Maui was certain about something. If Moana hadn't been so... so Moana, he definitely wouldn't be feeling as off as he was.
Before Moana fulfilled the destiny in restoring her people's wandering tendencies, she'd allowed herself reprieve on Motunui after the long journey she'd had. With his fishhook restored to him, and in his newfound confidence in himself rather than what the gods made of him, Maui decided to accompany her on her rest.
Plus, Moana was the only mortal he'd seen in a while, and he kind of missed the usual reaction he got from them.
"Oh Great Maui! Demi-God, shapeshifter, hero to all!" One of the elders commenced the onset of groveling, and soon everyone in the village was on their knees, including Moana's parents. She was still standing by the great Maui's side, her arms folded across her chest, eyebrows stubbornly furrowed. Chief Tui lifted his head only to see his daughter's perceived insolence and quickly drug her by the hand until she two was showing obeisance, albeit unwillingly.
Maui felt that immediate surge of pride, remembering after so long of either being stuck on an island or being stuck with Moana, and felt as every bit powerful as his legend. "We will prepare a feast for you, in your honor. We will make it the biggest celebration this island has ever known."
Moana had finally lifted her head to give Maui another look, while her father's eyes were submissively lowered. Maui grinned at her.
"There'll be dancers, I imagine?" Maui boomed in his large voice, getting the gears in Moana's head whirring. He could read her more easily than he could read the stars, since most everything was revealed by the strong, open features of her face.
"Ah, yes! Our dancers know every one of your songs." Her father lifted his head and nudged her, after she'd dropped her head in feigned reverence. "You will dance, too." He whispered, and Maui's grin drew deeper. The thought of her being forced to dance for his ceremony was quite funny, especially when she showed obvious disdain for the drudgery of celebratory dancing. But underneath, he could tell she was excited to be home with her people. Was she glad that she'd be rid of him, soon?
"For now, we'll prepare the temple for your stay. You will permit us the honor, won't you?" Another elder spoke, murmuring into the crowd before others ran out to prepare luxuries for the demi-god.
"Uhh, yes. I'll be taking a- -uhh, quick power nap." No matter what he said, the villagers all thrummed at the sound of his words. Even his naps are powerful, he heard someone whisper excitedly, and he held in a laugh through sealed lips.
He was guided to the temple, which already had a few amenities on reserve for gods that hadn't yet blessed them with their presence, including a lofty bed and offerings of fruit and drink. Once he was finally left alone, he sighed in the silence of the temple and made himself comfortable, the familiar breeze calming him into a deep slumber.
The only problem was, all of the traditional garb was in that temple, and so the flutterings of young maidens filled the halls, excitedly hushed whispers between themselves.
"I hope Maui notices me tonight!"
"Did you see how strong he was, lifting that boat with the touch of a finger? And he's so handsome!"
He also had very sharp ears, so it didn't matter that they were in a room far from his, or that they were whispering. He heard, and delighted in the way they worshiped him.
"You guys are weird." Moana. Of course she wasn't clearly as thrilled as the others. "Less talking, more dressing. He's like, right around the corner."
And he was getting closer. His hand gripped his fishhook and in an instant he was a fly, zooming in to perch on the wall and watch them.
Darn. Moana was already clothed, adjusting the headpiece on her hair while the others took a little longer. Not that he particularly wanted to see her like that, it'd be weird after spending about a month on a boat with her.
"I wouldn't mind if he saw~" giggled another, before she was promptly smacked by her friend, and more giggling ensued. Girls could be shameless, and he liked that a lot. "I hope he chooses one of us to bring back to the temple. I'd be revered, bearing the son of a demi-god."
Another custom that Maui liked a lot. Elders and families eagerly offered up their women to Maui. Magical father, magical child, right? Of course, this was with full knowledge that the trickster might not ever return to rear his son, so busy with the world, but the village would aide in rearing the child, and the mother would be set for life.
"You guys are gross."
She'd spoken too much, and now the girls were curious. "How is it that you spent a whole month with him and didn't know him, in that way?"
"I'm not dignifying that with an answer."
Ouch. How did they spend a whole month without doing it? Girls usually flaunted themselves at him, but Moana'd been different. She'd been a little awestruck, something she couldn't help, but her focus was so entirely on saving her island.
Which made him even more curious to find out what she was like when she was in love.
So that night, he decided to play a trick. This would have to wait until late into the ceremony, however. First, he could enjoy her dancing. He was seated at the head of the proceedings, the chief and his wife at his side, and Moana leaving her seat to join the other dancers. His songs were performed beautifully, though he could tell the other dancers were nervous. Not Moana, however. She was fearless. Her eyes swept over him and he felt a surge of pride and something else. If she could save the world, she could definitely dance her best without fear. Gently her fingers folded and coaxed the rhythm, her hips fluidly swirling like the tide. How could such a strong willed girl dance so prettily? Maui couldn't take his eyes off her.
But even then, she wasn't doing it for him. The second she'd finished dancing and the clapping started, she was hugging her fellow dancers and friends and chattering excitedly amongst them. She missed her people. As much as she'd wanted to adventure in the first place, she missed them. He smiled fondly, though his thoughts were still trained on the task at hand. "So, how does marriage work on this island? Is Moana promised to someone, or something?"
Chief Tui hadn't yet noticed that Moana had significantly gained Maui's favor, and he answered without hesitation, though his voice was boyishly soft. He was talking to his hero, after all. "No. She is free to marry whomever she likes."
"Hmn." Maui grunted, seemingly pleased with the others answer. Broad shoulders sunk in relief, the two watching as Moana and the few girls that accompanied her were speaking to the young men of the village. Their faces were bright akin to the same kind of light that Maui held. He knew that look very well. "Any suitors, so far?"
"There better not be!" Tui barked surprisingly fast, before his fatherly protective instincts calmed down, and he was bashfully lowering his head. "Though, I think for some time she's favored Fetu; the basket weaver's son. Ah, they're talking now." Maui couldn't see Moana now, only the shapely outline of her back as she stared up at the taller man. But he could see the reflection of her in the village boy's eyes, and the acute sight gifted to him seemed like a curse now.
"Basket weaver." Maui scoffed, tearing into some more pork. Chief Tui hadn't known what he'd said to displease the demi-god.
The first step would be to separate Fetu from the group. With the attention on him, however, it'd be a hard feat. But they didn't write songs about him for nothing.
A little less known fact; his magical fish hook possessed further magical qualities. Not only could he shape shift himself, but others. As the entertainment continued, from more dances to exotic story-telling, Maui'd switched himself with Heihei, who in the image of Maui, cocked his head several times, eyes wide, and at one point or another slammed his face into the dinner before him. Chief Tui was horrified at the sudden change of his honorable guest, but he tried to withstand it all the same.
Maui was waiting for this basket weaver to distance himself from the crowd. Maui'd hidden himself among the coconut trees, stalking his prey. The second Fetu came away to relieve his bladder, he was quickly kidnapped and knocked unconscious.
"Someone's gonna have a killer hangover tomorrow." Maui'd managed to haul the body into an abandoned hut, studying the features of the young man before adapting into the shape. He was definitely shorter than Maui, and less powerfully built. He was an average human male, Maui surmised, but he still didn't understand how this could be any better than him. Maui was the epitome of man.
So why didn't Moana have a goofy smile when he was around?
Maui decided to see just how much Moana liked this mortal, testing out the waters as he sat down by her side, clearing his throat until her attention was piqued. She'd just slipped off the traditional headpiece, setting it to the side as she glanced at him from over her shoulder. "Hey, Fetu." The indifference Maui was accustomed to was replaced with something warmer. The two definitely knew each other, and not just because they'd lived together in the same village their whole lives. Maui felt a little jealous.
"Yo." Maui- -or, Fetu- -grinned handsomely, his head nodding in her direction. "Just wanted to tell you, I definitely enjoyed the dance." Maui knew how to charm girls, he'd been doing it for a millennia.
Moana's face lowered a little, a small smirk tugging on her lips. "You just told me that, over there." Her voice was small and shy; whatever shyness she'd had with Maui had long gone after a day or two together. So why was she acting bashful now?
"Oh. Well yeah. Thought I'd... repeat the compliment. 'Cause it was just that good." Maui covered awkwardly, seeing the smile spread on her lips. Her eyes averted, halting on a single girl. Maui followed her gaze, and heard a question he hadn't been expecting. "So, how's La'ei?"
"La'ei?" The name escaped him. Moana looked back at him like he was crazy.
"Your girlfriend," she replied dryly, watching his face freeze into an, 'oh no' expression. "Pffft. Oh, her?" Fetu shrugged his shoulders, covering up the lapse in character with a cool lie. "We broke up." Sorry Fetu, Maui had no clue.
"Ohh. I'm. Uhh, sorry." Moana looked away again awkwardly. She'd nearly refused to look him in the eye. Maui missed the challenge of her stare.
"Don't be." His hand reached for hers in the grass, squeezing its soft shape into his own. The light flickered around them, the flames' many forked tongues dancing like shadows over her skin. His eyes trailed over her freely; she couldn't judge him as Maui right now, the trickster could look all he wanted. She saw the way his eyes wandered, and the feeling of her large hand covering his was much more than she was used to. The color in her face darkened with red, and much to Maui's disbelief, when his eyes traveled up, hers were ready to meet his.
"You're acting... really weird." Her voice was breathy, and he swore he could feel something of a tremble in hers. Every masculine part inside him was throbbing for her.
"I am?" Maui's thumb traced over her wrist and he found her hand leaving him just as quickly, holding it to her chest as she stared at him wide eyed. Just a touch to her hand and she was already so riled up? Maui was starting to imagine how much more he could do to her, and it almost didn't bother him that it'd be Fetu doing it, and not him, when she brought him back into reality.
"Fetu, you're- -I'm flattered, but- -" Her fingers brushed back her hair, finding a piece to twirl in her fingers. Maui watched dumbly.
"That chapter's... closed." Her hand left her hair and she sighed softly, pulling on a more serious mask. "I just got back and... I need to focus on leading Motunui. Besides, what we did back then was... kinda a one time deal." The last part was muttered nervously, and Maui nearly threw himself on her in his excitement. "What?! What was that, exactly?" Was Moana less innocent than he'd naturally perceived? Holy shit- -
Moana looked mortified, and nervous, and strangely enough, underneath it all... she seemed a little excited. "You know, when we..." Her eyes did a little dance over the fire. "K-Kissed." Oh. Well kookydooks, that wasn't anything to get excited over, was it?
"Oh. One time deal, huh?" Fetu leaned back on his hands, giving the girl some space as she collected herself over the thought of 'kissing'. He'd been foolish for expecting it to be anything more. Princesses.
Moana ran her fingers through her hair for the hundredth time, her eyes on her toes as they were nestled in the grass. Her whole body was coiling in on itself, rejecting him. He wouldn't get anything as Fetu, no matter what their history was.
"You said that chapter closed." Maui spoke, watching the way her shoulders bunched up at the sound of Fetu's voice. "Does that mean another opened?"
She looked over the slope of her shoulder, almost coyly. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, is there someone else?" He shrunk in a little on himself. "Maybe some beefy, super handsome demi-god or something?"
Her eyes widened, then narrowed, suspiciously. Shit.
"Just sayin'!" Maui threw the image of Fetu's hands in the air in surrender. "You're not saying no..." He mumbled, seeing the rise of anger in her.
"Why is every one on my case about Maui?!" She cried exasperatedly, wildly scrunching her hands in her hair.
Fetu leaned back on his hands, relaxed. "That's attractive."
Maui was being sarcastic; as he usually had when she did something totally unattractive. He'd said this to her millions of times.
And Moana knew it.
The way in which she abruptly froze, staring at him, was terrifying. Her eyes were searching his, and suddenly, she wasn't seeing Fetu in them.
Maui knew when to pull out, no pun intended. "I- -gotta get back to basket weaving," he lamely excused, pulling himself up. Heihei, still possessing Maui's form, was already causing a ruckus to the festivities. 'Fetu' was gone before Moana could press her curiosity further, and she came back to the scene of the villagers trying to appease the new chicken dance Maui displayed.
Moana took her eyes off the site. She didn't need a magical fishhook or a brain to know that this was not Maui, and that Fetu back then hadn't really been Fetu. But why was Maui asking her all of those questions? Why was he as interested as the villagers about her answer?
"Stupid. Stupid. Shark butt." Maui was on the beach now, just as grays lighted the skies with dark. He tinkered around with his fishhook like it was a toy, because in most regards, that was what it was. He could retire to his chambers early. There'd undoubtedly be a village beauty sneaking into his bed tonight, and on every night but this one, he'd eagerly accept the offering.
But he didn't want any other beauty. He didn't want a random night of passion with a girl he'd never touch again, much less see again.
"I want her." He groaned to himself, rolling on the sand. "She doesn't want me. Who could say 'no' to this?!"
Moana, unrelenting, smiled. "I could."
His massive head of fluffy hair whipped over as he faced her, the girl's arms folded across her chest, a finger tapping her bicep.
He was still, and his lips wore a frown very quickly. "Stalking is a liii-ttle over the top, even for a fan," he told her, even though he felt his face burning hotter than the sand.
"Stalking? I'm stalking?!" Moana stepped closer, though unused to the scarlet that flirted with his tanned brow. "You've been stalking me all day! Listening in on my conversations, following me and using that fishhook to- -" She remembered all of the interactions with who she'd thought was Fetu, and her blood boiled. "Oh my go- -that was so embarrassing!" She sobbed halfheartedly, because she knew remembering this would cheer Maui immensely. And it did, as the grin returned to his face.
"I didn't know you had a thing for basket weavers."
"And I didn't know you had things for princesses."
Ouch again. "Your dad's a chief," Maui corrected indifferently, pouting again. He turned away from her on the sand with a few wiggles of his butt. He could hear her toes scuffle forward through countless beads of sand, feel her weight on the beach as the waves lazy tempo rocked against it. She was close now, and knelt behind him in the sand.
"A chief," Her fingers were cooler than her palms as she spread them over his sun warmed back, "... whowould be very pleased to have his daughter bearing the son of a Demi-God."
He turned toward her again, his hair accidentally brushing sand in her face, which was close by. She tried not to sputter or sneeze, looking him straight in the eye. "Would you be pleased, Maui?" Her fingers now picked through his hair, intimately stripping it free of sand. "To... have me in that way."
Was this really an offer? Maui wasn't sure how to take this. She didn't bluff unless she had the cards to back it up.
"I would," he found himself saying, because there was nothing but the truth to say to her. Moana relaxed then, her eyes dropping. Her arms wove underneath his hair and around his neck, hugging herself onto him from behind. Her chin plopped on the large hill of his shoulder.
She stayed like that, her soft, smaller body cupping around his. He kept himself still, feeling her breathing against the rippled, tense muscles of his back. She might've been relaxed and comfortable, but there was no way he could be. Up till now, he'd thought her totally off limits- -but now she was showing general interest in him? His breathing sped to a crescendo.
"Would you..." she spoke again, her voice uncharacteristically soft, like a child's, "Would you stay with me?"
Something throbbed inside him, the brokenhearted question rocking him to his core. She was supposed to know the answer, the legend of what he was, and what he was notorious for doing. Moana wasn't supposed to change his answer. But she was, without him even realizing it.
"You couldn't hack it even if you tried." Maui challenged, turning to her again, seeing the fullness of her forehead. He wanted to kiss the open space there, and the wrinkle that formed as she fought the challenge. "I so could."
"Could not. i'm big," he replied smugly, meeting her slow gaze with his own. She wrinkled her nose in distaste, opening her mouth to ask him a question he'd be more than happy to answer. So she quickly shut her mouth again.
"So then, we just. Won't do it." Her face nuzzled into his neck, selfishly declaring her nonsensical abstinence.
He made a face out toward the ocean, scoffing softly. "How're you supposed to keep me here, then?"
"With this." Her lips brushed a spot against his neck. A sensitive one. He shivered, his hands finally working to unwind her off of him, and down below her.
Now her hair was splayed out in the sand, her face tightened up with tension. His body, immense and powerful, lingered over hers.
"We are friends." He felt they were more than that at this point, and reiterated. "We have saved each others lives. I know your story, and you know all of mine." Each and every tattoo on his body could only be read by one mortal soul, and she was underneath him.
"But I am a man, who has openly admitted his desire for you." His eyes were hard, and foreboding. "Do not. Take. Me. Lightly." He was trying to warn her, anything to ward her off of him and on toward a decent man without a girlfriend or a magical fishhook. But her hands swept up into his hair and she was pulling herself up close to him, not possessing the strength to bring him down to her.
She missed.
What was supposed to be a kiss ended her in a sore forehead from inadvertently banging it into his, her nose squished by his lips, and her own left very much untouched. She released him and writhed a little bit on the sand, curled up with a pained whimper.
"That's attractive." He couldn't help himself, even if she threw him another glare. He leaned downward again, his hand cupping the side of her face, tilting it from the sand. "It's like you've only ever kissed a basket weaver or something."
"What's so wrong with a- -mmf~" His mouth was on hers, sweetly smoothing over any fight left in her.
Her small, perfectly bronzed shoulders fell back into the sand, her breast pushing upward. There was barely enough space between them, and his body brushed down over hers to dissipate it, cupping over her smaller form quite easily. His puckered lips left hers, which were still tight with the impression of a kiss. He'd briefly opened his eyes to watch her, only to close them and move in again, his unruly, coarse hair spilling around her face and neck. Her fingers gripped the sand as well as they could as she felt his lips again, and the warmth in them, making her own tremble.
When his mouth opened, she felt a natural reflex to open her own. When expecting the roughness of a storm on the ocean, came a gentle, breezy roll of the waves instead. The gentle, slowness of his open mouthed kisses tugged on her like the tide, deeper and deeper, until she was craning her neck to get a taste of him. Her face left his palm and she was eager and heady for him, feeling his thumb pull downward on her chin, parting her lips just a bit more. His tongue found hers, leisurely, like unhurried rainfall. She wanted more, but he controlled the kiss, only allowing her what he thought she could handle.
And rightly so. Just this was leaving her breathless, feeling his body warm and soft and supple against her own. Her fingers tightened into curled fists along the span of his pectorals, covered in tattoos. Mini-Maui was probably clapping his larger counterpart on the back right now.
This was all second to just how much control Maui was exhibiting. Usually he'd already have his fill of a girl by now. But he was enjoying Moana, slowly, as he'd enjoyed her before when they met, or when he'd taught her way-finding. First, she was super annoying and infuriatingly stubborn. But then, that stuborness grew on him, and became so precious to him that he wanted to test the limits of it. Like with now, as she was refusing to break the kiss. Or maybe, she did that unintentionally, as she clung onto him and unknowingly whispered his name, as if calling for help.
"Yeah?" He asked her, throat clinging to his voice as his tone rang with pure need. He didn't like how desperate he sounded, but Moana seemed too out of it to really notice the vulnerability there. She looked so pretty, for lack of better words at the moment, laying down beneath him. Her own face was burning hot, just like his own. Her eyes had an unmistakable film of lust over them. She probably wasn't even aware of how appetizingly good she looked.
"You'll stay." She was still panting softly, trying to catch her breath. "You wouldn't kiss me like th-that if you weren't gonna stay."
See what I mean? Endearing. Maui's smile stretched thin, and his forehead brushed over hers. "I'll stay."