Author's Note:

You know that moment when you can't focus on your three/four legitimate paying jobs, because you're too distracted by a story that you're just itching to write? That's me, right now.

Therefore, I am going to see if I can get this chapter done during my three tiny work breaks today. Wish me luck, I'll need it.

PS: This just in, my previous computer is totally busted. Why? I typed so aggressively and with such emphatic purpose that I demolished my keyboard to the point of no return.

...I can't help it, I'm just an exuberant typist. It's my job.

...I have to try not to break the new one. I wonder, do they make reinforced keyboards for people who do a lot of writing/typing during the day? I'll have to find out.

Chapter Nine

Just as before, the seas were far, far calmer on the way back to Motunui than Moana had expected, almost as though the ocean had finished its business with her and was now occupied elsewhere.

The sea wasn't the only one being quiet, either. Maui hadn't spoken a word ever since they'd set out from the island, and it had probably been hours.

"Okay," Moana sighed, glancing at him over her shoulder, "what's wrong? Why are you being weird?"

"What?" Maui shrugged. "I'm not being weird."

"Yes," countered Moana, "you are. You're being...really quiet. It's freaking me out."

"That's not weird." Maui shook his head. "I can be quiet."

"Really." Moana raised an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah," returned Maui, "really. Moana, I have spent more years than you've been alive sitting by myself in several different inescapable prisons, with absolutely no one else to talk to. I am really good at being quiet, and literally centuries of practice has made me super comfortable with my own thoughts."

Moana didn't have an immediate response to that, and so they sailed on for a few minutes while she considered.

"Okay," she said, "then maybe it's not the silence. Maybe it's something else. There's...I don't know, some kind of weird, uh, aura? Anyway, something's obviously wrong. If you don't want to talk about it-!"

"It's your imagination," interrupted Maui. "Everything's fine."

Just the irritated monotone in Maui's voice made it clear to Moana that, no, everything was definitely not fine.

"Why," she asked "are you angry? Seriously? You don't have anything to be angry about. You got into a mess thousands of years ago because you decided that it would be a good idea to break Hine-nui-te-po's heart so you could be everyone's favorite 'trickster demigod,' and in the end I had to come rescue you, even though it was kind of out of my way and sort of contrary to my goals. Why the heck does that give YOU a right to be mad?"

Moana expected some backlash from Maui but, to her surprise, she didn't get it.

"It doesn't," he muttered. "It's got nothing to do with any of that. I already thanked you for coming to 'save me' if you want to put it that way, so let's...let's just drop it."

Moana rolled her eyes, but she let the matter go.

After all, she thought, people change, right? So, maybe this is normal. It's been a while, so maybe we just need to get used to each other...again. Yeah, that's probably it.

"Wait," said Maui suddenly. "You're really gonna drop it? Just like that? You're not gonna keep asking me what's wrong?"

"Huh?" Moana shook her head. She'd just realized something that had been bothering her ever since they'd left the island, something that didn't quite add up. Maui's comments a few moments ago had made it click in her head.

"Maui," she began, "you...you said that Hine-nui-te-po can't come up to the surface any more, right? Not for thousands of years?"

"Yeah," agreed Maui warily, "that's right."

Moana nodded. "Okay, so...then how did she get her hands on you, after all this time? You didn't go back, did you, just to tease her? Because that, that would be...truly despicable."

"Of course not," grumbled Maui. "What do you take me for, anyway? I didn't go back to tease her. I went back...for something else. I went down to Rarohenga because I had some business there, totally unrelated to any old flames, and she grabbed me when I had my guard down. I should have been more careful. Normally, I am."

Moana waited for him to go on, but he didn't. Instead, he turned his back to her and spent a few minutes fixedly examining the stern of the canoe.

"So," she pressed, "what 'business' was so important that it dragged you back down to the land of the dead?"

Maui snorted a laugh. "I thought you were going to drop it."

"I dropped the other thing," insisted Moana, "but this, this I think I have a right to know, don't you?"

"All right, fine, since you asked." Turning back around to face her, Maui took a quick breath. "The other day, I don't know, maybe three, four weeks ago, I stopped by your island on a whim. Thought I'd, uh, see how you were doing."

Moana was startled. "Wait, you did? But I didn't-!"

"I know," interrupted Maui. "You were busy, probably. Out, I guess, with the boats. Anyway, we didn't run into each other."

Moana felt weirdly guilty, and perversely kind of excited at the same time, which was confusing and a bit overwhelming for a couple of seconds.

"Your Mom was there, thought," Maui went on. You've got some of her look, but I think you honestly take more after your Dad. I digress. The point is, I hung out on her roof for a little bit as a hawk, and I got pretty into the story she was telling. It's my favorite; the new legend of Maui the Demigod and the intrepid Chief Moana, about how they restored the Heart of Te Fiti, saved the world, became a team of undaunted, celebrated heroes. Your Mom tells that story better than just about anybody else on any other island, probably because she heard it first hand from the great Moana of Motunui herself."

Moana flushed. "She...she embellishes it a little," she admitted. "She adds in a few extra pirates and maybe three or four more giant crabs each time. It gets ..kinda embarrassing."

"She's your Mom," returned Maui, shrugging. "She's proud of you. It's not the end of the world. Besides, what's a few more crabs? Let's face it, you and I were kind of a big deal."

Moana blinked. "Were?

"But," continued Maui, "I started thinking, while I was listening, that our story is probably the greatest Maui story of all time. There are hundreds of stories about me all over the islands, I mean, I'm a living legend, probably more talked about than most of the gods, but this story...this one I'm proud of. I want everybody to hear this one, and I realized...well, I realized that there were some people who'd probably never hear it. People who probably needed to hear it. So, I went looking for them, so I could tell them."

"You went looking for them...in Rarohenga," mumbled Moana, not at all sure she understood.

"Yeah," agreed Maui. "I told you, my real parents were mortals, so...they're dead. They're really, really dead. Been dead for a long time."

Maui fell silent for a moment.

"You went to talk to your parents?" Moana bit her lip. "To tell them what you'd done?"

"That's right." Maui nodded. "Don't laugh. I know how pathetic it sounds, but that's what happened."

Moana didn't feel laughing at all, not even a little , the whole thing was a bit sobering.

"Well," she asked, "did you find them?"

"Nope." Maui sighed. "Not even sure I'd know where to look. All I've got is their names, and there are literally millions of dead people floating around down there. It'd take time, more time than I had. Before too long, I got snapped up by Her Royal Miserableness, who apparently thought that two thousand years would have changed my mind about whether or not I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. When I reminded her that she wasn't my type, she got angry, and that's when the sea started getting involved. So, now you know the whole story. Any questions? Fair warning," he muttered sarcastically, "there may be a pop quiz."

Moana was so distracted by thoughts of Maui searching for his parents in the realm of the dead that she almost missed the turn she needed to take to keep them on course towards Motunui.

"That's...that's so sad," she said, thinking aloud.

Maui made a disgusted face. "Oh, gee, thanks," he said. "Just what I wanted, some pity. My favorite."

"What? Oh, no, no, I...that's not what I meant," added Moana hastily, but it had been, and they both knew it.

There was something else about Maui's story too that had gotten to her, even if he'd tried to gloss over it before she'd had a chance to inquire any further.

"Maui," she asked carefully, "how many times have you come to Motunui to, uh, 'see how I was doing?'"

Maui gave her a long, very direct sort of look.

"I once turned into a shark and sat on the beach near your village docks for almost fourteen hours straight," he said simply. "You walked right by me three times."

"Wha...you WHAT?" Moana's eyes widened in alarm. "Why the heck didn't you say something?

Are you serious? I didn't even notice!"

"You 'didn't even notice' a giant shark just chilling next to your canoe for an entire day? Tch." Maui made a face. "That….that's just doesn't seem likely."

For a moment, Moana couldn't even find the words. She waved her hands around exasperatedly, trying to indicate the ridiculousness of it all, then shook her head.

"Is there...some really good reason," she began slowly, "why you couldn't just walk up to my front door and knock like a normal person? Preferably shaped like a normal person?"

Again, Maui hesitated.

"Once," he said slowly, "I did. It was they day you became Chief. I flew over, marched on up to your home, knocked on the door, and when nobody answered I sort of...let myself in."

He winced, shaking his head. "You all, uh, looked like you were having a pretty good time. Everybody was laughing, you had the whole ceremonial getup on, there was food everywhere, and light, and...uh, well, overall it seemed like a pretty good party, but one that I didn't have an invitation to. I didn't want to interrupt, so...I snuck out again before anybody noticed."

"Maui." Moana wasn't even sure what to say.

"Look, the truth is," muttered Maui, "I may be the guy who returned the Heart of Te Fiti, but I'm also the guy who stole the thing in the first place. People died because of what I did, people from your village. Sure, they may like to tell stories now of how I'm some great hero, but what would they say if I walked up and introduced myself? Probably nothing nice. I've been driven out of villages before. I know how easily humans forget the good and dwell on the bad. Somehow, I don't think I'd be welcome at your parties."

He finally trailed off, looking embarrassed and dejected.

Moana took a deep breath.

"Okay," she said. "First of all...I would never let anyone drive you out of my village. Ever."

"I appreciate that," muttered Maui, "but that's not the point."

"Second of all,"Moana went on, "you absolutely have to stop hiding out on the beaches or on rooftops, because that is frankly really creepy, and someone could catch and eat you, which would be really confusing and disappointing for the poor hunger when he realized what was going on. Did I mention that was really creepy?"

Maui almost chuckled. "Maybe. So, wait, you really didn't notice the shark? How did you not-?"

"And," finished Moana, placing a hand on Maui's arm, "thirdly, and this is the most important one, Maui, I-!"

"Uh oh." Maui cut her off, gazing over her shoulder at the sea beyond. "That...that doesn't look good."

Distracted from what she'd been about to say, Moana spun around to see the island of Motunui looming up in the distance.

"Ah," she gasped. "Oh no…"

There were huge waves crashing relentlessly onto the island's beach, rearing up and slamming against the shore with an incredible force that ate away at the beach and smashed the boats lined up against the docks. As Moana and Maui watched, the waves got higher and higher, more and more aggressive, until they threatened to flood the entire coastline.

"I was afraid of this," mumbled Maui. "Looks like her royal deadliness isn't finished with us after all."

Moana just gazed in horror at the sea which had once been her dearest ally, now doing it's best to brutally destroy the home she loved.

Author's End Note:

Slightly longer chapter than usual this evening, and with quite a bit of talking and what we call "character work" in the theater. In the next chapter, we'll get back to action-packed adventure sequences (sort of).

Thanks for reading and, as always, I love to hear your thoughts.