"To steal something," Clark says, mostly to demonstrate he's followed along.

A little grim, but thoughtful. It's a winding kind of path but one more intricately rendered than he might have anticipated. His hands idle, returning absent touch with gentle little sweeps and fidgets, playing with the vital anchor they've forged by just holding hands on the couch, on a rainy Metropolan evening. Eventually, he thinks, they're going to have to work out the hows and whys of Lois Lane's death too. One thing at a time.

He says, still in the spirit of following along: "And so what happens if he never does any of that. If he's killed first." Which might be blunter than the general public might expect from wholesome heartland crayon colours, but Clark doesn't equivocate much, in practice.

His tone is quiet, cautious, but not wary. That Joker is still alive sounds like a decision that Bruce must have made, for himself or for Jason or maybe for the simple fact that their line of work can't always become about execution.

Either way, sometimes the easy fix isn't easy at all.