For the unpublished fic things, Martha Kent?
"Oh," the old guy Superman-not-Superboy just saved from getting flattened by a really irresponsible Metropolis truck driver says, staring at him in surprise. Superman stares back with absolutely no clue what to say.Ā
"Jonathan!" the old guy's probably-wife cries, running over to them from the other side of the crosswalk. The old guy doesn't look at her, just keeps staring at Superman.Ā
"I'm alright, honey," he says. Then he grabs her hand and puts it on Superman's arm, and . . .Ā
And Superman feels a soulmark trigger in his own hand, tucked into the center of his palm under his glove.Ā
And perfectly mirrored to the one the old guy triggered in the opposite hand about fifteen seconds ago.Ā
"Oh," the wife says, and now she's staring at him too. "Iāoh."Ā
She blinks very quickly. So does the old guy. They both look like they're about to cry and Superman feels like he's about to panic and really, really wants to just bolt right now and never see either of them ever again.Ā
Except they're his soulmates, apparently.Ā
Except they're his parents.Ā
Apparently.Ā
Superman did not expect to have any soulmates. Actually, if he'd ever thought to think about it, he probably would've assumed he didn't even have a soul, much less any soulmates to go along with it. And if he'd been expecting anything, he'd have been expecting a hot chick and a romantic mark, not . . .Ā
In his defense, he's like two weeks old, and he spent the first week unconscious while being artificially aged and force-fed extremely boring information uploads. There's a lot of stuff he hasn't really had a chance to think about yet.Ā
"Uh. Hi?" he tries awkwardly, resisting the urge to hide his hands behind his back. Which is dumb, really. They can't even see his marks anyway; he's still wearing his gloves. The old guy and his wife stare at him for another moment.Ā
Then they both start to cry.Ā
Oh god, Superman thinks, and panics after all.Ā
"I'm sorry!" he blurts, and then the old guy and his wife both throw their arms around him. Superman has very literally never been hugged in his life and doesn't know how to handle the experience. Like, at all. Especially not coming from two directions at once.Ā
"Oh, no, sweetheart, it's not your fault," the wife says, her voice thick. "We're sorry. Justāwe just lost your brother. We weren't expecting . . ."Ā
"It's so damn good to meet you," the old man says roughly, hugging him all the harder. Superman can't even figure out if he wants to hug them back, but has a very hard time keeping his TTK up all the same. "Where'd you come from, son?"Ā
"Uh," Superman says, and doesn't let himself examine the way that hearing the word "son" like that makes him feel, even knowing it's probably just a reflex, coming from a guy who sounds that Midwestern. "I'māa clone. Of the first Superman. Project Cadmus made me."Ā
"A clone?" the wife asks, pulling back just enough to give him a worried look. "That'sānot like that poor man Bizarro?"Ā
"A binary clone," Superman clarifies uncomfortably. "They, uh, stabilized me with human DNA. So I shouldn't, uh . . . degrade. Like that."Ā
He really hopes that's true, at least.Ā
"Well, we'll handle it if it happens," the old guy says, pulling back too and squeezing his arm. Superman feels oddly reassured, even though there's absolutely no reason to be. Unless the guy's a geneticist, maybe.Ā
He wants to ask if he can see their marks, but isn't sure if that'd be . . . weird, or something. Would that be weird?Ā
Cadmus didn't really tell him much about soulmates, which is another reason he wasn't expecting any.Ā
Cadmus probably didn't want him to have any, come to think.Ā
Superman swallows nervously and the wife cups his face in her hands. He feels her soulmark against his skin, whatever it is.Ā
It feels . . . warm.Ā
He wonders what it'd feel like against his own mark.Ā
"It really is so good to meet you, baby," she says, smiling tremulously at him. He can process hearing "baby" even less than he could "son". "I'm Martha Kent. This is my husband Jonathan. You can call us Ma and Pa, once you're comfortable with it."Ā
"What's your name, son?" the old guyāJonathan, Superman tries to think, because thinking "Pa" sounds way too intimidating right nowāJonathan asks. Superman knows what he wants to say, but . . .Ā
But for the first time, saying "Superman" doesn't feel . . . honest.Ā
"Experiment Thirteen," he admits in a mutter, hiding his hands behind his back after all, and both Jonathan and Martha's faces tighten.Ā
