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The hand squeeze, the return blush, both were enough of a distraction from slightly darker thoughts. Thinking about the monsters in WonderPark, the good along with the absolutely horrific, always took it's toll on the small woman. She wanted to believe that it could have gone a lot differently, that it should have been completely different. Those creatures had been confused, frightened, had lashed out. If they had been in their natural habitat, they would have not been the same.

"In most of my cases, all over the world, my main focus have been the so called "Ape Creature". Big foot, Yowie, Sasquatch, Yeti, Mapinguary, Maricoxi, Yeren, the Moehau Man." She gave a nod at the last, smiling, because of course that one in particular had been her reason for travelling to New Zealand. "And many other variations as well. Of course, there are others. The Loch Ness monster, Chupacabre, the Windigo who some consider to be another form of "Ape Creature"." She smiled wider, clearly passionate about her work.

The other subject, however, was harder for her. It had been a rather traumatizing experience. She might be able to smile while explaining it, but deep down, she was bothered, and she knew that there were parts of it that if she thought about for too long, would bring tears to her eyes all over again. She'd experienced so much pain there, both physically and emotionally.

"I don't think it's very familiar to anybody. The park itself was blown up, I think to cover up what happened there from the public. People died, a great many people....both before the explosion and because of it. I only made it out alive because...." Her voice trailed off, and for a moment, all good cheer was gone.

"Because I made it off of the island." She concluded. "And some hunters on a boat rescued me, and a few others."

Where was their waitress? Lydia was suddenly starving.

Lydia herself didn't like to feel distraught. She fancied herself a very positive person, one that always saw the lighter, and brighter, side of things. But being a visitor at that park, experiencing the terrors, and the loss, it had changed her. Somewhere deep inside, she had been scarred by the experience, wounded in ways that would never quite heal. All she could do now was try to bury it beneath new, happier experiences. Experiences like the one she was having now, the one that she really should have been more focused on.

Arorangi's hand against her face was startling, and not just because it was unexpected. She had watched him lean forward, watched him reach, and had, momentarily, thought to shy away. But instead, she stayed still, and when she felt his touch against her skin, all other thoughts were scourged away, because oh...oh that was rather nice...

But he was speaking to her, and she swallowed hard, her heart suddenly beating like it thought to break free from inside of her chest. "Yes.." She said, softly, unable to say much else as her mouth quickly became much too dry, and she swallowed again, too stunned to even blush now as his fingers slid down.

Oh god, what was she supposed to do now? Her brain had turned to mush, it seemed, and everything else in the room had melted away. The feeling in chest was strange, but the one in her stomach more so, unlike anything she had ever felt before. Slowly, gingerly, she reached up a hand towards his, fingers sliding between his, curling down towards his palm before she carefully lifted his hand away, only too begin the arduous task of relearning how to breathe properly.

"Tiaki ahau mo koutou." She finally said, smiling softly, though she tripped over the words, unsure if she was even saying what she meant to correctly.

She was feeling a little bit dizzy, heady even, almost faint, and she bit down on the inside of her lip hard, hoping the pain would help to clear her head. Arorangi's hand in her's felt wonderful, large, and she could imagine the warmth of his touch spreading up her own arm and through her body, chasing away every bad feeling, every small fear, every tiny bit of sadness that occupied those small, scarred crevices of her soul. It was precisely what she had needed, but she could not fathom why she felt the way she did, or what it was about him that made her feel that way, exactly.

The squeeze of his hand helped to bring her back down to earth, and her eyes were able to focus on him again more clearly as he repeated her words back to her, and suddenly, just like that, she was smiling again, a bright yet somehow shy grin as she ducked her head down slightly, a blush coloring her cheek once more.

She wanted to stay like this. She rather liked this. She rather liked him (that she knew, but not to what extent. This was all so very strange and uncommon for her). But it was all too end too soon, as quite abruptly she felt his hand part from hers, their moment interrupted by the arrival of food.

There was a twinge of sadness, of longing, the moment his hand was no longer in hers, but she did what she could to not let it show, instead grinning up towards the waitress as well. "Yes, thank you so much! This looks delicious." And it did, and it certainly smelled divine as well.

The waitress left after making sure they didn't need anything else right at that very moment, and Lydia took another drink of her water, her heart still pitter pattering away in her chest in a way that made her feel like she was on cloud nine.

"Of course I would still love to sing with you." She exclaimed, all while grabbing for a napkin to unfold and set across her lap, before she could begin to dig in to her spicy chicken wings, her voracious appetite at least not abating in the slightest.

It was difficult to speak with a mouthful of tender spicy chicken, but Lydia made a sound of fervent agreement, enjoying every bite of food that was shoveled, in a very unladylike manner, into her mouth. Fingers were soon glistening with sauce and grease, which if she wasn't careful she would likely end up smudging on her nose when she reached to push her glasses back up. "Sho gooooood." She at one point mumbled between bites and swallows, occasionally taking a drink of her water or a sip from her wine to wash it all down.

At his question, she managed to make herself take pause, chewing her food fully and swallowing before answering. "Oh, you know! Cheerful, old classic kind of things. Sugar Sugar by The Archies, So Happy Together by The Turtles. That kind of stuff!" She grinned, teeth slightly reddened by hot sauce, before she went back to completely devouring everything on her plate.

She was even chewing on the chicken bones and sucking out the marrow.

Wings were finished.

Pizza was next.

It was impossible to tell just where such a small woman could fit so much food, but it was disappearing fast with not a hint of her slowing down anytime soon. One large slice was raised to her mouth, and a gigantic bite was taken, chewed, and swallowed down to join the rest of her devoured meal in her stomach.

"Mmmmmmm!" She appreciated the taste with another sound of approval, her eyes lifting towards the ceiling. It was just as Arorangi had said, they had become to used to the incredibly bland food that was fed to them on the island. She hadn't even known anything could taste so incredible before.

"Oh ya, maybe!" She was as enthusiastic as ever, shoveling away one slice before picking up another. "Ohhhh or I could see if they have Faith by George Michael! Oh my gosh or I Think I Love You!" She exclaimed, eyes lighting up even more.

"Yes, oh goodness so much better then Deus. We need to do this more often!"

Lydia let out an only slightly indignant squeak at the pizza swiping, before letting out a giggle and giving her head a small shake. "Didn't you get enough of your own?" She asked, slightly chastising but with good humor in her voice, before she took another large bite of the slice she held in her own hand at that moment, letting the flavors burst on her tongue, savoring the taste as she chewed it up and swallowed.

There were only a couple of slices left on her own plate when Arorangi finished off his own food, and she had slowed down considerably as he belly began to become incredibly full. At his question, she looked surprised for a moment, as if it were strange that he was even asking that, before she grinned and nodded her head enthusiastically.

"Of course I am! How could I not be?" She asked, before finishing off the slice in her hands and staring, with a suddenly (and only slightly) morose expression in her eyes. ".....But I can't eat another bite."

A tragedy indeed.

An absolutely brilliant idea suddenly struck her. "We should order a bunch of food to go and eat it back home." She whispered, eyes shining with nothing short of absolute glee at the prospect. Food. Wonderful, glorious, ridiculously flavorful food! She had a taste of what non-island cuisine could be like again, and she was no longer willing to go back to the bland and tasteless MREs and cafeteria junk that Deus served. No. They needed to take as much back with them as they possibly, and reasonably, could, without any of it ending up spoiling or going to waste.

But for now, it appeared to be singing time. Lydia let out a delighted laugh, hand reaching to take Arorangi's, and again, that touch alone was enough to nearly leave her breathless and staggering, which wouldn't be so bad if he would catch her, and she could just sort of curl up against that lovely body of his, safe and warm......

It took her a moment to realize she was staring directly at his muscular chest and not moving at all. Blinking a few times, she gave her head a small shake and grinned, feeling her cheeks heating up once more like the treacherous give-aways they were.

"Yes, okay, lets go!" She pulled on his hand, over to where the karaoke was taking place. A song book was set up, along with pieces of paper to write down their names and selection, so she immediately led him to that location.

"Here!" She made a grab for the book with her free hand. "You can choose the first song!"

Yes good food. Yes eating good food together with Aro. Yes, yes, yes! A warmth spread from her heart throughout her chest at the offer to spend more time together when they got back to the island, and for once in her life, she felt just so very accepted. Between Arorangi, Oliver, and Chris she had made fantastic friends, and felt like she actually belonged.

Her face was beaming again (it rarely wasn't) and when Arorangi squeezed her hand she had to stifle a sudden, impromptu, nervous giggle with her free hand, though even that was startled out of her when he shifted his grip, warm fingers lacing easily between hers.

Lydia bit down on the inside of her bottom lip, still beaming, though her face was, once again, starting to redden.

"What is love?" Her eyes moved to that particular song, and it took her a moment, but suddenly the words, and the beat, came back to her. "Oh, yes, okay! We can do that one!"

Jotting down their names and what they planned on singing to give to the host only took a moment, and not long after that they were called over to the microphone, and handed a second one.

The music began. The words sprung to life on the screen, though Lydia squinted at them even from behind her glasses.

And she actually did...not bad! She hit all of the words on cue, and her voice, rather hushed now that a microphone was in front of it instead of it's usual boisterous loud, didn't sound completely awful.