Note: Here we go, a brief insight into Clark's thoughts.

**/**

1.

Contrary to what Lois believes he does actually go to an agent when his soulmate mark appears. The problem is that the agent asks so many questions that Clark can't answer. Some can be explained away by his adoption but so many of them could potentially give away his secret and it becomes suspicious when Clark doesn't answer them.

"I'm sorry," his dad says, eventually. "But we're going to have to withdraw Clark's profile."

"I'd have to recommend against this," the agent says, but he reluctantly hands over a stack of pamphlets and removes all information about Clark from the database.

"I'm sorry, son," his dad apologises on the way home. "But we can't take any risks."

"It's fine, Dad, I understand." Despite his words, he knows his tone is sullen. "She might not be human, anyway." He's from another planet, it's not so strange that his soulmate might hail from further away than Metropolis.

(further away than Metropolis, yes; another planet, no. Clark finds there are things you just know)

**/**

2.

"You'll just have to trust it'll all work out," his dad tells him when he asks.

"What if she doesn't want to be bonded to an alien?" he asks, voicing his deepest fear. If she's human she might want nothing do with him or she might turn him over to the government. Or any other one of a thousand mights he dreams up when he has too much time on his hands.

His dad claps his on the shoulder. "My understanding is that whoever she is, you being from another planet probably isn't going to be a problem. Which, when you think about it, makes her a pretty special person."

His father is right, of course. Lois will barely blink at the word 'alien', more curious than concerned.

**/**

3.

"She isn't your soulmate, is she?" his mom asks after Lois leaves with her father.

"What?" Clark's not quite sure why he's alarmed, only that the mere thought makes his skin prickle and his heart race unpleasantly. "No, of course not. Why would you think that?"

Lois is loud. And annoying. And has no sense of boundaries.

"My mistake," his mom says but she studies him for several seconds longer as if she's not quite sure he knows what he's talking about.

"Mom. If Lois was my soulmate, don't you think I'd know that?" he asks. It's not a denial, as he'll realise years later, he never once denies it. His subconscious knows better than he ever will.

She smiles a little ruefully. "I guess you would."

**/**

4.

"A soulmate mark is most unexpected," Jor-El says.

Clark, never on the best of terms with the AI, folds his arms across his chest. "Why? Because my soulmate must be human?"

"No, because soulmates are much rarer on Krypton than they are on Earth. Less than one in five thousand." While Clark is still reeling from that little titbit, Jor-El continues. "It is of no matter."

For the first time since the shape of the mark appeared on his skin, Clark finds he disagrees. "It matters to me."

"You cannot allow this to distract you, my son."

As conversations with Jor-El usually go, so this one does, disintegrating in short order. Jor-El, programmed as such, feels no emotion and attributes no weight to its importance; Clark, living and breathing, is eternally mistrustful of the AI, so wilfully misunderstands.

**/**