The remainder of that day was spent with an air of awkward tension, yet neither the decapod nor the demigod would admit to anything being wrong. Moana eventually stopped asking, as to not pester either of them too much, but she definitely felt that something needed to be done about their friction with each other…
The day that followed was, unsurprisingly, a beautiful one. They had spent the morning seeing how far up the island Tamatoa could get before becoming too tired or sore; they had made it about halfway through the old village before turning back, and so the crab had laid in the sand under the shade of his tree to rest while Moana and Maui hung out by the water.
Though Moana had originally been trying to practice techniques with her javelin, she and Maui had began splashing water at each other after Maui had jokingly pushed her into the sea, laughing like idiots all the while.
After a second of catching her breath from laughing too much, she looked over to Tamatoa's unaware body and then cast a mischievous smirk Maui's way.
"Oh geez, Moana don't—" Maui called between chuckles, but she had already sent a stream of water shooting over the beach, playfully splashing the giant crab.
The crustacean jumped in shock, then glared at the pair with the most unamused expression he could muster.
Maui did his best to suppress a chortle, and Moana covered her mouth to hide her wide grin.
The crab rose to his feet and started to limp over to the water's edge where they were wading. Maui gripped his hook a bit tighter beneath the water, unsure of what the crab's intentions were.
Tamatoa's expression suddenly shifted to that of a sly smirk as he raised his claw up above the ocean next to them. "Oh no-!" Moana started to laugh when she realized what he was doing, only to be cut off by him forcefully slamming the claw into the water, drenching them with the huge splash that came out of it.
"You jerk!" Moana giggled, spraying some water back at the crab in retaliation.
"Don't dish it out if you can't take it, babe." He grinned, winking.
"Oh, I couldn't agree more." Maui snickered, suddenly shapeshifting into a hawk and flying up in the air.
Tamatoa tensed, scuttling back a few steps out of alarm, but he suddenly felt confused when he heard Moana start to laugh, "Ooooh no no no, don't you dare!"
With a smug smile, Maui shifted his form to that of a large whale, crashing down into the water and flooding both of them with a massive wave.
Oh. That's what he meant.
The crab spat out some of the excess water, raising an eyebrow at the shapeshifter, who simply turned back into his human form and gave him a shrug and a wink in return.
Moana smiled as she looked between the two of them. Clearly there was still a degree of tension between them, but it was nice to see them at least trying to ignore that.
The trio had gathered around a small campfire for the night, Moana roasting a small fish over the flames as Maui teased her about not being able to eat it raw.
"Some people actually like their food to be cooked." Moana joshed, sticking her tongue out at him.
Tamatoa simply listened as the two of them conversed, eyes seeming fixated on Maui for some reason. When the demigod finally noticed this, he returned the creature's gaze with a questioning look.
"… What's that one for?" The crab finally asked, gesturing to the tattoo of Moana.
Maui raised his eyebrows in surprise. He remembered how Tamatoa used to always ask him about new tattoos when they were still on good terms, but he never really expected he would hear those words from him again.
After shaking off the oddly nostalgic feeling, he glanced at the tattoo Tamatoa was referring to. "Oh, that? That was for Moana and I restoring the Heart of Te Fiti!" He declared proudly.
"Why would you do that?" The crustacean questioned, shocked that he would do such a thing. "Weren't you the one that stole it in the first place?"
Moana and Maui looked at each other with amusement. "I guess news doesn't travel fast around Lalotai." Moana grinned. "You want to hear the whole story?"
The rest of the night was spent reminiscing about their journey, Moana and Maui laughing all the while as they filled the crab in.
For once, quite miraculously, they all seemed to be at ease.