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Chapter Text

Maui loved falling. Falling from high trees, falling from mountains, from cliffs, rocks- you name it, he had jumped off of it.  

He loved the flash of adrenaline, the thrill of it, the moment of weightlessness when he shifted into his human form in between the clouds.  

And he loved the wind in his hair, the roaring of air that pressed against his body right after that, when nothing mattered but the fall, when it didn’t matter who he was or what he was, because he was falling all the same.  

He loved letting himself fall into the ocean most of all, soaring high and higher until not even his hawk wings could take him further, and letting go of it all, changing back before letting himself go limp and fall down, let the ocean reach out for him, catch him in her arms like she had done so many times before, like she had done every time he had met her so far, from the very first moment until his last.  

It was comforting, in a way. Laying on the bottom of the ocean, holding breath he knew he didn’t really need, and watching the world through a filter of dark blue- not having to think, not having to behave, a certain way, just exist . It was comforting in a way he refused to think about too much, but knew deep down that it had something to do with the way his mother had looked at him, his father had scoffed and both had- 

Point being.  

Maui loved falling.  

He glanced up to see Moana already looking at him, a smile on her face that made his knees weak.  

Until he had fallen for her.  

..  

Of course, it didn’t happen all at once. It wasn’t like he laid eyes on her, back when she stumbled upon his isolated prison and was head over heels for a little mortal girl that was probably still green behind the ears.  

But Maui had always been curious, and back then she had interested him. A mortal girl, chosen by the ocean, to try and tell him what to do- Him !  

He’d tried to dismiss her, ignore her blabbering, steal her canoe and sail off into the sunset. As one does.  

Except the ocean had different ideas and somehow, he was stuck with the little not-a-princess.  

And then she followed him to Lalotai- and then she followed him back out again, after winning against Tamatoa, after tricking the old crab and successfully stealing back his hook- saving his life .  

Honestly, he’d been so surprised that he even forgot to be annoyed that she stole his show.  

And begrudgingly at first, Maui decided that okay, maybe she wasn’t as bad as he had thought- for a mortal, at least.  

She got under his skin, she challenged him, and still, he found himself teaching her how to sail, how to knot and measure the stars, read the sea (which was ridiculously easy if the sea actually listened to one, holy shit, how was that fair?!) and feel where the currents pulled them.  

And somehow, a few weeks after that, he was flying to what felt like the end of the world to save said stupid little girl who felt like she had to save it all on her own. Which may or may not have been his fault in the first place, but still.  

Point is, he had run. 

And then he came back.  

And suddenly, they had done it, returned Te Fiti’s heart, with his hook still intact, both of them alive and- most surprisingly of it all- both her oar and the stupid chicken still in one piece. (Even years later, Maui was still wondering how that happened)  

And then they had parted ways.  

Well. Sorta.  

..  

“Didn’t you say you had no time for visiting?”, Moana questioned before his feet even touched the canoe she was standing on.  

“Well, things change.”, he replied and opened his arms for the hug she returned with a grin.  

It took all of five days for Maui to decide solitude was something for people who did not just spend a thousand years on a teeny tiny island all on their own, and to fly out to find her- because fuck it, right? He was Maui. He could do whatever he wanted.  

“Plus, who takes care of you when you’re all alone?”, he teased with a raised eyebrow. “Who makes sure you don’t sail in the completely wrong direction?” 

Before Moana could open her mouth to remind him that he was the one who made her a wayfinder, the ocean rose in front of him and splashed him right in the face.  

He refused to react.  

Moana giggled.  

He groaned.  

So much for being a respectable hero and all that.  

“Well, if you want to stay for a bit, be my guest.", she invited after her laughter subsided. “It’s gonna take a few more weeks to get even close to Motunui. And I’d love the company.” 

The demigod nodded- with probably more enthusiasm than was strictly necessary, but you know what?  

Sue him (People would understand that one in a bit), he wanted to be around someone for a change. And being a demigod and all that, ‘normal’ people were hard to come by for him. It was either the Gods, monsters down in Lalotai or humans that worshiped the ground he walked on.  

Don’t get him wrong. He loved it when they did that. Just.. not right now.  

And according to little Miss Not-a-princess, most of them hated him right now anyways.  

So, the stubborn girl had to jump in to serve as his entertainment for now- at least until he felt more like himself and was fine with being alone again.  

..  

And for the following weeks that was that. They were back on her little canoe, Maui and Moana, and the most unlikeliest of unlikely friendships formed- somehow.  

When they reached Motunui, he had ruffled her hair, ignoring her spluttering and her threats to throw him overboard- and they had said goodbye. He was still a Hero, he was still chosen by the Gods. He still had a job to do.  

And so did she, apparently. Because when he came back a few weeks later, it was to an almost empty island, and a colorful shell on the highest peak, right on top of a stack of stones.  

He didn’t bother asking the remaining islanders what had happened. A grin on his face, he gripped his hook tightly and took to the skies, ready to search the whole ocean for her and her people if he had to, wondering how far she had gotten, more impressed that she had actually made it than he was willing to admit.  

It had been her wish, to see what the sea had to offer, to show her people the ocean, show them the world out there, all the islands and the beauty all around them. She’d told him about it once, shortly after they met for the first time, her face turned up to the stars she was supposed to measure.  

He hadn’t said anything, only said something when he found her, weeks later, on another island, with about half her people on the island, and the other in the sea.  

He asked her if she was happy now, if this was all she’d wanted.  

She’d jumped at him, circled her arms around his neck and drew him in for a tight hug.  

Even back then she’d given the best hugs he could ever remember receiving.  

..  

He visited from time to time.  

Sometimes she was on her canoe, sometimes on a new island, sometimes back on Motunui.  

Months turned into years and before he knew it, two of those also passed by.  

And suddenly, Nalo had called for him- which, by the way, was totally definitely a trap and he had definitely known that, thank you very much.  

He found the giant clam, met crazy bat lady, and then he was stuck.  

Alone.  

Again.  

..  

He was sure that if his tattoo was able to talk, Mini Maui would curse him to Lalotai and back.  

Shit, he was almost tempted to do it himself.  

And he would- at least before he called Moana for help, like the tattoo was trying to get him to do.  

“Nalo hates humans.”, he reminded the little one with a frown. “Why would I call her if I know that?” 

It changed the surrounding tattoos around, revived Mini Moana, and together the two mimed freeing him from his stinky, fishy, deadly problem, stealing his hook back, and pulling Motufetu from the ocean while Moana broke the curse.  

Easy peasy.  

As if it had ever been that easy.  

As if Nalo wasn’t waiting on the other side of Matangi’s portal, just waiting to smite his mortal friend.  

And probably the chicken too, this time. The Gods alone knew how it survived their first adventure together- or why she had brought it in the first place. (Yes. He was still going on about that. And he would for at least the next decade.)  

He rolled his eyes at Mini Maui.  

“Not happening. Curly has her own problems to deal with. Plus, I’m Maui!”, he grinned, mustered up as much of his hero personality as he could, and stuck his chest out as much as possible. “I’ll get us out of here. I promise. And I never broke a promise, did I?” 

The demigod had actually broken quiet a few promises, but Mini Maui still had not learned how to talk, so the tattoo couldn’t articulate that fact to him, and instead settled for glaring at him judgingly.  

Mini Moana had at least gone back to her place right over his heart, hidden behind the Megalodon tooth in his necklace, safely out of sight for any too-noisy-for-their-own-good Gods.  

Now.  

Back to the pressing matters at hand.  

The demigod looked down at the group of fish.. thingies? that had grouped up beneath him.  

How difficult could it be to get one of them to help him? He had pulled whole islands from the sea! He was Maui!  

Piece of cake.  

And once he had his hook back, he could just fly back out of this stupid clam and forget all he knew about Motufetu for at least the next three thousand fucking years.  

Because fuck it, he had enough of this stupid sunken island and stupid Gods that constantly put him in timeout or told him to go pout in a corner.  

Not doing this again.  

‘ Or we could just ask her for help .’, his tattoo seemed to remind him again, with glaring eyes alone. ‘S he saved your sorry ass more times than any other humans combined already. ’ 

“I won’t be responsible for her death.”, Maui growled, hands curled into tight fists at his side. “I can’t be..” 

No matter how nice it would be to see a friendly face after who even knew how much time he’d already spent in this stupid clam.  

..  

Around the fourth month of him being caught in his new, personal hell, Matangi told him she knew about Moana. His first reaction had been to ask her what a Moana was.  

Look, Maui wasn’t a good liar in the best of situations. He didn’t have to. Usually, his natural charm and undeniable awesomeness did the job for him.  

Matangi had asked him if he thought she was stupid- he bit down the answer he wanted to give and said nothing. Until she popped up right in his personal space, all wiggly finger and mocking words, tracing the lines of his newest tattoo, making Mini Maui growl silently from his hiding place on his back.  

He had swallowed the groan, along with the few curse words he really wanted to fling at the God who decided when and where he got his tattoos.  

Of course, the stupid tattoo. Because it just had to be right above his heart- it’s not like he had a dozen other spots on his skin that were still empty. No, it just had to be right there for everyone to see, screaming out to every God that listened that Maui now had a weakness, come and see!  

She’d laughed at his annoyed look, laughed even more when he rolled her eyes at her, and then left him again. 

Her call of ‘ He will find her ’ echoed around the empty space for the next hours. 

He only got more miserable from there on.  

..  

Around the eight month of being in Nalo’s prison, a group of humans crashed into him.  

Which was fine, no jab at his dignity at all, his pride was not dented at all.   

And then he saw the chicken.  

His blood had run cold and for a few painful seconds, time had seemed to slow, to crash to a halt in tandem with his heart which had leapt into his throat.  

And then Moana stood in front of him, and she’d been older suddenly, her face a bit sharper, eyes not as bright, with new calluses on her hands and at least a foot of height more than before.  

Her smile had made him weak in the knees.  

Her hug had his blood pounding in his ears.  

But no time to think about that, because apparently it wasn’t enough anymore if he announced someone was a wayfinder. No, apparently humans now had their own ceremonies for that. Complete with calling the ancestors and everything. And they were also stupid enough to do so.  

Moana was officially a wayfinder, numbero uno human-hating-fanatic Nalo was royally pissed off- and Moana, Maui and the group of humans plus one kakamora, one chicken and one bacon with legs had won a one-way ticket to death.  

Just your regular Tuesday, right? 

And he didn’t like remembering what happened next. Hated the feeling of losing his powers, hating the feeling of her in his arms, lifeless and cold, even more so.  

It had been in that terrifying moment that he had first caught a glimpse of how much she meant to him, deathly still in his arms, with only his heartbeat pounding loudly in his ears.  

Take his hook- take his life, take everything- but please, please Gods, don’t take her.   

And sometimes he still saw it, even centuries later, saw how blue her lips had turned, saw the stillness of her chest, felt how cold she was, how unmoving- and when he woke up in a cold sweat, he would fear her eyes would never open, her mouth never smile at him again.  

There was nothing he feared as much, nothing that terrified him like the thought of losing her.  

Not now, when she was the first person he had ever allowed to get close, the first one he allowed to look behind the facade, behind the mask of Maui the invincible, let her see his anger and sadness, saw him frozen stiff by the fear that threatened to choke him.  

He needed her- even back then. More than he had ever needed anything before- more than he would ever need anything or anyone in his life ever again.  

She was his best friend, his only friend, his family .  

Chapter Text

The first night on their way back to Motunui was hell.   

Maui was lying between the sleeping mortals, legs crossed at the ankles and propped up against the mast, using his hook as a sort of pillow.   

He had yet to let it out of his sight after getting it back earlier after-  

His eyes roamed over to the only other not-so-mortal (anymore) being on their boat.   

Yeah.   

That.   

He groaned, wiped his hand down his face, and resumed his intense glaring at the stars, stubbornly ignoring Mini Maui, who’s gaze was jumping back and forth between his face and Moana, who was laying a little to the side, pretending to sleep as deep as a rock.   

Pretending, because Maui knew her better than that, would recognize the tension in her shoulders everywhere.   

(Seriously. Girl was tense enough it made him wince sometimes.)  

Considering the day they all had, she should’ve been knocked out hours ago, sleeping soundly (and most important: safely) while Maui watched over her like he did with the rest of them.   

Considering the day they all had, he should’ve been knocked out hours ago too, but we’re not talking about that, thank you.   

Then again, he certainly felt tired enough to sleep for a whole week. Losing your powers only to get them back while also watching the person you liked most die and brought back to life did that to someone, apparently.   

Amazing to think it had only been yesterday when they set sail from that stupid little island right on the outskirts of Nalo’s superstorm, considering Maui felt like he had aged at least a century since falling through that portal a few days ago.  

He blinked, leaned his head back against his hook to stare at the stars, and sighed.  

Truth be told, Maui didn’t feel like himself, not really. It was as if he was still missing something, had left something behind on Motufetu that he couldn’t quiet tell what it was. It irked him, scratched under his skin, nipped at the outskirts of his conscience, made him anxious in a way few things had done before.   

He stirred, moved his feet to cross them the other way, sighed again.  

His eyes jumped back to Moana, to the curve of her spine and the quiet, soft breaths he knew she was taking. He knew she was doing it, breathing and living and all that.   

And then he blinked, and instead of her, the version on the boat was sickly pale and blue, unmoving, her eyes closed, her chest eternally still.   

He blinked again.   

Moana was back, curled up no more than two meters away from him.   

She flickered, changed in front of his eyes, blue and lifeless, tanned and breathing, stuck by lightning- dead.  

His breath hitched.  

Maui closed his eyes, pressed them together until he saw swirls and patterns not even his skills could read, and took a shaky breath, tried to calm his rising heartbeat and the rush in his ears.   

He knew he was panicking, knew this wasn’t real, it was all in his head, she was right there.  

She was fine.  

The swirls changed, turned a dark blue. And the patterns turned into bubbles, one after the other, popping up from the ground of the sea in front of his eyes and-  

He bit back a scream.  

Maui ripped his eyes open, breath coming in harsh bursts, hands clammy, stomach churning.   

He looked at the stars, tried to find the pictures he was used to, only to find nothing but endless black.   

He cursed, hands closing around his hook automatically.   

The black of the sky shifted, and reached out, like strands of hair flying around a weightless, lifeless body and her eyes-  Moana looked at him suddenly, right above him, and her eyes-  

Why were they closed?!   

Who swims with their eyes closed- who does something like-   

He grabbed his hook tighter.   

Why aren’t they opening come on, he couldn’t have hit her- don’t leave me you can’t leave me here all alo-  

Maui ripped his eyes open, swallowed the air as if it had been him that had stopped breathing, that had-   

Had died.   

Heart pounding in his chest, he got up, ignoring the sickly feeling on his skin.   

He needed to get- get away. Away was good. Away was-   

Before his brain could catch up, the demigod pushed with strong wings, once, twice, and soared to the skies, unsure of the where, but knowing it had to be away, away from people, away from the Gods, away from her, away from the dying, the death, the dying, dying, dying, why had she died, why couldn’t he have saved her, why-  

‘ But I did !’, he wanted to scream, yell it to the heavens, carve it into his very soul so the guilt would stop eating away at it. ‘ I saved her!’  

‘ But you weren’t fast enough. ’, the Gods seemed to taunt him, with voices cold as ice. ‘She died. And you couldn’t prevent it. ’  

He growled, a deep sorrowful sound.   

It wasn’t his fault!  

He’d tried! He- Nalo hit her, not him! What was he supposed to accomplish against a God ?!  

‘ Aw, the only person Maui ever cared for. And he couldn’t protect her .’  

And, like a rope pulled too tight in two different directions, something in Maui snapped.   

With barely more than a thought, he let go, felt feathers change to skin, and screamed .   

He screamed for the unfairness, for the sorrow, for the fear and the terror and for Moana, Moana who had died, Moana who had lost her mortality, had lost her life and- and he screamed for him, and for everything he had lost and everything he had almost never gotten back.   

And then he fell, felt the wind whip his hair around, felt it push against his heavy body, felt the panic slow, felt adrenaline override the guilt and the sorrow and the pain and-   

He hit the sea with a splash that vibrated through his bones, heavy enough it would have killed any human that dared to repeat it.  

If only he had kept them from jumping in that portal-  

Cursing, Maui blinked against the currents, pushed his hair back so he could see, fighting against the overwhelming feeling of powerlessness and inadequacy that clawed at his chest.   

If only he had been quicker-  

The water pressed down on him, pulling him under, deeper and deeper, and all he could see was Moana, her unconscious body floating in front of him, so pale, so cold and-   

He swam, first as a fish, then as a shark, and when that still felt wrong, he turned into a whale and parted the sea, crossed miles with barely more than an active thought.   

He should’ve done something.   

He should’ve- why didn’t he do something?!  

His best friend-   

But she’s alive! She was breathing again, she was-  

But he let her die, he-   

A sharp pain, right over his heart, broke through the mess.   

Maui gasped for breath he didn’t need.   

And then suddenly, in the blink of an eye, he was back in his body, with all his limbs burning, and he looked down at Mini Maui, who had his arms slung around Mini Moana, both of them sending him terrified glances.   

‘ She’s still there. ’, the tattoo of himself seemed to tell him, and wrapped his little arms around his chest. ‘ It’s alright now .’  

He stopped, shook his head to get rid of the fog around it and the pain that squeezed his heart.  

And then Maui deflated, fell into himself like a puppet without its strings, right at the bottom of the sea, and pulled his arms around himself.   

And he breathed, slow and deep, forced his messed-up thoughts to slow down, calm enough so he could listen to them.   

Moana was alive.   

But she-   

Maui furrowed his brows, his mouth twitched, before he forcefully pushed the thought down.   

Yes, she had died. But she was alive. The Gods gave her back. He asked for it, and they granted his wish.   

She was alive.   

She was on their little boat, probably worried sick, because it was the middle of the night and he had just flown off like that.   

A sharp pull on his chest made him hiss, and he glared at Mini Maui, who had twisted his nipple to get his attention.   

The cheeky thing winked at him and pointed to the surface, mimicked him swimming upwards.  

And he did, breaking the surface with a gasp, the gills at his neck (that he honestly didn’t even notice changing into in the first place) automatically changing back into flat skin.   

He heaved a breath, let the current pull him in, lying on his back, and stared up at the stars.   

He felt numb and exhausted, a bone deep tiredness spreading in his body that he had seldomly felt before.   

He breathed.   

And he flew back, because of course he did.   

Moana was already waiting for him when he finally found the boat again, all tense shoulders and terrified eyes.   

He changed back into his human form, rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, and before he could even so much as utter an apology, he had two arms full of former-human-now-demigoddess flung around his neck.   

“I’m sorry”, he whispered against the top of her head, wrapped his arms around her back, and, for the first time since leaving that gods-damned island to fight Nalo, let himself relax, let his shoulders slump and drop the act of Maui, the untouchable.  

“I’m sorry.”, the demigod repeated then, because it didn’t feel enough, not for leaving her like this, not for disappointing her and not with the way her arms stayed curled around his neck, her face pressed against his chest. She was shaking. “I’m sorry- I couldn’t- I needed to clear my head, it’s..”  

He didn’t want to talk about it.   

He knew he should.  

It would eat at him, swallow him whole every time he closed his eyes- Maui knew that.   

So, he forced his thoughts at least somewhat in order and his mouth to cooperate with him at least a little.  

“You lost so much today. I don’t- I’m so sorry, I-“  

“Why are you sorry?”, Moana cut him off, confusion visible in every inch of her face when she turned her head to stare at him. “You did everything you could, Maui. We would’ve all died if it hadn’t been for you! You pulled Motufetu out of the ocean- it was thanks to you that-“  

But Maui shook his head.  “You died, Mo. It’s thanks to me that you died!”  

And Moana, wonderful, amazing Moana, smiled at him. A sad, little thing that looked more like a grimace than anything, but a smile, nonetheless.  

“And that I came back too.”  

“Yes, but- I don’t.. I don’t think I’ve ever-“, he grumbled, cursed in a language long lost to the sea people. “I’ve never been so afraid. Seeing you like that- just.. just lying there.. I can’t- I can’t get it out of my head. I see it, every time I blink, I-“  

“And how do you think it was for me, watching you fall out of the sky like that?!”, Moana shot back, smile now gone, her voice betraying the same fear he felt. “You’re my best friend- you can’t just leave me like that! You’re all I have, Maui. I can’t deal with this alone. I- I need you!”  

He swallowed everything else that he wanted to say, felt the words turn into ash on his tongue.   

“I know.”, he muttered, tightening his arms around her. “I know and- and I’m here. We’re getting through this, yeah?”   

She nodded, and he nodded with her.   

And for a while they stood there, and both of their hearts calmed down, and slowly, Maui felt the missing piece slot right back into his chest, a weight leave his shoulders he didn’t know was there in the first place.  

“You’re my best friend too, you know that, right?”, he whispered against her head eventually, trying for one of his usual grins. “Just thought I would, you know, mention that. I also think you’re my only friend. Just don’t- Don’t tell Moni. I think he thinks we’re besties or something and honestly, I don’t..”  

He could feel her chuckle, and he rambled on, until their breathing calmed down even more, the tension lower.   

And together they sat at the front of the boat, their legs dangling in the sea, side by side, until the sun peaked out from under the horizon, talking about everything and nothing, debating her new, still unknown, powers and how much her village would freak out if they noticed how many other people they had found that were currently following them to Motunui.   

And they breathed, and Maui calmed down, and the raging fire in his chest turned into a simmer.   

He would make Nalo pay.   

But it could wait a bit.   

..   

Only when the ragtag group of humans (plus one kakamora, one chicken, one bacon- you get the gist) returned to Motunui, did Maui step away from Moana’s side and away. Not too far- never too far, especially not now, with both of them in the mental state they were in, with both of them as high strung and anxious as they were.   

Curly allowed him all of three days to hide away from all the new humans around him, before she grabbed him and pulled him along to ‘ mingle’ . (“ I promise you, nobody holds the thing with Te Fiti against you anymore. Everyone knows why you did it and that you brought it back. Don’t worry so much, you big baby .”)   

(He informed her, for the hundredth time, that she had been the one to bring it back, but as always, Moana ignored him.)  

It took Maui two days to decide he hated ‘ mingling’ .  

She laughed at him when she found out but allowed him to hide away in her bure until most of the humans went to sleep every night and he could steal the new demigoddess away.   

They talked, a lot. About what she wanted to do now that she was no longer mortal, about how her life would change, and- after she called a storm that nearly wrecked her village one time- Maui helped her control her newfound powers to the best of his own abilities.   

Turns out, giving the whirlwind of a girl the power to control storms and (even more so than before) power over the sea that were both connected to her (very often very explosive) temper and emotions, had not been the best idea the Gods ever had.  

Not even top five, if you asked him, but who even did nowadays?!    

So, Maui had to stay behind to play babysitter until Moana had her new powers under control (at least mostly) and Maui was (pretty) sure she wouldn’t call the ocean to help her drown the whole island in her sleep accidentally.   

Which only almost happened once or twice.. or something along those lines.   

Look, nightmares were a real pain in the ass. And dying had the unfortunate side effect of vivid nightmares. And nightmares plus emotion driven powers was an equation he probably didn’t have to solve for you, right?  

The demigod lost count of how many times the two of them had gotten drenched by both rain and sea water or almost blown away by incredibly strong gusts of wind, just because he pissed Moana off (again). He had kind of a talent for that, apparently.   

But they worked through it, and then, three months after their return from Nalo, Maui got restless.   

Two months later, Moana did too.   

And then, a month after that, their combined temper had gotten bad enough that Chief Tui and Sina packed them enough food and water to last two weeks and sent them off to go look for other islands or something, just please, get back to the ocean so you can stop glaring daggers at everyone who so much as utters the word ‘water’ in either of your presents.   

(It was a testament to how bad it had gotten, that not even Simea tried to stop them.)   

Quickly, this became a regular thing, the two of them off on their own adventures, until in what felt like the blink of an eye, three years had passed and somehow, being close to Moana had changed him, had filled the cracks and sewn the rips shut that his parents’ abandonment had left all those years ago, a wound that he hadn’t even known was still open, but finally started to heal.   

She knew how he ached for approval, for love, from the humans who had hurt him so much.   

She knew everything, had seen him stripped bare of his titles and schemes and tricks, and she’d gotten to know not Maui the trickster, not Maui the demigod who had no weakness and knew no fear- but just Maui, just him, who loved red berries but hated the blue ones, who loved teasing her, loved sailing more than anything- Maui, who loved lazing around in the sun on their canoe, who rode with her into every storm, who made her smile because whenever she frowned, his world felt a little bit wrong.   

And for the first time in 3000 years, he wasn’t alone.   

And he learned more about her too, about her fear of doing the wrong thing, and disappointing her ancestors, of how much she missed her grandma, how much it frustrated her that she still had troubles with her powers, how afraid she was of hurting someone, of being forced to go back to the way things were before, being stuck on land, forced to live a life away from the water she so desperately loved.   

He promised her that he would never let anyone cage her like that, would never allow them to cut her wings ever again, no matter how much the one holding the knife loved her.    

She belonged to the sea, more even than he did. He wouldn’t let anyone take that from her.   

And so, somehow, in between all their travels and exploring, and the coming home and watching the villages grow around them, three years turned into ten, and when they returned to Motunui that summer, it was to a sick Tui and Sina, and thirteen-year-old Simea, who stretched herself thin trying to help everyone and keep everything together, who had burst into tears the second her eyes met Moana’s, and broken down.  

..  

They stayed after that, sharing a bure on the outskirts of the village, close enough to be there whenever they were needed, but far enough to keep the little space they so desperately needed.   

When the day came, Moana didn’t break down, didn’t let a single tear slip, until everyone else’s had dried and Simea was safely tucked away on her sleeping mat.   

She turned to Maui, and he took one look at her face, scrunched up in to much pain that it felt like his own heart cried out, and he pulled her in his arms, as gently as he could.   

She cried until the sun came up again.   

Later, she told him she envied him sometimes, not having to worry about mortal parents and all that.  

He thought back to the times they spent on the island, the walks around the beach with Tui, the times Sina had helped him work through something or helped him calm down when he and Moana had one of their arguments.  

Even later, he told her he envied her way more often, having had the most amazing parents anyone- mortal or not- could ever wish for.   

“Im glad you’re here with me, Maui.”, she’d whispered, voice broken from hours of crying.   

“Hey”, he’d nudged her, and tightened his arms around her. “That’s what best friends are for, right?”   

They developed a new routine pretty quickly. Whereas before, they stayed on the ocean as much as they could, they now only went when the land became too much for the two demigods, both of them hesitant to leave Simea and the rest of her people alone- and painfully aware of the fact that until her sister was old enough, Moana was still the chief.   

It felt suffocating at times, but Maui would do it a hundred times over if it meant being there for his favorite humans.   

..   

“I don’t think I really realized it before.”, Moana whispered into the silence of their shared bure where both of them had been pretending to be asleep for the last hour.   

Maui hummed questioningly, and turned his head to look at her as if he could see her face through the thick cloud of darkness all around them, yawning.   

The demigod had a hard time falling asleep on the land after being on sea for as long as they had. He missed the stars, missed the soft back and forth of the waves lulling him to sleep, missed the quiet of it being just the two of them. At least for the few hours a day where the sun was gone and the rest of the island slept, because usually as soon as the sun came up, Simea burst into their room, demanding to spend time with him (and hide her from her sister’s lessons) while Moana handled things in the village until the girl was old enough to take over.   

Moana didn’t answer immediately. Instead, the silence hung between them, broken by the far away sound of waves crashing against shore and-  

“I think I’m starting to realize what it means to be immortal.”  

He cocked an eyebrow against the roof of their hut. “How so?”  

She swallowed and when she continued, her voice was tense, forcefully kept calm, and both of his eyebrows shot up in surprise. “I mean I- Eventually they just, you know- die. They all do- humans I mean. W- They die. Like my.. It’s just something they do.”   

She took a deep breath, and Maui felt his heart break, just a little, for her.   

“I mean, Loto will die, at some point. She’s what, like thirty now? Moni too- he's even older than her. I will.. I’ll outlive both of them and..”  

Maui forgot how to breath for a moment, and all thoughts stopped, his heart stuttered to a halt when Moana turned towards him and in the soft glow of her tattoos the demigod could see the tear tracks, and the deep exhaustion on her face, and her eye bags, and a bone deep sadness that he hadn't seen in himself in over a thousand years.   

“Maui?”, she asked, and her soft voice almost broke him, ripped his heart in two and stomped it into the ground.   

He turned to fully face her and slid closer, close enough so she knew he was here, close enough to be a shoulder to lean on, to show her he was there for her.   

“What is it, Mo?”  

She sniffed and the sound was like a punch to the guts.   

“I can’t do this, I-” and she looked at him and fresh tears rolled down her cheeks, her arms tightly hugged around her shaking shoulders, and her voice was barely audible when she continued. “I’ll lose her too, won’t I? She's gonna- She'll die. Just like- like they all do and-”   

A whine rang through the bure, a sound so full of pain and grief, Maui had to blink the tears away himself. He reached out and pulled, drew Moana right against his chest, wrapped his arms around her and let her cry against him.   

“I can’t- I-”  

Maui shushed her, it would be fine, they would get through this, they would figure something out, they-   

“I can’t bury my sister too.”  

Chapter Text

Watching Simea grow up felt like a dream to him, sometimes.  

She was bold and cheeky, knew exactly what she wanted and how to get it, but also curious and eager to learn. Moana taught her how to listen to the people, how to fix their problems and find the diplomatic solution, how to find herself in the chaos, how to make time for herself and figure out what she wanted to do with her life.  

Maui taught her how to get her way, how to slip away when it got too much, how to listen to her instincts and charm her way through almost every obstacle.  

He also taught her how to tease her sister, how to prank and trick her way to the top, taught her that sometimes, other people played dirty and sometimes, she needed to do it too.  

Both of them taught her how to sail, but Simea had never shown the same connection to the sea that her sister had.  

Her passion was the sky, as Maui figured out on accident one time when the girl was around fourteen of fifteen and jumped on his back right when he was about to transform and take flight.  

Moana had been terrified when she heard the ecstatic screams.  

But Simea had always known exactly what she wanted, so there was no stopping her from using her puppy dog eyes to get Maui to fly her around whenever she wanted. The demigod was infuriatingly powerless against them- even more so than Moana, who usually had at least a chance against them compared to him, who folded like wet tapa cloth.  

And somehow, the years flew by and Simea grew up to be the brightest and cheekiest young woman the village had ever seen, smart and terrifyingly cunning, impatient and rough at times, but always an open ear for her people, always a grin on her face, and by the Gods, Maui had never been prouder- of both her, and Moana and himself, for helping her become the person she’d turned into.  

The years passed by in a blur and sometimes Maui wondered if it wasn’t his own fault for thinking she had the patience to wait for any of them to catch up while she turned into the new Chief of the village, found her place- and found her heart amongst them.  

It felt like he blinked and suddenly she was standing in front of them, one hand clasped around the young man she’d been friends with ever since they were kids, a stubborn look on her face, daring them to say anything about it.   

Neither did- not until she was gone again and Moana turned towards him, and simultaneously they both had burst into laughter. Poor boy had looked one wrong move away from fainting. Never mind the fact that most of the children or young people in the village were now used to the two demigods, had grown up with them in their lives.  

It was easy to forget that Maui could be scary too- or that Moana could be downright terrifying when it came to the heart of her younger sister.  

But it seemed like Simea and Hulo really knew what they wanted, because they stayed with each other for the next fifty years, had four kids, and got buried right next to each other so their spirits could forever remain together.   

He tried to block out the last few years of her life, when she was plagued by sickness and old age, desperately tried to remember her as she had been, lively, curious, impatient and teasing, the younger sister he had never known he wanted.  

Moana took it even worse than him. At times it felt like Simea’s passing was the final nail in a coffin Maui wasn’t even sure had existed up to that point. But he wasn’t surprised, had seen it in himself way too often, when he started out, actively sought out the humans to spend their lifetimes with them, only for every single one to die eventually, and himself to outlive them all.  

It took nearly three years, before either of them had the energy to sail again. It took five, before Maui had the guts to visit the graveside, pay his respects and say goodbye to the younger Waialiki, and another before they finally left, leaving Hano, Simea’s oldest son, in charge of the village.   

And it was only then, in the decades that followed Simea’s death, that Maui noticed Moana growing up. Really growing up- not like the humans did. Their lives weren’t long enough, their fragile bodies didn’t have the energy it took to even begin to really grow up, to understand the world around them, to see and experience everything they could.   

Not in the way Gods and demigods could. Not like him, who had spent thousands of years exploring everything the world had to offer, who helped make the world the humans were so fond of, who had seen them grow as people, had experienced more sunrises that he could count.   

And not like her either, who had saved humanity- twice now, protected them from a power-hungry God, saved them from the eternal darkness, returned the heart of the Goddess Te Fiti, sailed across the seas and found more islands than he could ever remember pulling from the ground in the first place, who had done so much to prove herself, to prove who she was and that she deserved the place she had carved out for herself in the last decades.   

Suddenly she wasn’t the young girl from sixty years ago anymore. Suddenly she was Taotai Moana, the demigoddess of the sea and the storms, wayfinder of the sea folk- and she stole his breath with her strength, with her stubbornness and the confidence she held herself with.   

He admired her, her, who had lost everything, after giving all of herself to save their ocean, their world, their humans.   

And he forgot to breathe sometimes, when she smirked at him, when she helped him fight of some sea monster or another, her movements as fluid as the water, as deadly as his hook. Or when she measured the stars, used her oar with so much confidence that he wondered if she hadn’t been born for this, fated to turn out like this from the very beginning.   

His knees got weak when she called a storm, stood in the middle of the chaos and let the lightning dance on her fingertips, the wind whip her hair around as if it had a mind of its own- or when she danced with the waves, commanded the sea herself, parted the ocean with barely more than a swing of her oar and a ‘thank you’.   

She had grown, turned out to be even more than he had always known she could be.   

And Maui couldn’t be prouder, couldn’t be more amazed by her.   

Honestly, maybe it was more surprising that he hadn’t noticed how fast and how far he had fallen for her before it was too late..  

..

“How is it that the older we get, the more you turn into a child?”  

Maui looked at her, wiping his wet hair out of his face, a grin on his lips.   

Moana shook her head and paled.   

The ocean didn’t answer her call for help.  

He grabbed her foot and pulled her into the water with him, laughing when she glared at him, trying to hide her smile.   

..   

“ Maui, I swear to- Maui, no! ”  

He grabbed his hook tighter with one hand and wrapped his other securely around her arms.   

Her hold around his neck tightened.   

“Maui, yes!”  

He jumped, turned into a giant hawk, and heard Moana scream in a mixture of fear and excitement from her place pressed against his back.   

“ I HATE YOU SO MUCH!”  

He laughed when she tried to argue for just a little bit longer later.   

..   

“Nightmare?”  

He nodded and plopped down next to Moana, who was sitting up against the mast of their little boat, pretending not to notice the glances she sent his way.   

“Are you ever going to tell me what they’re about?”  

Maui shook his head tiredly.   

She sighed, but couldn’t fully hide the amused smile on her face.   

“You know. Someone once told me that talking about stuff usually helps.”  

He grumbled. “Stupid advice, really.”  

Talking never helped. Not really. And Moana had enough on her mind without his worries on top of her own.   

Especially ones so stupid.   

Her chuckle pulled him out of his head, and he smiled before he even noticed it.   

“I thought that too.”, Moana agreed, and pulled him down slightly to lean against her. “I’m here if you wanna talk about them, yeah?”  

Maui nodded, already on his way to falling asleep again, his eyes hooded and muscles limp.   

He nodded, but he already knew he wouldn’t tell her.   

How could he tell her that he still dreamed of the day he’d held her lifeless body in his arms?   

..   

“I’m just saying! A little respect would be real fucking nice!”  

In a great show of wisdom that he usually ignored, Maui held his tongue instead of saying the first thing that popped into his head and let the younger demigoddess stomp around on the beach, kicking sand up wherever she went.   

“I mean-“, she growled, and threw a stone in the water, which managed to look equally unimpressed and insulted at the (not Maui’s words, definitely not Maui’s words) childish gesture. “That’s not expecting too much, is it?! I saved them- their families! And suddenly when I enter the village it’s all ‘who’s that’ and ‘what’s the outsider doing here?’ Hello?! I thought being a demigoddess meant people would finally stop undermining me !”  

He exchanged a look with his tattoo, vaguely remembered the time he started out, how everyone belittled him, how the Gods thought him cute for thinking he could ever change something or accomplish anything.   

A rumble in the clouds pulled him from his musings and he noticed the soft glow of her tattoos.   

So much for keeping himself out of this one.   

He sighed and fought against the sailor's instinct in him that told him to run away from the storm that was bubbling up in her right now.   

“Look, Curly-“   

Wrong thing.   

Moana whipped around, lighting buzzing up her arm, her tattoos sparkling.   

He gulped.   

Been a while since he got electrocuted.   

Maui mentally prepared himself, when suddenly, Moana seemed to fall into herself, all fight leaving her body, and gave him the meanest stink eye he’d ever gotten.   

“Why do they respect you but not me?”  

Oh.   

He shook his head, came over and hesitantly sat down in the sand next to her.   

“Hey, don’t compare that. I had thousands of years to build up my reputation. You had what? Eighty? Ninety? Besides- without you, they would still hate me for the whole thing with Te Fitis heart. Which you gave back, might I add.”   

He nudged her shoulder with his own. “Besides, you’re Moana! Taotai Moana!”  

A soft smile came over her face before she could push it down.   

Maui smirked, incredibly pleased with himself.   

“Taotai Moana, the great and fabled demigoddess of sea and currents and wayfinder of all folks of the ocean.”   

This time she scoffed and rolled her eyes, and he could practically feel the tension in the air evaporating.   

“Actually, I feel like there should be a ‘hero’ somewhere in there.”  

“Well, you can’t be hero of the people when you’re already wayfinder of all the people.”, he countered teasingly. “That’s just overkill.”  

That got her to burst out laughing. “Oh? Oh really, Mister Shapeshifter, demigod of the wind and sea, Hero of men and women and all- you wanna talk with me about overkill?!”  

Okay, well if she put it like that..   

He didn’t have to look down to see Mini Maui had packed out his stupid tally sheet.   

He grumbled and shrugged, leaning back on his palms to stretch his face into the sun, an idea in his head that he probably should think more about before executing, but oh well, he was Maui- he wasn’t known for thinking things through.  

“Well, do you want to be a hero then?”  

She turned her head slightly to look at him out of the corner of her eyes, calculating. “mh?”  

“I mean” Maui dusted his hands off and jumped up, pulling her up alongside him, ignoring her yelp. “Do you want to be a hero to them?”  

Moana shrugged. “Yeah? No- maybe? I don’t know! I just want some respect from them! So-“  

Maui cut her off with a finger to her lips.   

He ignored the tingle that went down his forearm.   

Really, he’d already given her so much of his, what difference would it make?   

“Then from now on, you’re Taotai Moana, great and fabled demigoddess of sea and currents, wayfinder of all folks of the ocean and Hero to..“, he took her hand, put it on top of his tattoo of her right over his heart. “ me . Because without you, I would still be sitting on that stupid island, or hanging around in that awfully boring clam. So, uh. There. You saved me. A few times actually. So I made you a Hero. Capital, uh, capital H that is. Like, official title and all that.”  

He shrugged, trying to downplay what had just happened and refused to the react to the fact that his tattoo of her had changed.   

Moana was quiet for a while, big eyes staring at the tattoo, at the new lines and patterns that had wrapped themselves around her inky form.   

He would’ve started getting nervous if it hadn’t been for the slight twitch in her mouth that always signaled her having to work through something in her head before she was able to articulate it.   

Then her fingers moved, tracing the lines, and he had to bite back a gasp at the unexpected movement and foreign buzzing on his skin.   

Mini Maui jumped away from her hand, and Moana seemed to come out of a trance- and the spell was broken.   

She looked up at him with her blinding smile that could put the sun to shame, and eyes that seemed to glow- no, sparkle with happiness, and wrapped her arms around his neck.   

Out of instinct alone, Maui’s arms closed behind her.   

He hoped she couldn’t feel the way his heart was pounding- and wondered why in the Gods name it did that in the first place.  

..  

“’ Only used her to get your hook back’ , weren’t those your exact words?”  

Maui glared at Matangi, ignoring the way Moana looked at him- and the lecture he was sure to receive later.   

“Well, look here-“, he began before she cut him off again with an eyeroll.   

Which, first of all, rude ?   

“He was never a good liar.”, she continued towards the other demigoddess in the room, hugging Moana a second time before she let her go. “Do you know he tried to-“  

“AHEm.”, Maui cut in quickly, pulling Moana back to his side, ignoring her call of protest. “Oh wow look at the time, we should really be off now. Nice seeing you and all that, Matangi. Here’s to never seeing each other again, yeah? Bye!”  

Moana was laughing by the end of his speech and even Matangi chuckled.  

Not that it saved him any.   

Moana stubbornly planted her feet in the sand.   

They stayed for a few more hours.   

And for the first time, Maui regretted killing Nalo all those years ago.   

..   

Gods, he hated Lalotai.   

“Hey Maui! Come look at this!”, an excited call cut through his internal complains.   

He hated Lalotai, but maybe it wasn’t so bad with Moana at his side, who was back for her first visit after that time they fought Tamatoa and got his hook back.   

He rounded the corner, and stopped when he saw her face, illuminated by the glowing blue and vivid purple light of this world.   

“I swear it wasn’t like this last time we were here. It’s all so- so beautiful!”  

He didn’t take his eyes off of her.   

“Mhm, really is.”  

..   

“Do you think anyone will ever, you know, worship me or something? Cause I’m a demigod and all that and..”, Moana asked one night, when they were out on the boat, looking at the stars and listening to the waves lulling them to sleep. “I mean- not like they worship you, or I might get an ego equally ay big as yours, but still.”  

Maui nudged her with his foot, ignoring the splutter when she rolled over.   

“Nobody can have an ego as big as me, princess.”  

As always, she grumbled about the nickname, and as always, he ignored her.   

“I was just wondering what it would be like, to get that kind of respect and all, you know?”, Moana continued eventually, shrugging.   

Maui could tell there was more to this, but he held his tongue (he was really getting better at that).   

The silence dragged on, their soft breaths the only sound apart from the rushing of water and calm waves crashing against the boat.   

When he looked over, Maui found Moana asleep, her face relaxed, shoulders free of the tension they usually held.   

He turned over to her.   

He rarely noticed how unrelaxed she usually was, always doing something, always buzzing with electricity and the storms that ran through her veins.   

Now she was lying next to him, her hair sprawled out behind her, eyes moving rapidly behind closed lids, breathing deep and even.   

It unnerved him sometimes, how quiet she was when she slept. Especially the first few years after Motufetu and everything that had happened.   

He wondered what it must’ve been like, to grow up like her, with a village so supportive but also so stifling, so loving but also never allowing her to go after her dreams, after the one thing that called her, that ran through her blood and sung in her heart, to constantly be undermined and questioned, to the point that even being a demigoddess wasn’t enough to qualm this constant need of proving herself, demanding the respect they should’ve been given to her for her whole life.   

Would she ever be worshipped?   

The question shot like through his chest like a burning arrow, and nestled in his very soul, right behind his heart.   

Didn’t she know he already worshipped her every single day?   

..  

The next time they visited Motunui, Hano, Simea’s oldest son and Moana’s first nephew had died while they were gone.   

Moana barely reacted to the news, apart from the hug she gave her remaining family.   

When Maui asked her later if she was okay, she shrugged.   

“I don’t know.”, she answered, and looked as lost as he felt. “It happened so many times now, I feel like I’m used to it?”  

She didn’t say it out loud, but Maui knew that that feeling was almost worse than the grief.   

..   

Moana looked from him to the cliffside and back, one eyebrow raised.   

Maui looked back, impatiently tapping his foot, an encouraging grin on his face.   

She crossed her arms.  

He broke first.   

“Come on!”, he groaned, rolled his eyes when she smirked. “There’s only like two ways this could go wrong. Maximum. And we’re Gods! Not like we can die anyways.”  

Now that got her, and Moana was shrugging and laughing while Maui did a little victory jump and took off towards the cliffs in a full sprint.   

“Knowing you, you will find at least ten more!”, she called after him and Maui could practically hear the eyeroll before-  

“Alright- wait for me, I want to jump too!”  

..   

Maui looked around the room, laughing awkwardly while getting to his feet, pretending the stares didn’t bother him at all.   

“I’ll just- uhm, you know. Moana should, yeah. Be right back.”  

He gulped and hurried out of the hut, following the screaming and stomping to take off after Moana, definitely only to find her and totally not to run away from the elders back in there. Because they were not scary, not at all, and definitely not terrifying in the slightest.  

He barely set a foot on the beach when she whirled around, her arms crossed, a storm already brewing behind her and anger zapping through her veins.   

“I hate everyone here.”, she hissed, and for the first time, Maui was inclined to believe she really meant that and was not simplifying like usually.   

He sighed, and closed the few feet of distance between them, rubbing his hands down her arms to get rid of the sparks of electricity.   

To say the meeting with the elders of the island they were currently on had been a disaster was an understatement.   

But Maui took a deep breath, nudged her head up and grinned. “Except for me, right? I’m your bestie- you love me, right?”  

A smile hushed over her face, and she shook her head, the burning rage already calming down slightly just by being away from their judging eyes and hurtful words. “I hate you the most, actually.”  

He faked outrage, put an overly dramatic hand to his chest and wiped away fake tears. “Why? I’m lovely!”   

And that did the job and Moana chuckled, before she full on burst into a laugh.  

“You’re the worst, Maui.”  

Somehow, he had a feeling she didn’t mean that.   

The grin stayed on his face for the remainder of the day, long after they had left the island and the waters around it.   

..  

 “I can’t- I can’t do it!” Maui pulled his arms back and crossed them in front of his chest. “I just can’t, okay?”  

Moana stemmed her fists into her hips.   

And look, Maui would never call what he was doing outright pouting but-  

“Are you seriously pouting right now?!”   

Maybe he was.   

“Okay look, this is stupid. I’m going for a swim.”  

He hid the shameful red in his ears behind his hair and walked off the boat, fully expecting to fall face first into the waves.  

Instead, the ocean grabbed him and flung him back on the boat.   

He blinked.   

Moana grinned. “Sooo.. You want to try that again or?”  

Maui rolled his eyes but took her hands, let her guide him through the movements, and he never noticed how the red spread from his ears to his cheeks and down his neck when he finally got them right and they were properly dancing.   

..   

“This is painful to watch.”  

The demigod pulled his eyes away from Moana, who was animatedly talking with Matangi, exchanging new stories and gossip, while Maui sat a bit to the side, close enough to keep them in his eyes but far enough to not get roped into their talks (again).   

He turned to look at Tamatoa, who was lazing around next to him, glaring at Maui as if he had personally offended him (also again).   

“What is?”  

“ You !”, the oversized dinner uttered and shook himself. “And how you look at her. Disgusting, really.”  

Maui raised an eyebrow, turned his attention fully to the not-so-shiny-anymore crab. “Come again?”  

“No, thanks. I’m good, babe.”, he grumbled and rolled his eyes. “Just- stop staring at her like that or I will throw up all over you.”  

Maui glared at him and- not for the first time- asked himself why exactly he hadn’t killed him before and why Tamatoa was now following Matangi around of all beings- and why the hell he was still not killing the stupid crab.   

Maybe Moana had made him weak.   

Maybe the many years around the humans had.   

(Maybe deep, deep down, where Maui didn’t have to deal with it, he was glad that they were on talking level again)  

(Maybe even deeper down, he wondered if they could ever be friends again)  

He scoffed.   

“I’m not looking at her any ‘way’ , you oversized dustcatcher.”  

“ DUSTCATCHER ?! ”  

..  

“I never thought it could ever be like this, you know?”  

Maui turned his head slightly, gave her a questioning hum, and Moana shrugged, nestled against his shoulder until Maui wrapped an arm around her, chuckling.  

They turned back towards the sunset, watched the last rays touch the cliffside beneath them, reflect off of the calm waters below.  

“How?”, he asked, and looked up when the first stars twinkled to live far above them.  

Moana smiled the blinding smile that always made him weak. “Perfect.”  

..

Chapter Text

“Are you actually planning on doing anything to help today or are you going to keep glaring at the water as if it personally offended you?”, Moana’s voice pulled Maui out of his musings, and when he glanced up, she stood over him, arms crossed in front of her chest, an amused look on her face. “Cause I don’t mind if you do, but you’re kind of in my way, so scooch over.”  

Maui shook the stupor off, and when he fully came back to the present, he moved a bit to the side. “Sorry”  

Moana stopped in her tracks, turned back around to him, and raised an eyebrow. “You never apologize. What’s going on?”  

The demigod waved her off with a chuckle.  

“It’s nothing. Got stuck remembering a few things. I’m good now. Let me just-”, he scooched over to the other side of the boat to get himself something to eat, because that was always a good idea when one is confused or doesn’t want to answer questions. Certified Maui tip right there, folks. “There you go. Continue.”  

She moved to where he had been sitting and leaned down, feeling for the current she was following in the water.  

“Oh wow, the great Maui moved three feet away. Thank you so mu- no, don't say it, I-”  

“You’re welcome.”, he cut her off, ignoring the groan that followed and the splash of water that the ocean threw at him.  

“Are you ever going to let that one die? Maui, it’s been decades!”, Moana complained and pulled her hand back out, shook the water off in his direction and threw her arms in the air. “I swear I get that stupid song stuck in my head every time you say it. It’s so annoying!”  

“Nope.”, he replied while rummaging through the fruit basket they filled to the brim on the last island they had ventured on. “And excuse you?! The song is amazing . You just don’t recognize talent when you see it.”  

He grinned when he found the handful of red berries, and grabbed an apple too, before he came back to stand by Moana’s side at the very front of their boat, completely ignoring her grumbling.  

“Are we even- oh, damn, these are good. Definitely need to go back there before we go anywhere else! Uhm, oh yeah- Are we still on course? Haven’t seen anything but water for like two days now.”  

Moana shrugged, her eyes glued to the horizon, while the ocean splashed against the side of the boat as if to ask him why the hell he was questioning her skills.  

He held his palms up as if to apologize to it, before leaning down to stick his hand in the waves, only to pull it back out almost immediately, shaking the cold out of it.   

“We’re definitely a good way from home.”, the demigoddess answered, her oar tightly grasped in one hand, watching the waves for any sign of change, before shrugging and turning to look at him. “Do you really think there are others this far out? It’s been months since we started on Motufetu and there’s still two islands left to find.”  

Their newest goal was to find all the islands that were carved into the wall on Motufetu back when they had first discovered the island. They’d been at it for- Maui wasn’t even sure how long at this point.  

He shrugged. “Beats me. I mostly stayed around here. I rarely went out further than here. Not a fan of the cold. Thinking back on it though, I did fly over to the other landmasses way further out before. Wonder how they’re doing. Not that big on sailing over there.”   

“I’m starting to think we found them all.”, she mused, and Maui looked over to see her already staring at him.  

He shook his head. “Nah, there’s still some people out there, I just can’t remember where.”  

It’s been a few hundred years since he ventured out, after all.  

Actually, make that more like a thousand, considering he had been stuck on that stupid island before Moana found him way back when.  

“Well, we could definitely use some help finding them..”  

The demigoddess stuck her oar in the water, and closed her eyes, and Maui grinned. Watching her in her element was always a great way to pass the time.  

Moana seemed to glow, not just her tattoos- though they certainly regained a life of their own whenever she tapped into the godly power the ancestors and Nalo left her.  

A deep, vivid gold snaked itself around her arm, her eyes moving rapidly behind closed lids, and Maui knew she saw all the ways, all the possible turns, all the currents, saw every beach and every cliff, every place those ways could take them.  

The golden glow moved, weaved itself around her oar and into the waves, at the same time a smirk lit up her face like a Christmas tree (Again, future people would understand, Maui was sure of that), and from there it spread, moved until it was one with the water.  

When Moana opened her eyes, she had to blink the gold out of them, but the grin grew, and Maui turned to steer their little boat into the golden waves.  

“There we go!”, he chuckled and stepped back once Moana had shaken off the rest of the power and grabbed the lines, let her do her thing, while he stretched his arms high over his head, letting his back pop a few times.  

“Getting old, are you?”  

Excuse me?   

Maui whirled around on one foot. “Excuse me?! Who you’re calling old, granny? I-“  

And Moana gaped at him, oar suddenly back in her tight grasp.  

“GRANNY?! I’ll shove this oar up your backside if you call me a granny again, you oversized child.”  

Maui made a show of letting his eyes roam over her face before he poked her right between the eyes, only to jump back out of the way of her oar.    

“Yes. Granny. See? There’s some wrinkles already. And here-“, he darted forwards to poke her flawless cheek. “’nother one. Told ya, Mo, you’re getting old. You’re what, like a century now? More or less?”  

And she looked ready to smite him (not that she had that kind of power, thank the Gods), but she stopped and leaned on her oar instead, face thoughtful.  

“I think it’s about to be a century, actually. How long have we been sailing for this time?”, she asked him, to which they both shrugged. “Yeah, I can’t remember either. We really need to start writing this down somewhere.”  

“And become predictable? “ Maui shook himself. “Why would we do something like that? That’s boring.”  

Moana turned away from him, trying (unsuccessfully) to hide the grin on her face by looking up at the slowly darkening sky to search for the stars to guide them further now that the golden glow was slowly subsiding.  

And she had done so a million times, and he had watched her a million times, but suddenly Maui couldn’t pull his eyes away.  

They stayed glued to her profile, her soft skin, being lit up by the last rays of evening sun, big brown doe eyes that looked like liquid gold when they caught the sunlight, her hair wild and flying around her shoulders in the breeze.   

Maui’s hands twitched at his sides when he noticed the strands that fell into her face, a sudden, almost undeniable desire to push them away and tuck them behind her ear.   

She was still wearing her grandmother’s necklace, now filled with the last shell Kaia, her youngest great-niece, had given her before they departed, and it practically glowed from its place around her neck, a constant reminder of who she was and what they’d been through together.   

His eyes roamed over her, mouth suddenly dry.   

She’d always been pretty, always been cute, but damn- how’d he never notice just how beautiful she was nowadays?   

With the red- died pareo wrapped around her hips and the new short white top that left her lean stomach open and-  

He blinked, pretended it didn’t take as much effort to pull his eyes away as it did.   

Mini Maui was slapping him on the chest, trying to get his attention, and when he looked down at the lively tattoo, it glared at him as if to ask what the hell that had been.   

He shrugged, because honestly, no idea.   

And then his eyes went back to stare at her against his will, like a starved man in the desert, and he followed the curve of her nose, over the full lips and down her chin and-  

“Of course you’d think that’s boring.”, her amused voice broke him from his trance, and Maui shook the weird feeling in his stomach away. “I forgot that predictability scares you.”  

“Hey! Nothing scares me.”, he quipped back automatically, and looked away when Moana turned back to him, finally done looking at the sky, full attention back on him.   

He pretended that did not make him feel as good as it actually did.   

He was not jealous of the sky. He was not .   

“Ah yes, great Maui, hero of all.” She rolled her eyes when he playfully preened under the praise. “You’re impossible.”  

That finally broke him from the weird feeling, and he settled back into his skin with a soft sigh.   

“So. What do you want to do for the big 100?”, the demigod asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest and leaning against the mast, head crocked to the side to study her (some more). “I know we don’t really do birthdays or that stuff, but we have to celebrate the century. We could settle down somewhere for a night or two? Go back to Motunui or Motufetu? Your people would probably go crazy trying to prepare a feist worthy of celebrating your first century.”  

He laughed at the last part, even more when he noticed the uncomfortable look on her face and the way she shook herself before coming to rest next to him with a nod.   

“No, thank you. Definitely not that. They overdo it every time we come back home as it is.”, she agreed with a shudder before looking around, letting her eyes roam over the unknown waters around them. “We can always go back to that island we found a month ago or so? With the tall trees where you almost broke your neck trying to race me to the top?”  

Flabbergasted, Maui raised an eyebrow and glared at his traitor of a best friend.   

“I didn’t ‘almost break my neck’, princess, -“ “still not a princess.”  “-I was trying to protect you from the wild beasts that were roaming around that island. Because I’m awesome and I would never lose a race- or fall down a tree, for that matter. Because Maui doesn’t lose.”  

She raised an eyebrow of her own (a move she had totally stolen from him). “Oh yeah? Why do I have a perfect recollection of you falling then?”  

“To make yourself feel better about losing to someone as amazing as-“  

Before he could end his sentence, Moana had swung around on her left foot, planted it behind his right and pulled both of his clean out from under him.   

He blinked.  

She smiled.   

Mini Maui gave her a point on this stupid tally list of his.   

And Maui tried very hard not to let the warmth he felt pull him under again, when the innocent smile turned into a self-assured, confident, smirk.   

He had to bite his tongue to not tell her how hot that had been.   

He felt heat creep up his neck and ears, but couldn’t care less, eyes glued to the smirk on her face, the glow in her eyes, the way her muscles moved under her skin and-  

Moana stuck her hand out, and the spell was broken.    

“Okay okay, Maui can lose to one.” He ruffled her hair when he had pulled himself up again. “Oh Taotai Moana, great demigoddess of the sea and the currents, wayfinder of all the people of the ocean, Hero to the great Maui.”  

Moana shivered, but the grin didn’t leave her face when she pushed his hand away and leaned back against the mast.   

“That’s what I thought.”  

The lingering warmth in his guts exploded when she winked at him, and bit into the apple he honestly had no recollection of her stealing from him in the first place.   

Maui had a feeling was he was in deep trouble. Somehow.  

..  

And it took him another week for his stubborn brain to finally catch up with what was happening, another full week of glowing and buzzing and tingles on his skin and feelings in his stomach and confusion and smiles and warmth and-  

They ended up sailing back to the island Moana had been talking about, with Maui unable to take his eyes off her, unable to stop staring when the light reflected off her skin, of the way her pareo hugged her hips perfectly, how his whole world seemed to light up whenever she smiled at him.  

And he didn’t get it, couldn’t understand what in the Gods names had changed or how to change it back, but the squishy feeling was back in his stomach, made him heat up from the inside, flush his cheeks and ears and turn his words into gibberish.  

They still bickered, they still teased each other and curled up together under the stars, but something, somehow, at some point, had changed- and Maui couldn’t understand what.  

Her smile made him weak, her hugs made him tingle, her touch made him melt with need and want and- and he just didn’t understand.  

Her confidence before had made him proud- now it made him flush, made his heart pound harder, blood rushing into his cheeks whenever she managed to push him to the ground when they playfought or trained.  

Before, she had been cute, sweet even- and suddenly she was gorgeous, beautiful, the only thing he wanted to look at for the rest of eternity. And some of those things had been true for a while now, but only then, in the week after he first felt the warmth in his guts, did the demigod notice them, realize they had been there all along.  

And even once they reached the island, it took two more days for Maui to realize, to finally, finally , after years and years of loving Moana, realize he was in love with her.  

..  

They were sitting on a cliffside Maui vaguely remembered holding a competition on who could jump farther into the waves before.  

Moana was next to him, staring at the ocean beneath them, her face free of worries, free of tension or stress, talking about their next adventure, what they should do, where they should go.  

And Maui tried to follow along, tried to hold onto what she was talking about, but he could only think about how beautiful she looked right there, right then.  

Besides, he told himself, what difference would it make? He would follow her anyways, would follow her to the ends of this world- had followed her to the end of the world already, right into Te Ka’s arms, right into Nalo’s storm. He’d sacrificed his hook for her, gave up his powers for her. He’d made her a wayfinder, made her a hero- made her his Hero.  

Maui knew there was no place Moana could go where he wouldn’t follow, not in this life and not in the next.  

Not after everything they’d been through together, not after she had sneaked her way into his heart, forgone all his barriers and nestled right into the thing, healing it, one day spent lazing around, one night spent talking until sunrise, at a time.  

He glanced at the beach far down beneath them to the point where they had put down their camp for the next few nights, to his hook and her oar, intertwined, stuck in the sand. Just like they’d always been.  

There was no Maui without Moana, he realized then. He had changed, so much so that he wasn’t sure who he was without her anymore.  

He was drawn to her, like a moth to the flame, like the sea to the beach, like her heart to the ocean.  

He sat there, the most wonderful, amazing being right next to him, and-  

Oh.  

Maui blinked.  

Looked at Moana.  

Blinked again.  

Oh.  

And suddenly it hit him, like a slap to the face, like a splash of water, like the sudden rumble of thunder right above you.  

He was an idiot.  

Oh he was such an idiot.  

All those times, all those moments, all the jokes they’d shared, all the laughter, all the cuddling and talking, all the hugging and the playfights, all the teasing and bickering and adventuring and sunrises and sunsets and- them , him and her, Moana and Maui-  

He loved her.  

Maui shook his head.  

He was in love with her .  

It slotted into his heart like a missing piece, like something he had missed without even knowing it existed, like the one truth humans were so desperately looking for.  

He was in love with Moana- of course he was! He loved her so much that it seemed to burst right out of his chest and snake its way out of his mouth, wrap her up in it.  

And once the realization hit him, it was like a gate had opened and suddenly he understood, really understood, what had been happening- not just over the last week, but the last years, decades even.  

Moana had sneaked her way into his heart, yes, but she had gotten so, so much deeper than he ever thought she could- anyone could, really.  

This little girl who’d come stumbling into his life almost a century ago, who had turned into this beautiful, amazing, smart, confident demigoddess that allowed him to call her friend, that liked him- somehow- enough to stick around.. Honestly, how could he not have fallen in love with her?  

Moana was everything, she was his mornings and evenings, he spent all his nights and days with her, thinking about her, surrounded by her. She had given him so much, given him his life back, given him the confidence to be himself, given him the opportunity to reconcile with his friends- she had shown him who he could be, made him realize that who he thought he was had been nothing more than an act he put on for the world as much as himself.  

He could be himself around her, could be the person he never allowed himself to be.  

Maui smiled, a soft, gentle little thing that he so rarely let anyone see.  

What was there not to love about Moana?  

Maybe it should’ve shocked him more. Maybe, a few decades ago, it would have.  

Now, sitting here, looking at the most gorgeous being in all the worlds, it didn’t, not at all.  

Because loving her was what he had been doing for so long now. It was them, sitting on their boat, sailing to the horizon.  

It was them, watching the sunset.  

It was them, holding each other close when the nights got colder.   

It was them, sitting around the fire, talking for hours.   

It was them and their quiet, their calm, and their excitement and the teasing and the laughter and everything else.   

It was warmth and home and a love unlike anything he’d ever experienced. It made his skin tingle and buzz.   

It was perfect in all the good ways.   

And it also felt normal. As normal as breathing, as normal as steering the boat into the current she called up to take them to a new destination, as normal as changing his skin, as normal as her hand in his.  

He tried to think back to how long he had been in love with her, but found he couldn’t quite pick a date. Somehow, the place she held in his heart had changed, and Maui had no idea how or when.   

But that was okay, because now he knew. And because Maui wasn’t a wait-around-and-plan type of guy, he turned towards his goddess and hesitantly, with as much care as his shaking hands could muster, he tucked her hair back, gave himself a front row seat to the blinding smile Moana sent him.   

“I love you”, he said then, the words coming to him as natural as breathing, because how couldn’t he? When she looked at him like that, so full of excitement and joy, so amazed and happy and wonderous and-  

And Moana grinned and it was like the sun started shining, and turned her head slightly, just enough to press her lips softly against his palm.   

“I think you’re officially the last to figure that out.”  

And then she was laughing, and he was laughing too- because of course she’d already known! She knew him better than anyone else, had always known him better than even himself.  

She was amazing like that.   

“I love you too.”, she replied then, once their laughter died down. “Just, uh, for the record.”  

And then this wonderful, amazing woman pulled him closer and pressed their foreheads together in a hongi.   

And they’d done this a million times by now, but this time it felt different, as if the lighting from her storms zapped over to him and through his whole body, and her breath wrapped around his lungs and squeezed and left him lightheaded.   

And it felt like a question and a promise, and a truth and certainty and warmth, and love and home and future and eternity and Maui-  

Maui let her pull him closer, let her close the gap between them, and did as he had done for the last hundred years;  

He fell even more for her and followed her, right down into the patch of gras, let her take control and the storms rage around them.  

.  

.  

.  

Maui loved falling, falling from high trees, falling from mountains, from cliffs and rocks-  

But there was nothing he loved as much as falling for Moana, Taotai Moana, his great and fabled demigoddess of sea and currents, wayfinder of all folks of the ocean, Hero of Maui, and keeper of his heart.  

Forever.