Author's Note: Happy Hannukkah, and Merry Christmas to anyone who celebrates. I don't, myself; I'm Jewish, and my family tends to celebrate on the latter half of the holiday, but my husband is Catholic, and so we spent the morning with my nieces and nephew, which was very nice.

I know that not everybody enjoys or has positive experiences/memories of the holiday season. I think a lot of us tend to turn to fandom when we're looking for a comforting place to go in difficult times, so if you're struggling with the ugly truth of not being happy during "the happiest time of the year," I hear you and I'm still listening. Feel free to shoot me a message, and we'll stay up late and chat about Moana while our religious friends ring in the Christmas whatever at midnight.

…and with that, here's some fanfiction.

Chapter Fourteen

"All of this talk about my parents," Moana told Maui, "has got me thinking about families. I've always had my Mom and Dad, and they've always been there to rein me in when I've gone too far, or to calm me down when I've gotten so excited that I'm about to get myself into some serious trouble. If it hadn't been for my Dad, I'd probably have drowned long before I even made it to age sixteen, although I…would really rather he not know that I said that, so please don't tell him."

Maui just raised an eyebrow at her. "Your secret's safe with me."

"Great, agreed Moana, hurrying on. "Anyway, I was thinking about all this, and then I realized; what we're trying to do is impossible."

Maui looked surprised. "Wait, that's…okay, that's not what I was expecting you to say. I thought you said you had a plan."

"I do," agreed Moana. "It's just that I think, at this point, our plan needs to involve asking somebody else for help, because we're just not the right people for this job. We can't help Hine-nui-te-po, because…well, listen, when you're angry, or scared, or sad, or upset, who do you go to for help? You go to someone you trust, right?"

Maui just gave Moana a blank look. "I, uh, wouldn't know much about that. Lone wolf, remember?"

"O-oh." Moana opened her mouth, closed it, then shook her head and tried again. "Well, okay. That's what I would do, anyway. If we're going to stop Hine-nui-te-po from destroying the world, or calm the ocean's anger against the islands, then we need help from someone who's going to matter to them. We need someone who they're actually going to listen to. We can't do this alone, or, just the two of us. We aren't enough."

Maui considered that for a moment, then shrugged. "Okay, I see your point. It's a cute theory, but-!"

"Maui," interrupted Moana, "you know all about the gods and the ancient legends. I mean, you were there for a lot of them, right?"

"Jeez, you're making me sound like some old man," muttered Maui defensively, but Moana wasn't really listening.

"Who would be the person," she went on urgently, "that Hine-nui-te-po would trust the most? I'm pretty sure Grandma once told me something about a father and a mother, so what if we-?"

"No." Maui cut her off, shaking his head emphatically. "No way, absolutely not. Let me put it like this, Moana; Hine-nui-te-po and her father do NOT get along for some pretty uncomfortable reasons, and getting him involved in this, assuming we could even find him, wouldn't help, not at all. Actually, it'd probably make the whole thing worse."

Moana deflated a little.

"Okay," she said, chewing unhappily on her lip. "Then, her mother, maybe?"

"Maybe even worse," Maui assured her. "Hine-nui-te-po's father was also her first husband. Her mother was the, uh, 'other woman,' if you want to put it like that. It gets complicated, and frankly, I don't want to know any more about the mechanics than I already do, so I've pointedly never asked."

Moana's jaw dropped. "Wait…WHAT?"

"Yeah," agreed Maui. "Exactly."

For a moment, Moana was silent, trying to figure out how to best respond to that revelation.

"The gods are, um…they have a lot going on, huh?" She sighed. "I guess there are some really good things about being human. Why do I get the sense that human relationships are a lot less complicated?"

Maui snorted a laugh. "That's another thing that I really wouldn't know much about. You've already stumped me twice today, Moana; I'm impressed. That's not easy to do to a demigod who's been around since the dawn of humanity. Anything else I can help you with?"

"Okay, okay." Moana waved that away with one dismissive hand. "In that case, let's try looking at this from another angle. If Hine-nui-te-po doesn't have any family to turn to, then what about…the sea?"

Maui appeared to consider that for a moment.

"Hah." He shook his head and gave her an incredulous little smile. "Okay…now there, you might have something. The sea's actually got a mother; the same mother as the land, and all of the islands you mortals have settled on. We shouldn't have a hard time finding her; in fact, you two already know each other."

Moana gasped.

"Te Fiti," she whispered.

"That's right." Maui nodded. "They say that, long ago, before even I was around to take notes, the ocean flowed out of the top of Te Fiti's head, to flood an island where another goddess lived who'd tried to steal her husband. Nobody's ever said which island it was; the whole thing probably ended up underwater, anyway. Nobody even knows who the other goddess was. She probably decided to stay incognito after that. I mean, who would want to be famous for having destroyed an entire island, right?" Maui winced, and Moana decided that she didn't have to draw the parallel for him.

"So…it sounds like Te Fiti and Hine-nui-te-po have some things in common, then," she muttered. "They both like flooding islands when they're angry."

"Yeah," agreed Maui, "but, look on the bright side. Te Fiti already likes you. She's more powerful, and she's been doing the island-flooding thing for longer. Having her on our side would definitely put an ace in our corner. Its…not exactly a bad idea."

"Not exactly?" Moana frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well," explained Maui, "for one thing, in order to get to Te Fiti, we're going to need to sail across an ocean, which, in case you'd forgotten, is absolutely determined to kill us the very next chance it gets. That could be a problem. Plus, all the boats were smashed up in the flood. No canoe, no can do."

"I've already thought about that," said Moana triumphantly. "We could fly to Te Fiti!"

Maui's mouth opened a little in surprise. "Uh."

"You could carry me there," insisted Moana quickly, "as a hawk. I know we couldn't make the trip all at once; you couldn't just fly straight there from here, not carrying a human, but it'd mean that we wouldn't have to risk the sea, so it'd be much safer in the long run, even if it took a little extra time."

"Uh…no." Maui just shook his head. "That is possibly the craziest thing you've ever suggested, and that's saying something, considering it's you we're talking about. Moana, you'd die if you fell from a height like that. It's not even a 'maybe.' You'd either die by drowning, or you'd die by having every bone in your body crunched on the rocks. It wouldn't work."

"I'll be fine," retorted Moana, "as long as you don't drop me. Just be extra careful, and-!"

"I can't be careful enough to take that risk," interrupted Maui flatly. "I could sneeze, or a gust of wind could come up suddenly, or a flock of birds could fly by, or it could rain. Stuff happens when you're flying; I can't promise that there's no way I wouldn't get distracted and let go. I'm not a passenger hawk; this isn't something I've done before, and I'm not going to try it with you. Don't ask me again; I'm not doing it."

The look on Maui's face was so uncharacteristically set and stern that Moana was surprised.

"O…kay," she said carefully. "Well, in that case, I guess you could fly to Te Fiti by yourself and ask her."

"Still not a good idea,' muttered Maui. "She doesn't particularly like me. I'm the guy who turned her into a fire-breathing volcano creature in the first place, remember? You're the heroine, here. If anyone's going to persuade her to meddle in the mortal world, then it's you, not me."

"Nngh!" Moana was starting to get frustrated. "You're not actually making any suggestions, you know; you're just disagreeing with everything I say! How is that helping?"

Maui was unperturbed by her annoyance.

"Sorry to spoil your party," he said dryly, "but I'm trying to take this seriously, for once. I like the first part of the plan; the part where we get someone else to help bail us out of this mess before it gets any more nuts around here. I don't love the part where either you get yourself killed by falling to your death, or I go there alone and find out that she's not even willing to help. Strong beginning, weak finish, you get what I'm saying? Come up with a way of actually getting both of us to Te Fiti, and I'm all ears."

Maui fell silent while Moana wracked her brains for a solution. The expectant way he was watching her didn't the situation any less stressful.

"We could…build a new canoe," she said hesitantly, after a bit of thought.

"Your people aren't boat builders," Maui reminded her. "Sure, you can make those little fishing boats of yours, but those won't do for a long-distance voyage across the open ocean. You'd be overturned before you were halfway to Te Fiti."

Defeated at last, Moana gave up. Her shoulders sagged.

"Okay," she sighed. "Forget it, this was stupid. I'll…I'll think of something else, a better plan."

It's just, she thought desperately, that I was so sure this would work. I mean, what else IS there?

"I, on the other hand," said Maui slowly, "do know a little bit about boats. Now, I'm not promising you anything, so don't get excited, but I'd be willing to give the whole canoe-building thing a shot. I'd need a few different kinds of wood, and a bunch of materials that aren't so easy to come by, but if you could get me those things, then-agh!"

Without really stopping to think about it, Moana had flung her arms around Maui's neck before he'd even finished his sentence.

"I knew I could count on you," she declared, squeezing him a bit too tightly before releasing him and sitting back down hard on the sandy ledge. "Thank you. I'll get you everything you need, I promise. We can do this, I know we can!"

Maui looked stunned for a moment, started to say something, and then put his hand thoughtfully to his throat where Moana had clung to him.

"Knew you could count on me, huh?" He chuckled a little incredulously. "That's...well, it's something I never expected to hear. Hah. Feels, uh, pretty good, actually. I think I could get used to it."

Moana was already on her feet and heading back towards the village.

"Come on," she called over her shoulder to Maui. "We've got a lot of work to do. I remember seeing a totara tree yesterday that had been hit by lightning in a storm, probably. It'll be easy to chop it down without damaging the surrounding trees too much. I'll go ask Dad and Rangi if they'll help; it's a big one, and we'll probably need a few extra hands."

Author's End Note: This chapter was almost entirely exposition and character development, with very little action or romance. Thanks for bearing with me. I promise you some faster-paced, more action-centric chapters as the week progresses, as well as a few more romantic moments as we get more and more into the Moana/Maui dynamic.

This story is proving a bit longer than I originally intended, and it may end up having a sequel. The story I want to tell has multiple facets and may be better served by two fics than by one, especially in terms of the romance. It's something I'm considering anyway. Would you be willing to read a two-part story, or a set of stories which included a sequel? I'm interested to hear your thoughts.