Author's Note: Guys, I am SO sorry about the lack of updates over the last couple of days. I ended up rushing off to New York overnight to visit my grandmother (who is doing fine, so all is well), and I didn't take my computer with me, so I wasn't able to post. Thanks very much for your patience, and I will do my best to put out two chapters today to make up for the lapse!

Chapter Fifteen

For once, Maui was true to his word. First thing the next morning, he let Moana drag him off to find the damaged totara tree. With Sina and Rangi's help, they chopped it down and carried it out in front of Moana's home, where Maui got to work on hollowing out the trunk to carve a canoe from the wood.

At first, he had more help than he was sure what to do with. Moana had a pretty strong idea of how to get started, as, she proclaimed triumphantly, she'd helped build several of the new fishing canoes that they'd needed over the last few years. Rangi wasn't much good at boatbuilding but he was strong and followed directions about as well as any teenage boy ever could. A few of Sina's friends from nearby houses brought carving tools that looked as though they hadn't been used in years, and one or two even contributed bowls of sweet potato or dried fish from last night's huge dinner.

Most the villagers, however, still kept their distance, although Maui did notice that several children were creeping closer and closer as the day went on, obviously itching to see what was really going on with the giant, new voyaging boat. Maui tried smiling at them, but as soon as he did, their mothers hurried them back inside or away from the boat-building project.

"Don't force it," suggested Moana, stifling a laugh. "You're scaring the kids."

"What?" Maui was a little disappointed. "I'm just smiling at them."

"You're nervous," explained Moana. "That 'smile' looks like a grimace of death. Don't worry about it, okay? After we stop the sea from raging, everyone in the village will be so grateful, you'll have a hard time keeping them away, whether you're friendly or not."

Maui sighed.

"I think you said something like that before," he muttered, "right before your council tried to have me thrown out of the village."

Moana bit her lip and winced. "Uh, that's true, but, well…. this time, I'm sure it'll work!"

Maui snorted a laugh and got back to his carving.

The weather, unfortunately, had other ideas about Maui and Moana's best laid plans. Just as Maui finished hollowing out the trunk, it began to rain. While Moana, under his direction, focused on cutting out the tailboard, it started to pour. The clouds came out, obscured the sun, and any helpful villagers left, one by one, returning to the safety of their homes. Before too long, Maui and Moana were crouched out in the downpour alone, working diligently, pushing wet hair out of their faces and blinking rainwater of their eyes as the skies rumbled.

After a while, Maui heard a clucking noise behind him, and then the sound of something drilling diligently against wood.

"Heihei," snapped Moana, "come on, knock it off! You're going to make holes in the tailboard."

Maui turned around and saw the chicken seated next to Moana, cocking its head at the work she was doing and, every now and then, hesitantly pecking at the wood. Moana gently grabbed him by the beak, turned him around, and gave him an affectionate little push, so that he wandered off obediently back towards the house.

"Hey, drumstick!" Maui grinned. "Long time no see. I was starting to worry that maybe they'd cooked you after all."

"Trust me," sighed Moana, "lots of people have suggested it. Oh, and here's Pua!"

A rather elderly black and white pig was waddling out of the house towards them. Moana scooped him up and carried him over to Maui, depositing him next to the boat. The pig oinked, looked up at Maui, and blinked.

"This," said Moana, by way of introduction, "is Pua. I don't believe you've ever met before."

Maui raised an eyebrow at Moana.

"You've got two animal sidekicks? Really." He shook his head. "Is that so you can have a spare if you end up eating one of them?

Moana glared. "Maui!"

Maui just laughed.

"I was just thinking," he began, "about what we should carve onto the sides of our new war canoe. What do you say, drumstick, pork chop? You guys think you'd make good voyage guardians?"

Snatching the smallest carving knife out of Moana's hand, Maui drew the hasty outline of a pig, and then of a chicken on the bottom of the canoe.

"Eh?" He grinned at Moana. "How about it?"

Moana stifled a laugh.

"Those are terrible," she told him. "That doesn't look anything like a chicken! It looks more like a... really messed up tree. Are those supposed to be legs?" She pointed to a place on the carving where two lines jutted out from a large circle.

"Uh, no." Maui was very slightly hurt. "That's the beak, obviously. Anyway, like you could do any better?"

Moana considered that for a moment, then smiled and shook her head. "No," she admitted, "probably not."

The rain was coming down even harder, now, and they were both completely soaked to the bone. Moana shivered, and drew her Chief's cloak a little tighter around her shoulders. The movement revealed, for just a moment, the manta ray tattoo across her left shoulder blade. Maui pointed at it.

"Hey, Moana," he said, gently mocking her. "How'd you get your tattoos?"

"Oh, I earned them," she said sweetly. "You know, the usual way, by lying on my face for hours at a time while my father and the Tohunga chiseled designs into my back, which is, by the way, exactly as painful as it sounds, oh Demigod of the Wind of the Sea." She shuddered. "You're lucky. Doesn't look it hurts too much when you get yours."

Maui made a face. "Yeah…. I think I'll stick to my way, if it's all the same to you."

He nodded at the manta ray on her shoulder. "What's that one for?"

Moana glanced down her nose at it. "Oh, that…that's my grandmother. I mean, my grandmother has a big manta ray tattooed on her back, and I think…okay, you're going to call me crazy, but I'm sure I saw her, once, out at sea, after she died. She always said she wanted to come back as a manta ray…and maybe she did. I think I she did. Haha, or…maybe I had sunstroke." She looked slightly embarrassed, coughed, and gave Maui a sheepish sort of smile.

Maui shook his head. "Nah, you're not crazy. Things like that happen all the time. Saw her in Rarohenga, didn't I? Your Grandma was a Turehu. She probably came up to the mortal world all the time…maybe as a manta ray. I bet that's when you saw her. It makes sense."

Moana looked surprised.

"I…I guess it does," she murmured, frowning to herself. "I'd never thought of it that way. I'd always wondered if maybe it was just a dream."

"Probably not." Maui shrugged. "She just wanted to see you, maybe check up on you. I bet she's proud of you, just like the rest of your family."

"You would have liked her," Moana assured him, "and she would have liked you."

"Oh, yeah?" Maui made a face. "The way I hear it, sounds like your Grandma did a great job at painting me as a villain in the eyes of your people."

Moana's eyes narrowed. "You did most of that yourself," she reminded him. "All Grandma ever did was-!"

"All she ever did," muttered Maui, "was tell stories. Funny, isn't it, how a reputation can get you into trouble? You think you want to be famous, and then it turns out that it's just infamy after all. Can't win, can I?" He sighed. "Nevermind, forget it. Let's not get serious, we're almost done here. I'm cold, and I'm wet, and I'm ready to crash."

"Fair enough," muttered Moana. "Me too."

She pushed a soaked lock of hair out of her eyes for probably the hundredth time, revealing the tattoo of fish hook over her left eye. Maui gazed at it for a moment, then swallowed, and asked the question.

"Hey, Moana," he said, startled by the way his chest tightened before he'd even finished forming the words, "what's, uh…what's THAT one for?"

He reached out and gently touched the fish hook tattoo with his forefinger. Moana shivered, and Maui reflected that, despite the cold and the damp, he was suddenly feeling uncomfortably warmer.

"Oh, um, th-this one?" Moana took a hasty step back, clearing her throat. "Well, haven't you heard the story of Chief Moana and the brave hero Maui, and how they saved the world? It's sorta my favorite story, and it's kiiiiinda important to my people, so I thought I thought I'd get a tattoo to commemorate it. Makes sense, right?"

Maui took a quick breath.

"So…that story about that hero guy," he said carefully, his voice coming out just a little more hoarsely than it usually did, which was weird. "Is it important to your people, or is it important to, uh…you?"

Moana waited a moment before responding.

"It's important to me," she said, very seriously. "It's…it's really important, Maui."

Maui wasn't sure how to respond. There were definitely some things he wanted to say, but he couldn't quite figure out what they were or how to phrase them. Mostly they were uncomfortable, very confused feelings happening somewhere in his chest, and in the strange and nervous way his face and hands were suddenly felt awkward and wrong.

He opened his mouth, cleared his throat, and said, "Um."

At that moment, a giant raindrop landed directly in Maui's eye.

"AGH!" He blinked frantically, momentarily blinded, and rubbed aggressively at his eye with his fingers. A rhythmic pecking sound informed him that Heihei had returned to trying to eat the tailboard of the canoe, and Moana sighed.

"Let's call it a night," she suggested. "We're almost done, and we can finish the rest in the morning."

"Y-yeah," agreed Maui, as vision finally returned. "Sounds good."

He watched as Moana laid down her tools, stretched, then gathered up Heihei and headed into the house with Pua at her heels.

"Dad said he's made up a bed for you," Moana told Maui, "although, we don't really have a lot of guests on Motunui, so we're not used to entertaining, and things are probably going to be a little tight. I hope that's okay. I mean, if it's not okay, it's not like I have a better solution, but…um, sorry. Maybe you'll get used to it?"

Maui reflected, before he could stop himself from having the dangerous thought, that, after thousands of years of being a lone ranger, he'd probably really enjoy getting used to this.

Author's End Note: Huzzah for romance!

Next time on Whare Potae, we'll finally get Moana and Maui back on the sea and on an adventure to Te Fiti!

Oh, but in the meantime, Tabakerko has been kind enough to draw another fanart, this time of a scene from Whare Potae's Chapter Fourteen! You can find it at my website, , on the "Mercy's Blog" page. Please do check it out if you have a chance.

I'm going to go get some work done, but I'm hoping to update again later today before I have to go back to the office tomorrow…