Uneventful. That was a good way to describe the following week.
Not in the bad way, mind you. It was actually quite a relief, not getting attacked every other day. Well, by monsters or pirates, anyway. Tamatoa still had the bratty Wikoli and Pilipo to deal with. Just the other day, they had stolen some of the treasures Moana gave him off his back while he was sleeping, solely for the purpose of messing with him. Almost lost his temper when he was getting it back from them, if he was being honest… Moana had to get between the three of them when she heard the arguing.
She could tell his patience had been wearing thin with these two.
Tamatoa would have to start avoiding the pair of teens better. The last thing he wanted was her starting to think he'd actually hurt them. Though, to his relief, he found her laughing about it that night while they were hanging out with Tala and Maui.
"I just can't believe you'd be angrier about losing a few baubles than getting buried alive!" She would say with an astonished half-smile.
"Pff." Tamatoa huffed, fiddling with some trinkets.
"I'd believe it." Maui grinned. "Good ol' crab cake here knows exactly where he got each piece of his treasures and is suuuper sentimental about all of 'em. Isn't that right, buddy?" He nudged the decapod in a teasing manner.
The crab scoffed, shoving him away with a claw as he rolled his eyes. "So what if I am?"
"Well, that's no surprise." Tala snickered mischievously. "The treasure's just compensation, after all."
Tamatoa gave her a completely deadpan look. "What."
"Not like that, you dumb crab!" The ghost cackled. She then shot him a look that seemed to see right through him. "It's compensation for the ugliness you feel inside, isn't it?"
The crustacean's expression changed to one of dumbfoundedness, his mind drawing a blank. "Oh Gods, I know right?" Moana agreed with the gramma-ray. "He always denies it!"
"Ugh. How's about a change of topic, huh?" Tamatoa grumbled, flicking away one of the shells on the shore.
"Whatever happened to you being your favourite subject?" Tala replied with the smuggest of grins, earning an unimpressed stare from the creature. Raising an eyebrow, she continued, "More importantly, why are you still beating yourself up on the inside? You're not as hideous as you seem to believe. Isn't Maui and Moana's friendship proof enough of that?"
On cue, both Maui and Moana beamed at the crustacean. "Yeah, crab cake!" Maui agreed. "We think you're awesome!"
Chock that up to bad taste. Tamatoa commented to himself with another eye-roll. "Look, how many of these 'inner beauty' speeches do I have to go through? They're becoming tedious."
"As many as it takes for the message to sink in!" Moana laughed, winking.
"Yeah! Listen to the wise old lady, Tamatoa!" Maui chuckled, nudging him again. "Wisdom comes with age!"
"We're far older than Tala." He replied with a smirk.
"Ahh, maybe physically, but not up here~!" Tala grinned, tapping her forehead. The four of them shared a laugh, conversation continuing late into the night.
These people never seemed to fail at making Tamatoa feel better about himself. Their mere presence lifted his spirits in a way that could not be explained. How on Earth do they do it? How did he get so lucky?
He was so, so lucky to have such good people in his life.
But luck only goes so far.
And as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end.