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The words echo in his head.
For those few years he’d had that recording, it’d been a comfort… a guiding light. He’d known what to do. His mission had been clear.
Now though…
Now it was all turned on its head.
When he finally makes his decision, it’s not done lightly. It’s not made with any sort of entitlement or greed. Well maybe one could call ‘wanting to save as many people as possible’ greedy. It’s definitely not entitlement though. He doesn’t ‘deserve’ to rule over Earth just because he’s stronger than them and can fly and will live lives longer than any of them.
All this to say that: he’ll do what his parents wanted for him… but not for the reasons they wanted it for him.
1.
The first choice is easy. Well, the decision for who the first should be is easy. Convincing her might not be.
“Lois, I…” He bites his lip.
“Oh God,” her face crumples, “This is it, isn’t it.”
“What?”
“You’re breaking up with me.”
“I-no?”
“No?”
“...No?”
“Huh.”
“The opposite actually… mostly.”
She narrows her eyes at him, “What do you mean ‘mostly’?”
“I want… to marry you. I want… everything. A bite. A house… a dog,” he chuckles through what feels like oncoming tears, “An actual Earth dog and not-” he gestures, “-Krypto.”
“But,” she replies.
He hesitates again, “But… if anyone ever finds out Clark Kent is Superman… they’d go after you, after everything we would have. Any future together would be risky at best.”
“So what are you saying…?”
He swallows, “I’ve been giving the second half alot of thought…”
Her face shifts, “You’re not…”
“Not like that. No… I just… If there was more of me…”
She nods… “Are you actually going to?”
“I’m thinking about it… but, either way… I want you by my side.”
“But I would have to share you.”
He hesitantly nods.
“I don’t know if I can do that.”
“You would be my home.”
“Your mailing address?”
“No… I would keep the apartment to keep up the public record pretense that I am a single man… but I would come home to you. Date nights… my safe space…”
“You’re trying real hard to make this whole ‘queen of the harem’ sound romantic,” she drawls.
He presses his lips together, “I’m sorry. I know it’s not normal… I know it’s not even accepted by most. But this is what I feel I need to do to make the biggest difference.”
She looks like she’s still on the fence about it, “How many nights would you be home?”
“How many would you like?”
“All of them. But that’s unrealistic so let’s say twenty-five nights a month?”
“Twenty… just to cover Heats.”
She hesitates, her milder Beta scent going a little sour, “So you have Omegas in mind then.”
“I do… but not because they’re Omegas. They’re strong people who happen to be Omegas.”
“I…”
He takes her hands in his, “Lois… I don’t care that you’re Beta. I don’t care about designations. If I could clone you, I would just so it could be you instead of you and… them… Them being Omegas means nothing to me. They’re just strong people I have considered because there’s only one you.”
She sighs, “Don’t tell me. Whoever the others are… Don’t tell me.”
2.
“You want… what?” Luthor looked at him like he’d absolutely lost his mind.
The Omega had been out of prison for six months. Clark made a point to watch him carefully, looking for more plots. There did seem to be something in the works but-
“I know-” and maybe Clark should’ve started with this, “-that you’re envious of me.”
“Yea, no shit. That was my whole-” Luthor gestures, “-monologue.”
Clark inclines his head, “What if… there was a way to make something greater than me.”
And Luthor… Luthor pauses, seems to actually consider it, “... but why me… I’ve tried to kill you multiple times.”
And this?
This is what Clark spent several nights working through.
“You… are one of if not the most intelligent man I know. Imagine if we could combine your intellect with my powers.”
“Already tried that,” Luther sneered and walked towards one of his thirty-six story windows, “That one was a disappointment.”
“But this one wouldn’t be made in a lab,” he follows slowly, “It would just be us. Just the two of us and it would grow in you and be exposed to all the brain things that you do instead of in a-a test tube or whatever…”
“‘Brain things?’”
“Hearing you talk. He’d be carried around by you for months and he’d hear everything. He’d be exposed to so much knowledge before he's even born that he’d show up practically a genius.”
Luthor stares hard out the window, clearly thinking, “What do we need.”
“A Heat would probably be good.”
Luthor rolls his eyes, “Of course… Haven’t had one of those things in… ten years.” and heaves an annoyed sigh, “Fine. I have a vacation house in Bali,” and pulls out his phone, “We can do it there.”
“Ooor you can come up to my Fortress,” Clark smiles a little, “I’ve had it make rooms.”
Luthor slowly turns, eyes squinting, “I’m not the only one.”
He flushes.
“Who else.”
“Is that important.”
“I would like to know who I’m competing against.”
Clark huffs a sigh, “This isn’t a competition.”
Luthor barks a nasty laugh and gets close to tap his face with something akin to affection, “Oh Alpha… Only you would think this wouldn’t end up as a competition as we Omegas fight for your affection.”
“You… want my affection…?”
“Of course not,” Luthor sounded like that was the dumbest thing he’d ever heard, “but I will be the favored regardless. I will hold your affection because I am the best and I will make sure the others are well aware of that. Now. Who are they?”
“You’re the second so far. Lois is… the first.”
“Lois Lane? That’s actually a thing?”
Clark flushes again.
Luthor rolls his eyes, “Not much of a harem if there’s only two.”
“I have more in mind but I haven’t asked them yet.”
“Who are they.”
“I might tell you if they agree, but not before then. I won’t have you trying to influence them one way or the other.”
“Shrewd… I like it,” there seems to be a sarcastic but grudging respect there, “Should I be concerned… You know, about the fact that you suddenly seem interested in breeding as much as possible.”
“If there’s more of me, there’s more to help. I can actually be effective…” he shakes his head a little, “I don’t want to rule over anybody. I can’t even… keep my own life straight,” and here’s where he might be fibbing… mostly because domination has never and will never be a thought he has, but Luthor would never actually accept that, “Forcible global takeover would be a disaster. It makes more sense for me to just protect it. So I’m choosing good strong people to have my pups.”
Luthor does seem to accept that, “You’re playing the long game… Have a few now and they'll continue the line. It’s less impressive but more effective…” he almost shrugs, “but Luthor blood would be in there, wouldn’t it…?”
“If you agree to have pups with me, then yes.”
3.
“So you are here to conquer us.”
“No-!” he was actually shocked that Bruce would even think that of him.
“Then why are you here? Asking me to have your pups as one of your harem… if you’re not here to conquer us.”
He sighs, “The more of me there are, the more I can help people. I can only do so much as one guy. I… I can’t keep huge aliens from crushing buildings or ruining streets… If there were more, we could keep it all above the cities or be quicker about getting them out. I could have one stopping a robbery in LA, another saving people from a car wreck in Orlando while I’m in Iraq or wherever.”
“That sounds an awful lot like a Kryptonian police force,” Bruce walks off to one of the ‘science’ stations in the cave, “You also realize that pregnancy would keep me benched.”
“Yea… I’m sure Dick, Jason, and Tim would do fine keeping things up for a year… I could even step in. We’re built close enough that I could put the cape on here and there.”
Bruce tosses him an impressed look, “It’s not just about punching bad guys. If there’s a case, you might miss an important detail.”
Clark returns the look and gestures at himself, “Uh, investigative journalist here.”
That gets a half smile, “So. Kryptonian police force.”
“It’s not that. I just want some kids who can go out with me to save people.”
“And you need a harem for that…?” there’s a brow arch.
“Well… kids take nine months to get here and that’s not accounting for things like how long it’d take to get pregnant or how long in-between each one the dam would like. It could be that I would only get one kid-” he rushes to add, “-not that I would love Loid any less if she could only give me one. That’s not really the point I‘m trying to make. What I’m trying to say is: having a few people instead of just one makes it easier for everybody. If they all just gave me one precious kid, that’s whoever many more Kryptonians to help save people instead of putting all the pressure on one person. And-! It would keep some of the…” he flounders for a word that’s not… insulting… “Breakable members of the League and maybe the Titans from…” he trails off when Bruce looks absolutely thoroughly unimpressed. “Sorry… I do worry about you though.”
“So what you’re saying is: You’re worried about me so you’re going to knock me up and then use that pup to replace me so I don’t end up breaking.”
“Against world crushing danger? We had that attack with General Zod…? You wouldn’t stand a chance against him… Our pup might.”
Bruce seems to be thinking about it now.
“My powers and your brain?”
“I thought you said something about being an ‘investigative journalist’ or was that just you trying to convince me that you could be Batman…?” there’s a sardonic smirk.
“I do have brains… enough to look at a crime scene and pick up on things… But I’m not the one who’s made contingency plans for every member of the League. I don’t know more than some karate while you’ve mastered what? ten? martial arts…? And I know you’d teach at least some of it to our pup(s). They’d be better fighters than I could ever be.”
“I could train you,” Bruce comments as though that would fix the problem.
“That’s not…” Clark sighs, shoulders jumping and he shakes his head.
Bruce sucks his teeth a little, “How many.”
“‘How many’?”
“Pups. How many do you want from me.”
Clark almost trips over himself, “However many you’d want to give me… and obviously, if you found someone else, you’d be free to do that. You don’t have to be tied to me.”
Bruce gives a very typical ‘BatGrunt’™.
4.
“Yes.”
Clark blinks, “What?”
“You think we should have a child together to help you save the world. I think that is a fine idea,” Diana smiles a little.
“Oh…” Clark had not expected her to be the easy sell, “Right. Yea.”
“Have you ever had sex a female Alpha before?”
He wills the flush away, “No-.”
“Mm,” she eyes him, “Male Omega?”
“A few times…”
“Good. So you know how to have sex with another penis.”
Of all the things he’s ever heard, that is the one thing he wishes he hadn’t heard the most… beating out a Heat-crazed Lex Luthor going all ‘Fuck me harder, Daddy’ on him.
“Yes… That shouldn’t be a problem.”
+1 - Ten Years Later
The wedding wasn’t legal. They did it just for themselves on the farm. Only Ma and Pa had attended with Gary officiating. Lois looked absolutely gorgeous in her dress. He flew them to Hawaii after where they stayed for two weeks. Well… Lois stayed for two weeks, officially, at a nice hotel with a balcony overlooking the ocean. Clark officially was home in Kansas to help with the harvest season. Superman was slightly less active than usual but Luthor was busy plotting and both Batman and Wonder Woman had a little extra free time to man the Headquarters when he couldn’t make his shifts.
Of course that was all over nine years ago. Alot had changed since then. Now the Fortress was filled with sticky fingers, child shrieks, and other such nonsense. Clark loved it, loved each one of them.
Lois had had a hard time conceiving. She’s currently two months post-partum with their second, a girl. Their first, Jon, was five now, a bright ball of sunshine. He seemed to be growing at a mostly normal pace… maybe a little faster, but it could be explained away by ‘Gifted child’ or whatever. He was quite possibly Clark’s favorite… even though he did his absolute best to not have a favorite.
Lex was a few months into number four… well technically number five… because of the twins. All of theirs grew faster by a noticeable amount. Their eldest, Conner, looked to be about fifteen now despite only being about nine. He’d slowed down the last couple of years but he was grown enough now to actually go out with Clark as Superboy. He has all of Clark’s powers… and a new one they’ve dubbed TTK aka Tactile Telekinesis. The others, Lyle, Anthony, and Adrian, were all too young still. Lyle had Lex’s red hair and the twins both had a reddish brown.
The pups with Bruce were eight and four: Thomas and Mattias. Thomas had recently started to show signs of Clark’s heightened senses, oftentimes becoming overstimulated with all the noise Clark had long ago learned to tune out. Bruce was in the process of figuring out a set of headphones to help dampen everything. Clark did wonder sometimes if Thomas had also inherited some of Bruce’s neurodivergence and, if so, if that was compounding the sensory issues. Matthias didn’t seem to have the same problems but he still had a few years before it would potentially become a problem. They’d just found out about their third a few days ago. Bruce and Lex seemed to have a ‘friendly’ competition over who could have more or maybe it was who’s pups were better. After all, Thomas was fluent in three languages already, knew two martial arts, and could name all of the dinosaurs in all the Jurassic Park movies. Mattias had figured out shapes and colors a full month before any of Lex's and had started reading already.
Diana only gave him the one. Well technically they have two but, per the agreement, he has one, the younger one, and she took the eldest back to Themyscira. She’s not particularly present so he’s really all Athena has. She’s a little Alpha, five years old, whip smart, and it scares him.
They were all up at the Fortress since that was the only place they are all really allowed to be together. No, the ‘harem’ did not get along. Sure, they treated each other civilly if seen in public together and they don’t actively try to tear heads off of shoulders the once or twice they’ve all been together, but they all compete. Especially Lex and Bruce who both think they’re the best suited for him. Lois is a little less hostile but probably only because he’s kept his word about being home the vast majority of nights and her being ‘home’ to him. Yes, she had figured out who the others were and, no, she wasn’t exactly thrilled with them being a former enemy and two coworkers. She’d only mentioned it twice and he took care to never mention any of them outside of League business.
Also there was the whole ‘didn’t want his parents to know he even had a harem’ and therefore, they’d only ever met Jon and Kira as his kids and Conner under the guise of being a Luthor-made clone.
He was pretty sure that whole thing was going to blow up in his face eventually, but, for now, he liked not having his mother look at him with the disappointment he knew she’d have if she found out.
At any rate, play day was cut short when he gets a league alert about something coming at Earth fast. Barry hadn’t been able to figure what exactly it was, only that there were five vaguely ship-shaped things coming at them. They all discussed the plan over the comms for a long moment until a plan was decided on, one Clark didn’t exactly like but he couldn’t veto it without outing Bats. So he left it alone and decided to keep Bruce as much out of it as he could without anybody else noticing.
The kids minus Conner are loaded into a large parachute-esque thing and then flown from the Fortress. Conner takes the chute while Clark drops Jon off at the farm. Lois wasn’t there but Kira was which meant Lois was likely out on the story or something already.
Once they’re settled in, he leaves and takes the parachute to Metropolis. Lex had a window in both his office and penthouse big enough for him to fly it into which he did. Conner took it as Clark pulled the three kids out and set them all on the floor.
Lex is standing there, hip cocked, belly showing through the sweater he’d taken to wearing alot, “I’m still mad you won’t let me put the suit on. Why does he get to go but I have to stay here?”
“Because he’s our best bet in contingency plans,” he steps closer, brushing his fingers down Lex’s face, “And you are my contingency if we fail. I know about the androids in the basement.”
Lex smirks a little, mollified, “Go save the world, Blue,” kisses him, and then glances at Conner, “Don’t slack off.”
“I’m noot-!” Conner whines, “Why do you always assume I’m doing nothing-!”
Lex ignores him to kiss Clark again, slow and maybe a little filthy. Clark touches his rounding belly and gets a kick or an elbow against his palm. Lex pulls away after a moment, shoots him a look, “Come gremlins,” and picks up the twins, “I have hard drives for you to destroy.”
Clark elects to not ask and drifts back outside and off to Gotham. They get through the waterfall and land in the Cave. It’s a madhouse of readying vigilantes. His heart does squeeze a little at the empty case where the Batsuit sits. Still he lowers the three kids, their two and Athena. They run off towards Alfred who seems delighted in that barely-there sort of way Clark’s gotten used to. Conner’s floated over to where Tim is, watching how the young Alpha is prepping his weapons with too much interest.
Clark should probably figure out if his pup having a crush on his sort-of stepsibling is actually ok… They’ve never been treated as siblings and Tim has no blood relation to Bruce so, on paper, it works… however… That’s something to think about later though.
Bruce sweeps in, cape flaring. He looks tired, a little paler than usual… morning sickness most likely. Clark feels bad about that.
He’s also not happy about putting Bruce and their pup in danger, “Ready?”
But, as Bruce said, if they don't protect the world today, there’s no world for their other kids tomorrow… “Let’s go.”
Clark grips his arm, “Be careful.”
Bruce squeezes his hand and offers a barely-there smile, “I will.”