Set before "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice".

Laughing, Martha gets up to put her dishes in the sink, all the while keeping an eye on the TV. She likes this Jimmy Fallon boy - always funny. When she turns towards the door, though, her attention is picked by another boy she likes.

Her favorite one, in fact.

Frowning, she opens the screen door, and, tightening her small cardigan around her chest, goes into the night to join her superhero of a son.

"Clark?," she calls, and he stops to look at her, apparently surprised. Which doesn't happen often, really (never, actually, which is why in eighteen years, she never caught him watching TV instead of doing his homework, even though she knew full well he did it: the boy could hear her come from a mile away). "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

He's not wearing his suit, which is also odd, considering he always is, when he comes here flying. In top of everything, the fact that he looks all at once stressed, worried, and lost confirm that something is definitely not right.

"Nothing, nothing, I - Hi," and she smiles, bringing his broad figure close to hug him.

"Hi, honey. So, what's going on?," she raises her eyebrows, facing him. He looks worried for a few more seconds, and then chuckles a little, and it feels like a huge load is lifted from her chest - he's okay.

Happy, even, given the huge smile he's suddenly trying to contain.

He shakes his head, trying to get a hold.

"I uh - I realized something today."

"Yeah? And what's that?," she asks, patient.

Although the tiniest bit shy, his smile is bigger than it has ever been. "How did Dad ask you to marry him?"

It takes Martha a moment to understand what he means, and when she does, she can't help her own smile from mirroring his.

"Well, I can't say I didn't see that one coming," and he chuckles before his face suddenly and adorably turns slightly panicked again.

"Does it really show that much?", and Martha just has to roll her eyes.

"What, that you're head over heels for her? Yeah, just a bit," she answers with irony, and he gives her an half reprimanding, half amused look. "Well, I knew it because I'm your mom and I've never seen you like that with anyone else. But to be honest, I'm pretty sure anyone who's ever seen how you look at her when she's not looking is aware of it too, sweetheart. Sorry."

In the moonlighted night, she can see him blush a bit, and she stops herself from teasing him further.

"I just - I don't know if the timing's right. I mean, we've only known each other for less than two years." He sighs, almost frustrated. "I don't even know if she'll even consider saying yes."

She gives him a blank look.

"We've never talked about it, mom. I don't even know how she feels about marriage - although knowing her, there's a good chance I won't like the answer. And I didn't even know I wanted it, either, but I just - "

He shrugs, struggling to find the words. "I can't see myself without her now. She's - everything."

They say that when a son falls in love is the most painful day of a mother's life. Yet, seeing Clark with Lois all this time, finally having found someone that he can trust, lean on and that looks at him like the unique, wonderful person that he is was everything Martha ever wanted for her little boy.

If there was a thing she knew, it was that those two were in it for the long haul. Considering that, hearing her, and now him so unsure of the other one's feelings was pretty funny. Smiling, she speaks reassuringly.

"Well, first of all, Lois loves you, honey. I wouldn't say it if I wasn't sure, but I know it: I see it every time you're here, she told me - "

"She what?"

"Woman to woman conversation, son: none of your business," and she smiles when he pouts at that.

Taking a step forward, she hooks her hand in his arm, and walks them towards the porch's stairs.

"I can't guarantee you that she'll say yes, Clark," she starts as they sit down. "But I do know this is a woman who stayed by your side everyday since she met you, who wanted you to live with her even though she had never take that step with anyone before, and who threw herself at a journalist who was calling Superman a fraud," and he chuckles. "She even listens to you talk about football, honey: trust me, that's love."

He laughs, looking up, eyes lost somewhere in the ocean of stars in front of them.

"You didn't answer: how did Dad propose to you?," he asks quietly without looking away from the sky.

She chuckles at the memory. "Well, he didn't really think it through. One night, we were on our usual spot next to the lake, and he just turned to me and said, 'Martha, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. What do you say?'".

She smiles, head forty years away, and shrugs her shoulders. "And then he did."

"Weren't you scared?"

"Of what? Every doubt you can have about marriage, the hesitation in front of such a huge thing - that disappears when it's the right person. I loved him: that's all that mattered to me. Never regretted it."

Martha feels his hand covering her crossed arms, and her own comes to squeeze his fingers. They stay like this for a while, both fixing the stars, each lost in their own thoughts.

"I'm going to ask her, Mom," Clark eventually says, voice quiet. Smiling, she turns her head to meet his eyes.

He grins. "I'm going to ask Lois to marry me."