He could practically feel her elation next to him and he wanted to crush it. The overwhelming but not exactly familiar urge to destroy something sweet and fragile begged to overtake him and usually he let himself give into it before he realized what it was (a small comment here or there, crestfallen disappointment in the victim) but not today. There would be enough pain later for all of the Ward household without him adding any unnecessary suffering now.
Her teasing was accepted as it was intended and he had to agree that the word felt gritty on his tongue, unpleasant on all accounts. "Perhaps." was the only thing he gave her in response though. His decision to be kind wasn't completely fortified.
Moving on to the meat of her staggering mind felt like some kind of inevitability that he had been aware of but hoping to avoid. He huffed out a breath of some undefined but most likely not positive emotion and simply said "Possibly nothing at all." because he knew that if they did nothing it would be because they'd given up on her. Eventually they were going to see what a waste their efforts were and start to mold her in different directions, it would be better for her and for everyone involved, but that kind of failure would still sting the baby Ward. He was sure of it.
His tone made it obvious that he wouldn't be humoring any more of her serious questions and he endured the rest of the drive in silence no matter how short it really was. They pulled up to the theater and he parked, sitting in the car a moment before they started their little adventure, "And here we are."