top of Adora’s head. “Promise?” She whispers.
“I promise.”
The next morning Adora is making breakfast and chatting with Catra, Scorpia, and Perfuma who are sat around the table playing cards. Scorpia is telling them about her mother, Garnet, who met her soulmate the week prior. She and Scorpia’s mom, Lynda, have been happily married for nearly forty years. She is also evidently the, self-proclaimed, World’s Biggest Lesbian. So, she’d been tickled when the gentleman ringing up her groceries had pulled up his sleeve and revealed their shared mark.
As Scorpia tells it, they are already on their way to becoming great friends.
“I’ve been meaning to ask, Adora.” Adora turns away from the stove to look at Scorpia inquiringly. “How does it all work anyhow?”
“Marks? I thought-“
“Sorry, I meant like the…connection. Is it like a feeling, or a vision thing…?”
“Oh.” Adora turns the burner down and crosses her arms, turning around and leaning back against the oven. “It’s…there’s this feeling when it first happens. Like something just…clicks. Typically, markers are able to keep their own walls up, we connect but the other participant doesn’t totally connect back if that makes sense?”
“I think so.” Scorpia says, turning to look at Perfuma who nods in agreement. Catra is staring at Adora so hard she avoids her eyes in order to stay focused.
“Right so, once you’ve connected, it’s like…being immersed in their soul. Almost experiencing the world as if their soul was your own. It’s really important to be grounded in yourself before engaging so you can hold both experiences simultaneously. And then the mark part is more like a vision. Or sometimes it’s just a knowledge that settles in, like remembering something you’ve not seen yet.”
“How was that different with Catra?” Perfuma asks. It’s conversational and casual, and Catra whips around to give her a look Adora can’t see. Adora clears her throat and turns back to the pan, feeling her face warm. “Sorry, was that too personal?”
“No, it-it’s fine.” She takes a deep breath and turns around again. Catra’s eyes are on her once more, her expression pulling them into an inferno reserved just for them. “It was…totally different. There was the click and then…and then there was no hope of keeping my walls up. Our-our souls immediately intertwined and…”
“And?” Catra prompts, voice rough and eyes unblinking.
“And I fell so deeply in love with you, I knew there’d never be any looking back.”
Silence follows the statement until Perfuma murmurs quietly to her partner. “Babe, remember I was gonna show you something? Downstairs.” Vaguely from the corner of her eye, Adora sees Scorpia look between her and Catra before nodding vigorously. And then they’re gone.
They’re left alone and Catra’s expression leaves Adora feeling vulnerable and exposed. Slowly she rises, walks over, turns off the oven, and sets her hands on Adora’s waist. Her voice is thick when she speaks. “I don’t think we ever talked about…how that went.”
She hesitates before answering. “I didn’t want it to be…too much.”
Catra pushes out a puff of breath that ruffles her bangs. “Give me a little credit, Adora.”
“Okay.” she agrees readily.
Catra raises a skeptical brow but after a moment it sinks halfway, and she swallows thickly. “You said…our souls intertwined?” Adora nods. “Did they…are they still?”
“I-“
“What did it feel like, for you?”
“I can’t-it’s different outside of…just day today. But…yeah, Cat, my soul is still wrapped up in yours.”
“Adora…”
“Yeah?” The word comes out soft as a butterfly’s wing.
“I love you. I love you but it doesn’t feel…. I love you with more than just my heart, Adora.”
Adora sniffs and raises her hands to wipe the corners of her eyes where tears have gathered, blurring Catra’s image. Then she reaches over and does the same for Catra. “I love you back.”
At a loss for words, Catra pulls her in for a tight hug, pressing herself against her chest. Adora feels her heart beating, perfectly synced with her own in this perfect, perfect moment.
By the time Scorpia and Perfuma venture back, Adora and Catra have abandoned breakfast and retired back to the bedroom. Adora puts on music and lays Catra’s head on her chest. Her lover sings along softly to Judy Garland’s parts of Get Happy/Happy Days Are Here Again. Unable to resist her own elation, Adora joins in with Barbra midway through.
The song ends and Catra carries on with the next track. Their friends take over in the kitchen, soon filling the air with the scent of coffee. The sounds of their movement through the door make the apartment feel homey. Adora takes it in with the passive awe of a newborn, staring distantly at the jar of dark ambrosia and soft pink roses on Catra’s bedside.
It’s a perfect moment, one that will live viscerally in their memories for the rest of their joined lives.
It’s two years before Catra gets over her fear of needles enough to decide she wants her mark after all. Adora double, triple, quadruple checks that she’s certain and isn’t just doing it because she thinks it’ll make Adora happy (which is does). Catra finally just levels her with a look and with all the boredom she can muster says, “Don’t be stupid, Dor.”
Adora cries when she does it. Mara is in town and they have her on standby, just in case she gets too emotional. It’s just a formality really, they both know it has to be Adora. The safety net her sister provides is nice but something in her soul knows it can’t be anyone else.
After several hours she wipes ink and blood from Catra’s ankle for the last time. Once her gloves are off, she scrubs the tears from her face. When she pulls her hands away, Catra is looking at her with an expression so tender her heart aches and she yearns for something she already has. It makes her tears start right back up again.
“Why are you crying, dummy?” Catra asks softly.
“I-“ She sucks in a shaky breath. “I love you a lot, you know that?”
“Yeah, I know.”
The next words fall from her mouth without thought. “Catra? Do you…would you want to get married? To me.”
Catra rolls her eyes, presumably at the specification of ‘to me’. She shrugs. “Whatever.”
Adora laughs and the sound is wet. “Whatever?”
She takes her hands and holds her eyes. “Adora, I love you.” Adora pulls in a deep, wavering breath. “I’m committed to you. If you wanna have a party to celebrate that let’s do it. It’ll finally give me a chance to show off how good I look in a suit.” Adora laughs and snuggles in close, burrowing her head into Catra’s belly. From her new spot she can feel Catra’s words rumble through her chest and it makes them feel more real somehow. Tangible. “I don’t need it, Adora, but if you want it, I’ll marry you in a heartbeat.”
“Okay.” Adora answers softly.
Catra laughs. “Okay? Okay what?”
“Okay…I’ll think about it.”
“Sounds good.” She leans back a bit, jostling Adora a bit and giving her room to poke her forehead. “Just don’t go overthinking it.”
“Psh, no promises.”
“You’re an idiot.”
“Your idiot.” Catra gives her that look, the one where her mouth is smirking but her soft eyes blossom with honeysuckle and violets.
“Alright, my idiot. You gonna wrap this up so we can take Mara and Hope to dinner? Or were you just gonna sit here and make heart eyes at me all day?”
“I mean…”
She laughs and pushes Adora’s head off her lap. “Dummy, get me that wrap or I’m walking out of here without it.”
Adora narrows her eyes. “You would never.”
Saffron crocus sprouts between the blooms in Catra’s eyes. “Try me.”
Adora huffs, thoroughly amused despite her best efforts, and pulls the wrap closer. Catra sets her left foot in her lap and Adora pauses. It’s so…she’s having a moment.
When Catra told her she didn’t want her mark, Adora had pretty much no feelings on the matter. Each time Catra brought it up over the last two years, sure Adora must have some opinion on the matter, she assured her honestly that she didn’t care either way. Adora has seen this before, in a sense more intimate than most mates get to see their mark’s match. She had no reason to care, and if Catra had never gotten her mark Adora could have died at complete peace with that.
All of this to say, Adora was in no way prepared for seeing her mark etched onto another’s skin. Catra’s skin.
“Adora?” Catra’s gentle voice pulls her gaze upward. “You’re crying again.”
Adora touches her cheeks to verify that, yes, Catra is completely right. “Oh. I didn’t even…”
Catra slides her foot off Adora’s lap, hanging a leg on either side of Adora’s. “C’mere.” She makes grabby hands at her until Adora takes them into her own. Then she pulls her to standing, closer to eye level but now Adora rises above her by several inches. “Why didn’t you tell me? What this was gonna mean to you.”
Adora sets her forehead against Catra’s, closing her eyes and shaking her head. “I guess…I didn’t realize. It’s your mark, Cat, I wasn’t lying when I said I didn’t care.”
“Our mark.” She corrects.
Adora smiles and kisses Catra where their foreheads were touching before resuming her position. “Our mark.” she confirms. “Still.”
“I believe you. That you weren’t lying. Will you…. Tell me how you’re feeling now.”
“In love with you.” Catra scoffs but doesn’t move away. Wanting her closer, Adora drops her hands and wraps her arms around Catra’s waist. Like a well-practiced waltz, Catra’s arms rise to cross behind Adora’s neck. “I mean it. I don’t know how else to describe…”
Voice soft with intimacy she says, “I get it.”
Adora’s eyes flicker open to find Catra looking right back at her. “Really?”
She nods against Adora. “Me too.”
Adora cries a bit more. “Yeah?”
“Yeah, you big sap. It’s…a big feeling.”
“Like a grizzly bear.”
Catra pulls away with a laugh. “Like a what?”
“Bears are big.” Adora explains simply, like Catra might not know that already.
“Uh, polar bears are bigger.”
“Is that true?” Adora asks, now fully on this tangent.
“Uh, duh babe. They’re the biggest bear.”
Adora puts a hand on her hip, not convinced Catra actually knows this trivia. “Oh yeah? What’s the second biggest bear?”
“What am I, a fucking bear expert? I don’t know what the second biggest bear is, Adora. I just know polar bears are biggest. Also, I apparently love you more.”
“What?” Adora yelps. “No way!”
“Hey,” She puts her hands up defensively. “I’m just saying, you love me a grizzly bear amount and I love you a polar bear amount. Polar bears are bigger, ergo…”
“Uh, no. I was working with incomplete information! If anything, all this proves is that you’re smarter than I am, not that you love me more.”
Catra smiles, clearly taking this as a victory. “Okay!”
Adora laughs in her face and drops back into her seat. “Don’t act so pleased with yourself. Not like it was a secret.”
“Let me have the win, Dor, or I’m going back to the great bear debate.”
“Oh stars. Gimme that foot back.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Catra does as she’s asked and watches Adora wrap the mark.
With that finally taken care of, they’re ready to gather their things up to go. Mara and Hope are back at the loft and Bow and Glimmer have no more appointments for the day, so Adora gets the shop closed down and the alarm set. Once the door is locked, she makes to leave but is stopped by Catra taking her hand and holding firm. She looks back to her in question and Catra looks so completely vulnerable Adora’s not entirely sure what to do with it.
“Kiss me?” Adora smiles wider and happily obliges. She pulls away once she’s left Catra sufficiently breathless. With an uncharacteristically shy smile and her arms thrown around Adora’s neck she says, “Hey. You’re alright as far as soulmates go, you know that?”
Adora leans in close again, bracing one hand on the door frame and bringing the other up to cup Catra’s cheek. She brushes her thumb against the soft skin beneath it, across her lips, and back. “Guess the universe just gets it right sometimes.”
“Lucky us.”
Adora laughs and pulls Catra in for a tight hug. With her face snuggled into Catra’s neck she asks, “What do you think we ever did to get so lucky anyway?”
Catra hums thoughtfully, rocking Adora side to side. “I’m not sure, but I think you deserve the world, Adora.”
“You’re my world.” She shoots back instinctively.
Catra groans but doesn’t pull away or halt her slow swaying. “You’re so fucking cheesy.”
“I’m a romantic.” she corrects.
And that is apparently enough because Catra finally releases her and shoves her off with a laugh. “I love you, dummy. Now let’s go eat.”
Hand in hand they make their way to the car. Unable to resist, Adora casually mentions, “So…you took the pain really well.”
“Nope.”
“What?” Adora laughs. “You-“
“You are not giving me any tattoos, Adora Greyskull. This was a one time deal.”
“I never said-“
“You didn’t have to, I know you.”
“Okay, I’m just saying I know you like how they look, and I’ve seen you looking at stuff online…”
She stops by the trunk of the car and uses her hold on Adora’s hand to position them facing each other. “Do you understand why I got my mark, Adora?”
“I mean, you just said you were ready…”
“I got it because I love that you and I have this weird, spiritual, woo woo connection.”
“Aww, Cat…”
“Not finished. I love sharing this with you and every time I see your mark or kiss your ankle, I feel…. Fuck, babe, I didn’t know it was possible to feel so connected to another person without being totally codependent. I got our mark on my skin because I want to take that feeling everywhere I go.
“I love you; I love your art; you amaze me every day. But that? That hurt like a bitch, and no other tattoo is going to give me what this one has. I hope you enjoyed stabbing me repeatedly today, because this was your one and only chance to do so without having to face a jury after the fact.”
Adora snorts at the final sentiment. “To be fair, this was a lot of blackwork. You could just get-“ She cuts off at the fiery look in Catra’s eye. “Not the point! You know I respect your decision, right? I don’t mean to pressure you. I just thought since now you’ve actually felt it, maybe check in…”
“No, you’re fine, Adora. You’re an idiot, but you’re fine.”
Adora nods and a grin creeps back in. “That was pretty romantic you know, what you said to me just then.”
Catra rolls her eyes. “Yes, well. I’m very in love with you so. Bound to happen now and again.”
“Aww, you love me?”
“Shut up.”
“Babe, that’s like-“
“Shut up, or I’m not gonna say it anymore.”
“You would never.”
Catra’s eye bloom anew, smirk firmly in place. “Nah, I love you too much.”
Knowing better than to press her luck, Adora decides that is as good a place to leave it as any. She presses a quick peck to Catra’s nose and circles around to the driver’s seat. Catra’s shortly behind her and soon they’re off, driving off toward the sunset.
And that seems as good a place as any to leave it, don’t you think?