"And it's just so nice being out on the water again, you know?" Moana explains as she and Maui make their way down the shore. "I thought for sure I'd never be able to get back out on the water like you and I were again, but everyone else really enjoys it too!" She says, and pauses to glance over at him to see if he's still listening. When she catches him watching her, confirmation that he is, her grin only widens as she continues on. "It's just so exciting getting to be out on the water with my people, because I really feel connected with my ancestors when we take those giant fleets out exploring, right?" She continues, practically bouncing up and down in the sand as the two of them walk. "Everyone kind of gets that way, too. Everyone just seems so at ease on the water, almost more than they do out on land, and nobody ever seems to want to leave the water once they're on it! It's really incredible"
"Pssh," Maui laughs beside her. "I must be lucky I caught you on land at all then, Curly. If the rest of your people are anything like you at all I'm surprised you haven't abandoned the island to go live on those canoes out in the water"
Moana punches him square in the shoulder. "Oh, hush" she rolls her eyes playfully. "Besides, we haven't even been out as many times as you'd think. Even I've only been out on the water about three or four times since I've gotten home"
That almost makes Maui stop in his tracks, laughing. "Okay, now that I find hard to believe. What else could you have possibly been doing since you got back?"
"Oh, you know" Moana grins, elbowing him in the side. "Daughter of the Chief stuff. Y'know," she starts, and drops her voice a few octaves to mock his. "Kissing babies 'n things".
This time Maui does actually stop in his walking. He crosses his arms over his chest and glares at her. "Ha ha" Maui comments dryly. "Seriously Curly, what've you been up to?" He asks, and plants his hook down into the sand so he can lean on it. "Must be one interesting story if it's keeping the Chosen One off of the waves" he says, grinning smugly as he plants his chin in one of his hands. Moana rolls her eyes.
"Well, then I hate to disappoint you, O Demigod of the Wind and Sea" Moana recites, dropping into a sarcastic half-bow. "But it's not the dangerous, adventurous tale you're probably expecting"
"Oh?" Maui raises an eyebrow, his smug grin only growing wider. "Try me"
Moana rolls her eyes, punching him in the shoulder again. "Well, if you must know, I did say my people were all like me when it came to being out on the water right?"
"Loud and clear, Chosen One"
"Right. So that means that they all love doing it and would go out on the water at the drop of a bird's feather" She starts. "Which should make it easy, right? I get home, tell my people hey, the water's all clear, that means we can go, and we all go, right?"
"Well, yeah," Maui replies, "But that's still not answering my question"
"You see, that's the thing" Moana continues. "It should've been easy. Except none of my people knew how to sail. So as much as I wanted to head right back out, I couldn't, because I had to teach everyone on the island how first. And I mean everyone" she says, shaking her head in amusement.
"So before I could even step foot back on my canoe, I had to teach every willing person on the island how to sail. It took a few good months, but eventually everyone caught on and we were able to head out again. Remember when you flew by the canoe I was on with my parents? That was actually our first trip out! Caught us right on our second day on the water, too" Moana grins, but when she turns to look at Maui again he's sort of blinking in confusion.
"It took you…months to teach your own people to sail?"
"Well yeah, but that's probably because I was the only person teaching them how" Moana snorts, and elbows him in the ribs. "Probably would've gone a lot faster if there were two of us teaching them, hmm?" She jokes, and an amused smile spreads across his face before confusion overcomes it again and he waves a dismissive hand in her direction.
"No, that's not what I meant" he starts. "You and your people are descended from voyagers, right? The people who sailed around the world and kinda discovered Oceania itself?"
And now Moana's the one blinking in confusion. "Um, yeah?" She says. "Why?"
"Then, by extent, shouldn't that be something your people already know how to do?"
Moana blinks again. "I didn't know how to sail when I found you"
"Yeah, but I just assumed that was because you were terrible at it" Maui shrugs, and laughs when her confusion melts into a heartfelt glare. "You were just a kid, I mean" He explains, and leans further on his hook. "I thought for sure it was because your parents hadn't taught you how yet or something" he says, and shakes his head. "So tell me, Chosen One" he starts, amusement mixing into his clear confusion. "If your people love voyaging so much, and you're clearly descended from voyagers, how come nobody on Motunui knew how to sail when you got home?" He asks, and Moana goes to answer, she really does, but a good look at whom she's talking to has her clamping down on her response.
Before she'd left to find him, she'd been wondering the same exact thing. Why, if her beloved people seemed to love the sea so much, did they stop voyaging? There were no stories she could think of at the time to explain why they'd stopped, even as she wandered around the Cavern of the Ancestors. Sure, a good number of the boats were worn out, and it was a rare find to come across a canoe without a torn sail, but Moana had just assumed they were that way from too many years of neglect, slowly being torn apart by the heavy moisture of the cavern air. No matter where she looked, she could not find a single answer as to why anywhere in the cavern.
So when she found herself sprinting out of the cavern, arms in the air, ecstatically yelling about how her people were once voyagers, always out on the sea, exploring brand new islands everywhere they roamed, she decided to ask her grandmother instead. Because if Tala was alone in knowing about their people's voyaging past, she was sure to know why they stopped too, right?
Maui, Tala had explained, with something approaching hatred hidden in her voice. It was all Maui's fault they stopped doing what they loved. It was Maui's fault the boats stopped coming back, the reason so many people lost their beloved families to the sea.
And now, watching Maui, the way he's watching her so carefully, waiting for her response with confusion ringing loudly in his expression, Moana realizes abruptly that...he doesn't know. He doesn't know they stopped voyaging, doesn't know what happened to the seas after he got banished to his little island. That all those monsters came out of their hiding places and started attacking those boats, that those passengers were never seen again.
He doesn't know, not really, Moana realizes abruptly, just how badly stealing the heart had affected humanity. How could he? He was banished to his miserable hunk of rock almost immediately after he stole Te Fiti's heart, and his island wasn't exactly the closest to any other forms of life.
Quite the opposite, actually. Nothing surrounded that miserable little rock but ocean, and that seemed to be the only thing unaffected by the curse.
...How do you respond to that? How do you answer someone who's asking you why you stopped doing something so fundamental to your people's identity when it's their fault? Oh, we only stopped because of something you did, and even though we tried to continue after the fact, a bunch of monsters came out of hiding from the bottom of the ocean and from Lalotai to attack and kill anyone who tried to tread over the water, so we were forced to stop to prevent us from losing any more lives? Moana's not sure, and she frowns, turning her gaze away from Maui's to think of another excuse, a different response she could give him to avoid the idea that it was all his fault. And even if it maybe is, Maui's still her best friend. The last thing she'd ever want to do is hurt him, and she doesn't have the heart to tell him that his intended act of kindness did more harm than good. That, more than anything, Moana knows, would break him.
So she sighs, takes a few moments to collect her thoughts, and turns back to face him. But before she can so as much open her mouth to respond, the sound of footsteps approaching the two of them from behind breaks into her thoughts, and both of them turn at the same time to see Airini, one of the coconut huskers, sprinting towards them.
"Moana," she huffs, out of breath from sprinting all the way from the village, and dips her head respectively toward her before turning to Maui. "Maui" she says, and repeats the gesture. "I hope I'm not interrupting"
"Not at all" Moana replies instantly, relieved to change the subject away from the matter of the Heart. "What is it?"
"You're needed in the village" Airini explains. "It's urgent. The other huskers told me to come fetch you right away" she says, and Moana glances up towards the village, trying to see if she can make out the problem from where she stands on the shore. Nothing seems out of the ordinary, so Moana blinks, exchanges a glance with Maui before turning back to face Airini.
"Okay," Moana says. "Lead the way"
Airini nods a wordless response, and without another word, turns and begins sprinting back to the village just as urgently as she had when she approached them. Shooting an apologetic shrug towards Maui, Moana sprints off after Airini to follow her back to the village.
Much to Moana's surprise, when she and Airini make their way back to the village, instead of continuing straight on to the center, Airini takes a sharp turn and leads her to one of the coconut groves, where a large group of people are huddled in a group waiting for her.
"Chief Moana," one of them speaks up, even if she's not officially Chief yet. "It's the harvest. We were just husking the coconuts, as we normally do, when we found something...peculiar"
Another steps forward, a basket in his arms, one particular coconut stacked neatly on top of all of the rest. Airini steps forward, plucking the top coconut off of the basket, and brings it back over to Moana. She cracks it open, and all of the color fades from Moana's face when she does. The entire coconut is a singed black inside, bits and pieces of dark ash falling to the floor from inside. There's a crack, deep and sickening, running through the entire fruit, a dark unnatural black running through it.
Moana doesn't miss that it's the same rot that inflicted the island after Maui stole Te Fiti's heart.
"Were any more found like this?" Moana asks, trying to keep her voice cool and collected despite the panic slowly creeping its way into it.
"The entire basket" Airini replies solemnly, handing the dead coconut back to the husker holding the basket. She shakes her head. "We can't figure out what caused it, but when we came together to try to figure out why one particular basket full of coconuts were all coming up dead, well, we discovered this" Airini says, and flicks her wrist in the direction of the large crowd. All at once they disperse, stepping aside to make room for Moana, and she's horrified by what they all had apparently been hiding from her.
It's the oldest coconut tree on the island, the one Moana knows has been around at least since Tala was a kid. It's completely curling over on itself, half of its palm leaves scattered around the ground and the other half hanging onto their branches by a thread. It's completely cleared of any and all fruit, and much to Moana's horror, the entire tree is that same singed, dried up black, bits and pieces of the tree itself flaking away with the breeze.
"Have any other trees been found like this?" Moana asks, turning her gaze away from the dead tree.
"We searched the entire grove" Airini explains, "and only found the one"
"And the dead coconuts?"
"They've only come from this tree"
Barely suppressing a sigh of relief, Moana steps towards the dead tree before she turns around to face the crowd.
"It's the oldest coconut tree on the island," she explains. "It must not have come back from the rot because it was too old to fight it off. As long as you're sure this is the only tree in the grove afflicted like this," Moana says, and various people among the crowd nodding their heads allows Moana to keep going. "Then I suggest we clear the diseased tree and keep an extra careful eye out. I don't think we need to worry about something like this happening again," she says, and walks back to stand beside Airini. "But it's always better to be too careful than to be too careless".
Beside her, Airini nods. "Thank you, Moana" she says, and Moana grins.
"You're welcome" she singsongs, half-jokingly, and turns to walk away as the crowd of huskers disperse to gather the tools they need to rid of the diseased tree.
And smacks right into Maui, who'd apparently followed her down from the shore. Moana rubs at her head where she'd apparently barreled right into him as she takes a few steps back. He's kind of frozen in place, unmoving, and he's holding his hook close to his chest. He's got one arm kind of wrapped around himself, holding the hook in place, and he's uncomfortably rubbing at the handle with his other. It's the same motion he does whenever he gets really uneasy, completely unsure of what he should be doing with himself, and the clear discomfort on his face isn't really helping either.
"Maui?" Moana asks, and he starts at the name, holds his hook a little closer, the uneasiness on his face only deepening. "Maui, are you okay?" She asks, taking a step closer, and it's not until she does that Moana realizes he's actually staring at something behind her rather than at her. She turns to see what he's looking at, and finds herself staring at the dead tree again. Frowning, she turns back around to ask what's wrong again, but before she can open her mouth realization hits her all at once and it kinda makes her want to smack herself in the head.
Maui seems to come to some realization of his own at the same time as her, and he snaps out his little trance, dropping his hook to his side as he shakes his head, burying his face in one of his hands.
When he looks back up at her again, his uneasiness only seems to have gotten worse, mixed with some other bitter, indescribable emotion Moana can't put words to.
"It's the reason your people stopped voyaging, isn't it?" Maui mumbles.
"What?"
"The Heart" he explains. "When I took it, your people stopped voyaging, didn't they?"
Moana winces inadvertently at his words, takes another step closer to him. "Maui, it's fine-" she tries to insist, but Maui brings a hand to his head and huffs out a bitter laughter at her words before he looks at her again.
"It's not fine, Moana" he says, and steps to stand in front of the tree closest to him. "Your people forgot who they are because of me, you stopped voyaging, the lifeblood of what makes you who you are because of me, because boats stopped coming back after-" Maui starts, but then his voice drops off when he seems to realize what he's just said. He blinks, as realization seems to come to him, and every bit of his uneasiness vanishes from his expression, replaced with a horror so deep Moana can visually see the color drain from his face. Maui brings a hand to his forehead and leans back against the tree behind him.
"The boats, they-" Maui mumbles, and turns to look at her again. "They stopped coming back after I stole the heart, didn't they?"
"What?" Moana splutters, her voice maybe going an octave or two higher than she intends. Maui smiles at her surprise, but there's no happiness in that smile.
"On the other islands I went to, before I came back to find you" he explains, and slowly begins to slide downwards until he's sitting on the ground as he continues. "Everyone would always be so-so hateful towards me, Moana" he continues, and Moana frowns as she sits on the ground to join him. "Everywhere I went they'd spit accusations at me here and there. The first few islands I went to it would just be a small group of elders, but I found that the further I got away from Te Fiti, the more people had to say to me. Everywhere I went, Moana, they'd all-they'd all spit hateful things at me, blame me for things they'd claimed I'd done left and right." Maui goes to reach a hand to the back of his head, and the way he begins rubbing at it Moana would think he's nursing some sort of injury.
"Some of them- Some of them would even throw things at me. To try and get me off of their island before I had time to explain why I was there" Maui pauses to glance over at her, and huffs a small laugh at the distress apparently evident on her face before he continues. "Eventually, I found someone who was willing to talk. And as hateful as it was, they'd explained to me that their people stopped voyaging after I stole the heart. The boats stopped coming back, they'd said, because of me, because when I stole the heart, all these sea monsters started coming out of hiding and began attacking their boats"
Maui pushes his back up against the bark of the tree a bit more. "Explained that-that they'd lost entire fleets. All these friends and family members would leave on these voyages, and-and they'd never see them again. So they stopped".
There's something approaching defeat in Maui's voice, and it takes everything in Moana not to flinch backwards when she finds it pooling in his eyes as he turns to her. "That's what happened to your people too, isn't it. Boats mysteriously stopped coming back after I left"
Moana sighs, and awkwardly begins rubbing at her arm. There's really no point in lying to him now, because she knows if she does to try to make him feel better it'll only make him feel worse. "Yeah" she admits sheepishly, and Maui sighs as he leans his head back to plant it against the bark of the tree.
He mutters something to himself that sounds an awful lot like of course before he turns to look at her again.
"I-" he starts to explain, but his voice drops off. "I had no idea, Moana, I-I didn't know-I wasn't-"
"It's okay," Moana cuts him off. "There's no way you could've known" she says, because it's true. There really wasn't. Maui was banished to that island almost immediately after he took the heart, without his hook nonetheless, getting rid of what would've been his only aid of getting off of his island himself. Even if he wanted to leave, and he did, he couldn't, and the isolated state of his island prevented him from watching any of the aftereffects from happening.
But then another realization comes to Moana, and it hits her so suddenly that she blinks rapidly a number of times as it comes to her. Her people didn't stop voyaging until long after Maui stole the heart because boats kept getting attacked out at sea. When Maui was banished to his little prison of an island, he was separated from his hook. Not only his only means of escape from the island, but also from his weapon. And Moana's personally seen him wield his hook, and knows from personal experience just what he's capable of doing with it.
When Maui got knocked from the sky, he didn't just lose his hook.
Her people lost their guardian.
Their guardian who would keep the seas cleared for them. Who would battle off any monster that tried to get near their boats. When Maui was banished to his island, all of those monsters came out of hiding and attacked because it was the first time in millennia that they were able to. Because there was nobody left to stop them.
"But that's not- that's inexcusable, Moana," Maui's voice cuts into her thoughts, and Moana flinches at the way it seems to be cracking. "I hurt all these people, Moana, all these innocent people, they-" He drops his head down. "They died because of me, because I was so stupid, so selfish, all because I was desperate for their attention, for some way to help…" He trails off, and begins curling in on himself a little bit against the bark of the tree.
"Hey," Moana tells him in a firm yet gentle manner. "Don't talk like that. That's not true. I know you, Maui, and I know that you would've if you could've. I know the only reason you didn't is because you couldn't, because you didn't have your hook." She starts, and begins to mirror his position, bringing her legs up to her chest. "They're wrong to accuse you of anything, because if you had, you would've been off fighting those monsters for them. For them not to realize that, to come to that conclusion themselves," she starts, and rests her head on her chin. "Then they're the ones in the wrong, Maui. Not you"
Maui pulls his head from where he'd apparently buried them in his hands, and only stares at her for a few seconds, shocked by her words, something approaching wonder glinting in his eyes. But then it disappears just as quickly, as another thought comes to him, and he waves a hand in her direction as he turns away from her.
"But that's not it" Maui says, and turns again to look at the dead tree. "It wasn't just voyaging all these islands would blame me for. They'd also insist I killed the islands themselves, draining away their food supply, scaring all of the fish away from their reefs". He copies her position, now sitting with his legs against his chest and his chin resting against his knees. "I always thought-" Maui starts. "I always thought they'd been exaggerating." He sighs, and turns his gaze pointedly away from the tree to look at her. "All these people who would tell me they ran out of food, their homes crumbled to ashes." Maui drops his gaze away from her, instead stares out at the trees in front of him. "There were people who starved to death, Moana, and even if I had my hook, like you insist, that's not something you can prevent."
The defeat from earlier weighs heavily in his voice again, and Moana doesn't miss the way it begins to waver. "Gods, Moana, there were so many people, and I ignored them, I brushed them off because I thought they'd just been trying to get a rise out of me- They were suffering, Moana, and I-I turned away from them" He nearly whispers, and drops his head to bury it in his knees.
"And then I-I thought for sure this would be over with, that I wouldn't have to deal with this anymore when I found you, but now your island is still suffering? It's been months since we restored the heart, Moana, and your food supply is still suffering?" He asks, and the way he's whimpering his words Moana would almost think he were talking more to himself than to her. "You're still suffering because of what I did a thousand years ago?" He mumbles, and Moana frowns, because he won't look her in the eyes. "If your island is still suffering like this after the fact, then that means if we hadn't- if you hadn't found me when you did-" he pauses, and Moana nearly flinches away when he pauses to sniffle in between his words. "You could've, Moana, you could've-" He tries, but for some reason the words just won't come to him.
And without warning, whatever Maui seems to be thinking about seems to overcome him all at once, and he crumbles in on himself, trying and failing to hide the way he's shaking, the way his breath hitches, the way he still won't look her in the eyes. He plants his face in his hands, and Moana can do nothing but watch, heartbroken.
She goes to open her mouth to respond, to comfort him, but just as she opens her mouth to speak it hits her all at once exactly what he's thinking about and she clamps down on her words. Instead of speaking, saying anything else, she pushes herself closer to him and wraps one of her arms around his shoulders. His breath seems to catch in his throat at her gesture, and Moana only squeezes tighter, pushes herself closer to him at the little half-choke, half-sob that escape him at the motion.
She stays that way for a few long moments of silence, allowing him to calm down a bit under her touch. She begins rubbing at what she can reach of his arm, and waits for his breathing to stop breaking, to ease up into long, deep and heavy breaths before she speaks. "It's okay," she insists, and pushes herself closer to him still. "I don't want you to think like that, okay? I'm right here" she reassures him. "It's fine, Maui, really-" she tries to assure him, but gets cut off by the sudden motion of Maui finally wrenching his head away from where he'd buried it into his knees to look at her.
"It's not fine," he tries to argue back, and Moana pulls herself away from her half-hug, frowning. "Because if your island is still suffering after the Heart's already restored, that means there could be others, people who are still suffering because of me, and it's like-like no matter what I do," he pauses. "It just won't be enough" he sighs, turning his gaze outward again, and Moana frowns, not at all missing the second meaning behind won't be enough.
He's wrong, Moana thinks as she spares a glance around the coconut grove, blooming with newfound health and life. He's wrong, because she knows that none of this would be here if it weren't for him. He's wrong, because Moana knows that as much credit as she deserves for restoring the heart, he deserves it in equal measure. He's wrong, because he is enough; he'll always be enough, even if she's alone among others around her who can see that. He's wrong, and Moana knows he is, because she knows him. And she wants him to know this, wants him to be able to view himself the same way she does, but Moana finds for the first time that she doesn't have the right words to help him. Because this is clearly a sore subject for him, one that he doesn't like to think about, one that makes him want to curl in on himself and just disappear when he thinks about it for too long.
Moana sighs deeply, still glancing around the coconut grove, trying to think of a way to show him how wrong he is, when her eyes catch on the horizon through a gap in trees. She tries to think back to the last time she was like this, the last time she broke like this, where all she wanted to do was disappear, to curl in on herself and just cry because there was nothing else she could do. She tries to think of what helped, what pulled her from this awful state of mind that she knows is near impossible to pull yourself from alone, what words had helped her at the time.
She thinks back to a night on her canoe, her grandmother coming to her when she needed her most, and thinks of the words she'd never thought she needed to hear. Moana spares one more glance towards the dead tree before she turns her gaze back towards Maui, who'd apparently gone back to burying his face into his knees.
Moana closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and says "Sometimes the world seems against you".
Maui pulls his head away from his knees, and turns his gaze on her. There's some mix of confusion and shock in his expression, and if Moana looks hard enough she thinks she can spot hope. She takes this as encouragement to keep going.
"The journey may leave a scar" she continues, and adjusts herself until she's sitting right beside him. "But scars can heal and reveal just where you are" She explains, and gestures with her arm around the grove, around Motunui in general. And when she glances back over at Maui, he's back to eyeing her in pure confusion. She snorts.
"The tree," Moana begins to explain. "It's like Motunui's scar. It's proof that we're healing" Moana says. "And healing takes time. It could take weeks, it could take months, it could even take years." Moana continues, and can't help the small smile that she finds spreading to her face. "But just because healing takes time, it doesn't mean that it's never going to heal at all". Her smile only grows wider. "And do you want to know what else it's proof of?"
Maui blinks. "What?"
"It's proof you are enough" she says. "The island is healing because of you, Maui. Because of something you did. The island is recovering because of your act of kindness, because what you do is enough. Because you are enough"
Maui drops his head down at her words. "Moana, I…" he starts, but then trails off. He sits up, darts his eyes away from her, uncomfortably begins to trail his hands together. "I-" he starts again, but drops off again. This, Moana's seen him do dozens of times before. This, Maui does when he's touched, unsure how to respond to her words. Moana grins.
"And you know what else?" Moana asks, her grin growing wider still. "About the heart?" she asks, and that's what gets Maui to finally return her gaze again. When she's sure she's got his attention, she looks him right in the eyes, the same thing she does when she wants to display sincerity, opens her mouth, and speaks the words "I forgive you".
Maui drops his gaze away again, and when he's finally able to meet hers again he looks like he wants to cry.
"Moana, that's not- you can't just-," he fumbles. "None of the other islands-nobody else," he tries again, and takes a moment to collect himself. "That's not- you can't just say you forgive me for something like that, Moana, not when nobody else seems to-" he tries to argue, but Moana cuts him off by throwing her arms around his chest in a hug.
"Yes it is" she argues back, and Maui blinks down at her, shocked.
"Moana…"
"Hush" she cuts him off again as she pulls him close to her, wrapping more of her arms around him. "I'm the Chief. You don't get to tell me what I can and can't do. If I want to forgive you, I get to forgive you, and there's nothing you can do to make me change my mind"
There's a long, long moment of silence where neither of them speak or move. Moana's about to give up, and push herself away from him, but before she can, she feels as Maui begins to settle himself against her, pulling her closer to him so he can rest his head against her shoulder, and moves his arms to wrap them around her to hug her back.
There's another short moment of silence before Maui speaks up. "Okay, Moana" he says, amusement returning to his voice once more. "If you say so".