Dracon narrowed his eyes at Arkady somewhat but followed him briskly inside all the same. The old him would have stubbornly stayed outside, arms crossed over his wide chest in defiance. See? Growth. Mellowing. Right.
A deep, calming breath later, his brain was back on the business at hand, any real or imagined slights forgotten. "That'd be great, if you have access to a trailer that you know is in decent shape for the road. You know me, I don't need any frills, but I'll have to fireproof the damn thing top to bottom, and that'll take some coin." There was no sense in renting something you had to customize and therefore weren't likely to get a security deposit returned on, he felt. The comment about the roommate gave him pause, literally. His left eye might have even twitched, and his eyebrows rose in an inverted V. "Uh, yeah. That ain't gonna happen." He shook his head at that smile, and even showed a tight smirk in return. Or that might have been a grimace. Yegods! It smirked, grim or not! That would be truly a headlining attraction, to catch Drake in the act of actually cracking a smile. He honestly did not think his lips would remember how.
"I'm good," he replied, eyeing the blood with a spark of amusement. He was the last person to speak of out of the norm dietary habits, though. It was actually amusement born from relief, that he could relax somewhat because he was among others whose habits would also frighten the humans. The world seemed to become that much less confining. Yeah, leaving this had been stupid, but he'd been young and stupid, back then, so there. Belatedly, he remembered he had once been taught manners. "Thanks."
"This and that," he answered with a shrug, taking a seat on the closest flat surface available. "Mostly construction, lately. Did some stunt work a while back, apprenticed as a fire and explosives effects technician too. Had a pretty steady decade of gigs doing that, 'til it became obvious I don't age like them. There was a circus, and a couple carnivals." He shrugged again. "Didn't stay long there either. Too many normals involved."
"You?" Forget about Drake forming a complete sentence to express he was surprised the Carnival had survived into these cynical times, or how that fact made him respect Arkady's leadership a bit more, or how strange it had been to see the old rig rolling into town after all these years. He had already talked more today than he usually did in a week. He felt weird doing it. He figured the one word question was enough to open the floor for Arkady to reveal what he would about himself. As the man had said, they'd never been friends, even if the responsibility for that rested solely on Drake's own stubborn, bitter shoulders.