Sorry, my kid died six years ago would not have been an acceptable pass out of Bruce's horrendous behavior, anyway. He has not dealt with it - at all, really, and so certainly not well. 'The world doesn't make sense until you make it', he'd told Superman, and that's what he was trying to do. Hurt the world enough so that the absence of his son made sense. What a guy, this Bruce Wayne.

He makes a non-committal sound, accepting the condolences for what they are. It will be like this for some time; Bruce unearthing land mines in himself to show Clark, and offer apologies about their existence, without actually saying he's sorry.

"Me, too. It's been around for a hundred years, it's already embarrassing enough I managed to get it like this."

Couldn't have come by with a hoover, in between? Nope. (Though he did come by. To the tombs, to stare at the ruins. Driving past it every day, situating his current residence so that he would always have to look at it and be haunted, ensuring the wounds would never heal. He could have moved to another property, to one of his dozen penthouses, to another country. But he wanted the pain. Normal Batman shit.)

"How nightmarish is the idea of ... dorm rooms?"