Don't feel too bad, Steve. He did ask, after all, and he knew he wasn't going to like the answer.

He's not sure he likes any of those answers, either. "How'm I supposed to know what safe even feels like," he bites off. Feeling ill, remembering again what hit-Steve looks like and hating every line of the mental image, he glares at the floor and adds, "And I said I wasn't gonna hit you." There may not be a lot of decisions he's great at making, but once he makes them, he's not going back on them.

It may be that he's missed the point of the joke. Or even that it technically was a joke.