Moana turned from a dejected Maui, who dragged his hook onto the canoe and flopped onto his back, and looked for Vahi'a's dark red hair. "Vahi'a?" she called not seeing her. She wanted to thank her for helping them, to ask how she'd made the geyser burst and if she could do more. But she couldn't find her.

Maui stared at the sky, hearing her call for the fish woman. Even the fish stick had her mojo, so why didn't he? He sighed at realizing it was all for nothing, he should've been left on the island to rot.

"Vahi'a."

He sat up at Moana's sudden cry to see her running along the shore. Vahi'a lay limp on her belly, tender worried waves lapping at her. She didn't look a sea goddess stubborn and proud, more like a piece of kelp washed onto the shore. He remembered her quiet words the night before – she wasn't strong enough.

Moana knelt at her back brushing the hair out of her pale face. "Please be okay," she begged seeing Vahi'a's eyes were closed. "Maui, something's wrong."

As if the thought of asking the demigod for help breathed a new life into Vahi'a her eyes opened. "I'm alright," she said so soft her voice was drowned beneath the rising tide. She raised a cold hand to Moana's cheek, seeing the fear in the girl's dark eyes.

"Get back in the boat," Maui said stepping around Moana.

"But,"

He pushed her onto her feet so that she faced the other way. "Get back in the boat." His voice was soft but firm, and with a last glance back to her, Moana did as told.

He knelt beside her as she strained to sit up, only for her shaking arms to give up and her to lay back. Standing over her he didn't find her half so beautiful: her skin had once held so much warmth, now it was as pale as the dry sand beneath her. Moana had taken care of herself and saved him in the process, Vahi'a had only done this to help him. He reached for her hand, not even half the size of his own, and told her gently; "thank you. Again."

But her eyes had already closed. With a sigh he lifted her, an arm beneath her tail another around her shoulders, and carried her to the canoe where he lowered her to the wood with care. He set her near the edge leaving her tail to hang over the side in the water, and he flopped onto his back beside her so that her head was by his.

"Will she be okay?" Moana asked as they left the shore, seeing she'd be sailing since Maui was in a slump.

His head fell to the side seeing mostly the top of her head but also the shape of her face, and that her eyelashes weren't fluttering. "Don't know," he said turning away from her, his eyes finding the sky. The sun was setting, a burning red over the horizon the color of her hair. He looked at her again seeing every so often a wave rise out of the sea to brush her warm brow with cool water. He wondered if she'd been created in her father's image; her skin wet sand, her tail the water, her hair the sun's reflection on the surface. He wondered what that kind of love felt like.

[*][*][*]

Vahi'a woke to a cool hand running along her fin. Blinking heavy swollen eyes she looked to see every small wave that broke against the side of the canoe was aimed at where she lay. She let her arm hang over the side of the boat, her fingers grazing the surface of the ocean. The water formed around her hand as if to hold it, to offer comfort. There wasn't much of her left to give, but her father knew her heart and she'd give Moana all she had.

"What can I say except we're dead soon. We're dead soon," Maui sang from where he lay beside her.

"Can you at least try?" Moana asked, ever the optimist. Or at least a girl who didn't have time for moping demigods, nothing would happen if he didn't put in the effort. It's why Vahi'a liked her, she got the job done.

With a sigh he turned to the girl, his expression blank. "Giant hawk," he said reaching a hand to the hook. In a flash of blue he transformed into a pig, a fish, a lizard, and finally - an irritating giant oaf.

She felt his arm fall outstretched against her back as he slumped giving up. Moana stood and poked his side with the end of the paddle. "Alright, break time's over. Get up." She sounded as exasperated as Vahi'a felt.

"Why, you gonna give me a speech?" he demanded flippant. "Tell me I can defeat Te Ka because I'm," he raised his hands forming quotations with his fingers, "Maui." The ink drawing nudged him and he sat up flicking him over his shoulder. "Take a hike tiny."

With Maui no longer beside her Vahi'a looked up at Moana seeing the girl was a mix of annoyed and earnest. Moana motioned toward Maui trying to get Vahi'a to speak, maybe he'd feel better knowing she was alright – Moana did, a little. But Vahi'a shook her head lying back down and Moana rolled her eyes seeing she was just as stubborn as he was.

Vahi'a laid with her arms crossed facing the sea wondering if she should've helped Moana, if she should've helped Maui. He was disappointed, mostly at himself, and she knew that feeling. She knew what it was like not knowing herself. More than that she knew how to push the pain deep down so she could find the beauty in what was around her. The ocean was beautiful with hidden secrets and a magic of its own, she missed the land but she'd learned to love the sea. She just, didn't know how put those feelings into words.
Helping Moana back onto the canoe after Maui tossed her in the water, Vahi'a wondered if maybe that was why she liked Moana so much, her youth made her honest.

"You don't wanna talk, don't talk," she told Maui. "You wanna throw me off the boat, throw me off. You wanna tell me I don't know what I'm doing…I know I don't. I have no idea why the ocean chose me." Her voice was small making her sound all the more young. Here was this young girl faced with a demigod and a sea goddess and she had more faith than either. It weighed heavy on her small shoulders.
"But my island is dying. So I am here. Vahi'a is sick too," she pointed to where the fish woman was now sitting up looking as though she wanted to comfort them both. "So it's just me and you, and I want to help. But I can't if you don't let me." She waited for him to say something or move. She sighed turning away.

As if he felt her defeat Maui said, "I wasn't born a demigod. I had human parents. They, uh, took one look and," he shrugged, "and decided they did not want me. They threw me into the sea. Like I was nothing."

Vahi'a listened to his small voice, saw the way his shoulders had shrunk, and she turned away ashamed. Had she not done the same, did she really know his pain? She slipped into the water.

"Somehow I was found by the gods, they gave me the hook. They made me Maui. And back to the humans I went. I gave them islands, fire, coconuts. Anything they could want."

"You took the heart for them. You did everything for them," she said looking at the tattoos of people cheering his name. It wasn't pride, or the want to be praised. "So they'd love you."

"It was never enough," he admitted. He didn't turn at the sound of water dripping to his left, knowing Vahi'a had swum under the boat so that she could sit on the outrigger beside him. She'd never really liked him, had found him from the beginning to be disappointing. He didn't blame her.

She didn't know what to say, words didn't come easy for her anymore. She didn't have to talk to fish. Even if she did have the words to tell him it was okay, he could still be loved, she'd probably say the wrong thing. It seemed compassion didn't come easy for her either.
She looked up when Moana walked passed her to sit on Maui's right.

Moana looked at him finally understanding. "Maybe the gods found you for a reason. Maybe the ocean brought you to them because it saw someone who was worthy of being saved. But the gods aren't the ones who make you Maui, you are." She said her piece, and she left him with it to decide if he wanted to rise to the challenge.

Vahi'a saw her words touch him, lift him out of his wallowing. He mattered, he was loved. Humans, they weren't above pain they couldn't choose whether they lived in it – not like the gods could. Humans suffered, and they cried, and they endured because there was no other choice for them. It's why they were able to feel joy and love, because they first knew loss. It's why Moana was able to find the words and give them to him, because humans above all were compassionate.

Vahi'a reached around him grabbing the handle of his hook dragging it closer to him, and sat back looking up at him. He turned to her seeing in the place of her normal disdain only understanding, her eyes bright in the pale dawning light. She believed in him too. "Good to see you're alright fish stick," he told her quiet and sincere.

When he turned to reach for his hook she rolled her eyes, though her mouth was curled amused. Curling her tail beneath her she sat on the outrigger with her hands folded in her lap watching Maui stand looking to Moana to say he was ready. Little Maui drew an ink drawing of the plan: Maui would defeat Te Ka and restore the heart. It seemed easy enough on the tapestry of Maui's skin.

Moana held her thumb and forefinger an inch apart, Mini Maui took his hook and transformed into a beetle. Maui shifted the hook in his hand prepared to do the same, though his face was unsure. With a flash of blue a beetle fell onto the canoe. Maui saw he got it right and stood up with his arms raised giving a very faint, very high sounding, whoop. At the sight of a bug Hei Hei quickly gobbled him up.

Moana gasped bring her hands to her mouth in surprise looking to Vahi'a, as if the fish woman would know what to do. Besides laugh. And laugh she did, big belly aching laughs that shook her shoulders.

Transforming back into himself, with Hei Hei's beak around his finger, he looked at the sea goddess as she wiped her eyes giving an occasional chuckle. Before he could think of how to get her back Mini Maui held up two fingers to him and he took a breath readying himself. Lizard. He could do that.

Looking down at himself he saw green scales and smiled. The chicken landed on his back. With a playful grin that bordered on mischief he charged forward and bucked Hei Hei into the water. He looked back at the two girls with his brows raised smiling, both stared back unamused. With eyes on Vahi'a Maui leapt transforming into himself – posing as though lying on a bed of roses – and hit the water with big splash. She rolled her eyes shaking her head, the short breath that passed through her lips might've been mistaken for a scoff if not for the way she smiled.

Moana turned from her, thinking she might've seen a faint blush on her sun-warmed cheeks. She peeked over the side of the canoe looking for Maui; who burst from the water a large mouth filled with sharp teeth. The shark had been meant to scare her. It didn't. She only smiled watching as he turned into a large hawk with a blue pop. He swooped and soared high in the sky until he was little more than a smudge amongst the clouds.

"You know." Moana turned at Vahi'a's deep voice to see her lively face, and relief caught in her chest at seeing the fish woman was well again. "I know you think you need him. But he needed you more."
Surprise smoothed Moana's youthful face and an uncertain smile twitched over her mouth. But then Vahi'a shrugged looking out over the horizon feeling the warm breeze run over her still cold skin. "I mean, he's almost tolerable now."

Flying overhead Maui, who'd been watching the way the sun glinted off the red in her dark hair, heard her words and his brow lifted as an idea came to him. Silently he swooped toward the canoe reaching with open talons for the end of her tail that hung off the boat flicking.

"Maui!" she screeched as she slid off of the wood and up into the air. Behind her was the sound of Moana's bright laughter that grew fainter the further away and up Maui flew. "Put me down," she ordered out of reflex more than thought.

With a shrug and a devilish grin he answered, "okay," releasing his hold on her fin. He chuckled at her calling his name, finding it so amusing that even as she fell from a fatal height she was still able to find a way to sound irritated.

She hung upside arms crossed and brows furrowed as he flew her around. After the second time she knew when he flew high he was going to drop her, usually to strike at a pillar of stone slicing the top off, and then as she plummeted he'd swoop down and catch her tail pulling her along.

"Come on," he told her as he flew toward a stone formation jutting high out of the water, "smile a little."

She didn't budge. "It'd be more fun if I wasn't upside down." His response was to fly higher and she waited for the moment when he let her go and she'd fall through the air with nothing but trust and hope that he'd be there to catch her again. Only this time he caught her with strong arms standing atop the cliff and her own smaller ones wrapped loosely around his broad shoulders. "This isn't what I meant," she told him breathless. Finding she felt something very similar to free.

"It'd be a lot easier if you'd just admit you like me," he replied with an offhanded shrug. His smirk would've been wider, his eyes a little warmer, had he not been able to feel the chill in her skin. She still wasn't okay, with her face only a breath from his he could see it in her green eyes. Without warning he hoisted her up onto his shoulder where she sat taller than any point in the sky looking at the unending sea safe in his firm grasp. Her hand came to rest on his shoulder, the only thanks she had to offer, and it was so clear in her open face she found it beautiful. "What can I say except your welcome," he sang softly tightening the hold he had on her. He watched her mouth purse around a grin. "Huh," he raised his shoulder beneath her jostling her, prodding her which only made her mouth purse more as she fought not to smile, "see you do like me. Why's that so hard for you to admit?"

"I tolerate you," she told him, though her voice wasn't unkind and words weren't honest. She looked down at him watching his brow arch. "No," she said reading his thoughts. "No, Maui. MAUI!"

He laughed raising a fist to Mini Maui, who stood with his arms crossed tapping his foot. "Oh come on. She loves it." The little guy didn't budge. So Maui rolled his eyes grabbed his hook and leapt after her.

She hung over the water, her arms crossed once more but the wrinkle in her brow wasn't as deep. Dropping low in the sky he slowed his flight and released her watching as she elegantly arched her back extending her arms and dove into the sea. He hovered over the place he'd dropped her with too many thoughts rolling around in his head, until one finally stuck and he dove into the sea after her.

Righting herself she found the canoe was a ways in front of her and she pondered whether to swim to it or to wait for it to catch up. In the end, she decided to swim. Before she moved a little round red fish swam in circles around her catching her hair in a spiral. Maui. Shaking her head she swam backwards motioning for him to follow before she turned and set off for the canoe. She made it a little ways before a hand caught her tail jerking her backwards, and she caught herself on a wide chest feeling large hands around her back; her hair billowing in the water around them like a curtain.

There was no arrogance in his smile, no trick or mischief. He only smiled as she looked down to find a shark's tail and at the way her eyes warmed. His hook couldn't give her legs, but he could swim with her. And she'd never had anyone to swim with. When her expression had softened so sweetly with a sudden fondness he leaned forward, his eyes closing as his wide nose brushed hers.

His eyes opened when she pulled away, his brow wrinkling as his once smiling mouth frowned. But she held fast to his arm keeping him close, pulling him with her. Her face was still open, her eyes wide with need. "Race me." Her words bubbled in the water. His head cocked to the side as he thought, as he read her. With a smile he nodded, watching her own curl on her mouth. "Don't cheat," she said raising a finger accusingly, seeing from the specific light in his eyes he'd planned on it. "Promise you won't cheat."

He raised a hand to cross an x over his chest, laughter still twinkling in his eye. Suddenly he found her hands around his arms as she pulled him to the surface. Her hands were flat on his chest as he held her up, her head bending so that her forehead brushed his. "Promise me," she breathed staring down at his widening eyes.

He understood. Words weren't easy, there were so many things she wanted to tell him but she didn't know what to say. She'd never had anyone to swim with, but she wanted to swim with him. She may have even been asking him to stay. He found her much less impossible. "Cross my heart," he swore, and the hand she held over his heart twitched as though to hold that promise.

Thank you for reading, I hope you all are enjoying. Please check back on Monday for the next chapter (there's only two left).