He opened his conversation with me by telling me you warned him about not pissing me off, he says, with a raised eyebrow glance back at Steven. So, you know. Not exactly setting me up for success there.

Tyler doesn't catch that note in Steven's voice at all; tonal nuance still escapes him, as well as he's otherwise doing with working on listening. And he's not fully paying attention, with his eyes on EVA and one hand on the railing, or he'd put more thought into the 'rat bastard' comment.

Because really, older Steven is.

Oh, yeah, it's a whole thing with measurable scales. 'Rat bastard' is pretty high affection, if they mean it as a compliment.