diff --git a/src/index/sparse_remote.rs b/src/index/sparse_remote.rs
index a06885b..fd2dd10 100644
--- a/src/index/sparse_remote.rs
+++ b/src/index/sparse_remote.rs
@@ -74,12 +74,23 @@ impl RemoteSparseIndex {
     #[inline]
     pub fn krates(
         &self,
-        krates: BTreeSet<String>,
+        mut krates: BTreeSet<String>,
         write_cache_entries: bool,
         lock: &FileLock,
     ) -> BTreeMap<String, Result<Option<IndexKrate>, Error>> {
+        let Some(prep_krate) = krates.pop_last() else {
+            return Default::default();
+        };
+
+        let prep = || {
+            let name = prep_krate.as_str().try_into()?;
+            self.krate(name, write_cache_entries, lock)
+        };
+
+        let prep_krate_res = prep();
+
         use rayon::prelude::*;
-        krates
+        let mut results: BTreeMap<_, _> = krates
             .into_par_iter()
             .map(|kname| {
                 let res = || {
@@ -89,7 +100,10 @@ impl RemoteSparseIndex {
                 let res = res();
                 (kname, res)
             })
-            .collect()
+            .collect();
+
+        results.insert(prep_krate, prep_krate_res);
+        results
     }
 }
 
@@ -184,14 +198,44 @@ impl AsyncRemoteSparseIndex {
     /// via something like [`tokio::time::timeout`](https://docs.rs/tokio/latest/tokio/time/fn.timeout.html)
     pub async fn krates(
         &self,
-        krates: BTreeSet<String>,
+        mut krates: BTreeSet<String>,
         write_cache_entries: bool,
         individual_timeout: Option<std::time::Duration>,
         lock: &FileLock,
     ) -> BTreeMap<String, Result<Option<IndexKrate>, Error>> {
-        let mut tasks = tokio::task::JoinSet::new();
+        let Some(prep_krate) = krates.pop_last() else {
+            return Default::default();
+        };
+
+        let create_req = |kname: &str| -> Result<http::Request<&'static [u8]>, Error> {
+            let name = kname.try_into()?;
+            self.index.make_remote_request(name, None, lock)
+        };
 
         let mut results = BTreeMap::new();
+
+        {
+            let result;
+            match create_req(&prep_krate).and_then(|req| Ok(req.try_into()?)) {
+                Ok(req) => match Self::exec_request(&self.client, req).await {
+                    Ok(res) => {
+                        result = self.index.parse_remote_response(
+                            prep_krate.as_str().try_into().unwrap(),
+                            res,
+                            write_cache_entries,
+                            lock,
+                        );
+                    }
+                    Err(err) => result = Err(err),
+                },
+                Err(err) => result = Err(err),
+            }
+
+            results.insert(prep_krate, result);
+        }
+
+        let mut tasks = tokio::task::JoinSet::new();
+
         for kname in krates {
             match kname.as_str().try_into().and_then(|name| {
                 Ok(self