The morning she returned to Montenui after her courageous voyage across the sea and back, her parents cleared a path for her to walk straight to her hut and sleep. It was approximately high noon when her aching head hit the pillow, and she did not open her eyes again until Dawn.

On the third day.

She awoke feeling stiff, the salt on her skin felt gritty against her aching body and stiff joints. She spent the following four days recovering, sharing the stories of her journey with the children, and even some adults, all of whom hung onto her every word the way they did with her grandmother when she was the village storyteller.

On the eighth day, she began to miss Maui.

Somehow, the cocky, incorrigible demi-god had snuck his way into her heart and settled there, causing an ache whenever Moana thought of him. She tried to call for him, but he had never told her how she could. She tried screaming across the ocean, "MAUI, SHAPESHIFTER, DEMIGOD OF THE WIND AND SEA, HERO TO ALL, YOU WILL COME TO MY ISLAND!" But that didn't do anything more than scare a few seagulls.

Then she tried asking nicely, and that didn't work either. She lit a fire, as a beacon, drawing his fish hook in the ash on the dirt. That didn't work either. She tried a hundred different summons and then she tried a hundred more, and Maui never showed.

On her seventeenth birthday, she saw him. He flew overhead in the form of a brightly colored Macaw and landed gracefully in the sand, a scroll of paper clamped in his beak. She took it, and he flew off. "No! Maui!" She called after him, but he did acted as if he didn't hear her.

"Dear Princess,

I know what you're thinking. Why didn't I stay? Why didn't I come when you called? Why haven't I visited sooner? Well, it's kind of complicated. And I wish I could explain it to you, but you're young right now.

And before you get all huffy, and princess-y, I don't mean that in a condescending way. You just are.

Happy birthday, Moana. I'll see you later.

-Maui"

Moana clutched the letter in her fists, reading it over and over again, her face darkening with chagrin. He had heard her? And didn't come? He knew her birthday?

She wasn't as upset at being told she was young as she probably could have been. After all when you're thousands of years old, everyone is young. But she knew that couldn't be what he meant. Still, she folded the netter and placed it inside of her grandmother's locket.

"I'll see you later."

When?

After that day, Maui visited her on every birthday, and even stayed and chatted for a few days with the villagers. He went fishing with the fishermen and caught hundreds of fish, and went fruit picking and came back with hundreds of fruit. Maui attributed it to Te Fiti's heart being restored, but Moana knew better. Maui was using his powers.

When he left, the goodbye hug he gave Moana was sad. As if it hurt him to imagine letting go. "I missed you." He whispered.

Moana closed her eyes. "I missed you too. Why don't you visit more often?"

Maui stepped away from her, looked at her as if he were about to answer, and then shifted into an eagle, soaring high above the ocean before Moana could stop him. She watched him go, tears in her eyes, the flowers he had picked for her still wrapped in her fist.

When Moana turned nineteen, Maui returned, a glass bottle of some liquid in hand. "This doesn't affect me the way it does you humans, but I thought I'd have a celebratory drink with you!" They drank until Moana was hiccupping, her eyes half-lidded and her cheeks rosy. She kept clinging to Maui's side, never letting him get so much as a grain of sand between them.

"Why don't you come see me more oft…hic…ten?" Moana giggled, laying her head in his lap. Maui distractedly played with her hair, meditating on his answer for a moment. He looked down at her with a solemn expression, his fingertips massaging her scalp as she hummed happily, oblivious to his emotions. She took a drink from the bottle,smacking her lips.

"Do you know how a human becomes a demigod?" He asked her, looking away. She shook her head, hiccuping again. "He has to have a pure and selfless heart. Nothing he does, or says, or thinks can be for personal gain. Do you understand?" She nodded, even in her inebriated state, she knew he wasn't done. She took another swig from the bottle. This stuff tasted great

"Do you think falling in love is selfish?"

The next thing she knows she's waking up in her hut, the bouquet Maui had given her the year prior still alive as ever on her night stand. No memory of their conversation at all.

Her twentieth birthday Maui didn't show up at all. She waited, from dawn til dusk, and even called out to him. Nothing. She fell asleep in the sand, tears still wet on her face. She never saw the sand crab that sat nearby, watching her, pacing, as if deciding whether or not to comfort her. After a while, it crawled into the water, turned into a shark, and left.

"Maui I can't just leave." She reasoned as he set her onto a canoe and unwound the rope from its dock. "I have an obligation to my people. I don't want to marry or bear children, but I do want to lead them. If it weren't for me they would have never sailed beyond the reef. They need me!"

Maui snorted, pushing the canoe into the water. "No, they need a robotic little doll they can force to act however they want, and then complain about when she steps out of line–"

"They aren't like that!"

Maui ignored her, dropping the sheet and blowing directly into the sail, sending them soaring through the waves. Moana had to admit, the rush of being on the open ocean again with Maui buy her side was exhilarating. But she knew this wasn't just a trip for him. He was sincerely taking her away.

"We didn't bring any food." She mused, raising her eyebrow. Maui didn't look at her. "Don't worry about that. I'll take care of you, Princess." The way he said it sent a pleasant heat through her, and for a fleeting moment, she wondered if the idea of marriage wasn't so bad if she thought of her best friend as her husband.

She gasped suddenly, causing Maui to jump into a defensive stance, hook at the ready. Moana laughed, "No, no–listen. What if you married me!"

Maui lowered his hook, spinning around to face her slowly. "Say again?"

"If you marry me, I won't be wed to some man I don't like, and I get to stay on Montenui!"

"And what about me? I have demigod duties to attend to."

"You can do them! It would just be a formality. Nothing would change between us, and everyone wins!"

"Not interested."

He turned back around to face the open sea, his shoulders tense. Mini-Maui climbed to his back to face Moana, shrugging his shoulders to mirror her confusion.

"Why not?"

He ignored her.

"I'll just keep asking."

"Drop it."

His tone was aggressive. Angry.

"I don't understand what I said wrong..."

"Marriage isn't supposed to be some...scheme. Marriage is a sacred union blessed by gods. You humans got it all twisted up."

Moana blinked, holding her oar behind her back nervously. "I...I didn't know this was so important to you."

"Yeah? Me neither."

Maui's hook suddenly jumped, blue electricity surging through it as if it were struck by some godly lightning. Woth a deep, resounding 'CRIIIICKACK,' a clean, black crack spread its way down the length of the handle.

"No. No, no, no no I didn't. I didn't do anything!" Maui held it gingerly in his palms and sank to his knees.

"What happened?"

Moana placed her hand gingerly on Maui's shoulder, stroking his shoulder blade with her thumb. He leaned against her hand for half a second before brushing her hand away. "Nothing. Don't worry about it."

Moana took her hand back, her eyes brimming with tears as Maui's rejection washed over her. "I'm...sorry." She whispered, sitting down on the side of the canoe, her feet submerged in the salty sea.

The tears that fell mixed into the ocean gracefully.