Author's Note: Okay, fanfiction time. I am absolutely, ABSOLUTELY not allowed to look at any more sad Princess Leia art tributes on facebook. Strong nope, hard pass.

Let's start today off with a question about fandom romance. That's always fun, right?

I'm starting to really enjoy writing the dynamic between Moana and Maui. I honestly feel those two characters in the movie have some of the best chemistry that I've ever seen between two characters in a Disney film, so hopefully this romance I'm writing is going in a good direction.

Other than Moana and Maui, what is your favorite romantic pairing (any fandom), and why? Feel free to teach me about a pairing I've never heard of, I love those.

Chapter Seventeen

It was, unfortunately, over before Moana was ready. In what felt like mere minutes, Maui closed the distance between the village and the ocean below, landing neatly in the canoe that was tied to some miraculously intact rocks on the beginnings of the new beach which the ocean had begun creating at the base of Mount Motunui. Startled and somewhat out of her depth, with the world still spinning around her, Moana lay still on Maui's back until she felt slightly more at ease with her newly stationary state. Then, she began clumsily trying to untie the ropes around her legs, but, still a little dizzy, she fumbled with the knots and had trouble getting them untangled.

Maui gave her a sharp look over his shoulder, then shrugged his wings, spread them out, and transformed back into his human form. Moana was left clinging to his back, piggy-back style, and what had, moments ago, been feathers abruptly became skin. Moana could hear his heart beating with her face pressed against his back like that, and it was an oddly comforting, grounding feeling, especially after the exhilarating ride. His skin was warm, too, probably from the exertion of the flight, and Moana's face flushed just as hot when she realized that she was too busy thinking about Maui's back, and not busy enough trying to untie her harness.

"S-sorry," she mumbled confusedly, pulling even harder on the knots.

"Here." Maui passed her a knife. "You, uh, sure you're okay? You sound a little out of breath. Too much for you? Hey, don't say I didn't warn you."

Hastily slashing at the rope around her waist, Moana freed herself from the harness and slid down into the boat.

"Wh-what are you talking about? I," she assured Maui, maybe just a little bit too loudly and quickly, "am absolutely FINE. Everything's great! I'm awesome. You're awesome! That…that was an awesome trip. We will, uh, have to do that again sometime…I mean, if you want. Wait, sorry, did that hurt? I'm not too heavy, am I? Actually, don't answer that, please. I probably don't want to know."

"You're light as a feather," Maui assured her loyally, "and if you weren't, I definitely wouldn't tell you." He grinned. "Let's just be glad you're not dead, okay? Now, you ready for the hard part?"

Moana looked out at the deceptively calm sea, aware that, the moment they set off from the shore, it was more than likely that the ocean would begin its onslaught. That hurt her, and somehow it hurt her more deeply, now, than it had when she'd been gazing down at the sea from the village above. Now, close to the water that had once been her greatest ally, Moana felt she barely knew the ocean anymore, something that, as a wayfinder, she had a hard time accepting.

"So?" Maui was looking at her expectantly. "What do you think, Chief? Are we gonna take another stab at Te Fiti?"

Well, yes, thought Moana. I mean, of course we are! What's the worst that can happen, right?

She immediately wished she hadn't asked herself that question, as visions of storms, waterfalls, giant cannibalistic crabs, and the goddess of death filled her mind.

"Yeah," she said aloud, sighing and reaching out to untie the ropes that bound the canoe to the rocks. "Okay…let's do this."

Maui used an oar to paddle them out into the current, and then the sail caught the wind. On course for Te Fiti, at least for the moment, Moana and Maui sat in silence, gazing warily at the water off either side of the canoe, waiting with every muscle tensed for something terrible to happen.

It didn't, which was somehow even more nerve wracking.

Everything continued calm and serene for hours, until the sun had fully risen in the sky and was beginning to go down again. Moana, still on course, was sure that they'd soon be seeing the shape of Maui's island, the island that she'd discovered contained a hidden entrance to Hine-nui-te-po's kingdom.

"I think," said Moana, frowning at the horizon, "that I'm going to steer us as clear of the entrance to Rarohenga as I possibly can. We came out around your old island, didn't we, when we escaped the first time? So, I'm going to take us around the back of that island instead, and maybe that way we can completely avoid any place that Hine-nui-te-po can touch."

"You can't avoid Rarohenga," Maui informed her, shaking his head. "It's the realm of the dead, Moana; all of the dead. Can you imagine how big the place would have to be to contain the souls of, literally, every person who has ever died? Doesn't matter where we sail; we're technically on top of Rarohenga all the time. It's like I said, though; she can't come after us. All she can do is send her minions, which frankly isn't that scary, or-!"

He stopped, staring at a point a few feet away from the boat, and then grimaced.

"What? What is it?" Moana followed Maui's gaze, and saw the white-water whirlpool opening up in front of their canoe, turning the ocean into a vortex which was sucking everything around it down into the deep.

"Or," sighed Maui, "Hine-nui-te-po could just ask the ocean to bring us down to Rarohenga for her. There's always that option. Hadn't really considered that which, come to think of it, is…kinda dumb."

Moana didn't have time to be shocked or panicky. "Hang on!"

Pushing the canoe's tailboard hard to the left, Moana leaned into the side of the canoe, snatched the paddle out of Maui's unresisting hands, and tried desperately to force the boat away from the oncoming whirlpool. She just managed to skirt the edge of the vortex, but a second and this time larger whirlpool opened up in front of her before she'd had a chance to celebrate. This time, Moana swung to the right, and the canoe danced out of the way of new whirlpool just in time to encounter a third, this one larger than two canoes, which opened up right underneath the boat, immediately beginning to suck it down.

"Aaaah!" Moana tried to steer the boat out of the whirlpool, but couldn't fight the pull of the water. The canoe had already begun to spin with the current, and Moana knew she'd lost control and wouldn't be able to get it back.

"MAUI," she screamed above the rush of the water. "It's no good, we've gotta get out of here!"

Maui gritted his teeth, then held his fish hook up above his head and let out a whoop.

"CHEEEEHUUUUUUU!"

In a flash, he'd become the hawk again, and, grabbing Moana roughly in his talons, he hauled her out of the boat and up into the sky. Moana clung desperately to his legs, and watched as the ocean sucked the empty canoe down to the bottom of the sea, leaving her suspended in the air with nothing between her and the swirling vortex but thin air and Maui's painful deathgrip on her upper arms. She could feel his claws cutting deep into her skin, drawing blood, but she bit her lip and tried not to let Maui realize how much it hurt.

"Hey," shouted Maui, and Moana looked up in surprise to find that his face and only his face had returned to its human form, perched on his hawk neck with feathers sticking out from all sides.

"No matter what you do," he told her, "don't let go. You hear me? Do NOT let go!"

Moana just nodded. He didn't have to ask her twice.

Without another word, Maui turned fully into a hawk again, let out a sharp cry of frustration that Moana could feel echoing all over the back of her brain. Much more slowly than before, he took off across the water, keeping a good distance between himself and the lapping waves, headed for a dark point in the distance that Moana fervently hoped would turn out to be land. Whatever it was, however, it now seemed very, very far away.

"This isn't going to work," declared Maui, now half-human again with his face exposed. Moana could hear in his voice that he was trying and just barely managing to keep sounding relaxed. "I can't keep this up, and you're bleeding. Time to show me some of that upper body strength, Moana. I need you to get up onto my back, right now."

"What?" Moana began to protest. "Hey, I-!"

"NOW." Moana could feel Maui's grip beginning to slip. Desperately she detached one hand and reached up, trying to gain purchase on his back, but feathers didn't make for good climbing handholds.

I'm going to fall, realized Moana, forcing herself to take deep breaths. Okay…so, if I'm going to fall anyway, then…yeah. There's only one thing left to do.

"Maui," she called up to him, "I'm going to let go."

"WHAT?" Maui was no longer even remotely calm. "Are you insane? What was the one thing I told you not to do?"

"I'm going to let go," repeated Moana, "and you're going to drop me…and then you're going to catch me, because if you don't, I'm going to end up in Rarohenga a lot sooner than we expected, for all the wrong reasons. Ready?"

"Uh, no," began Maui, "no, I am not-!"

"I'm letting go!"

Moana shut her eyes, murmured a hasty prayer to any gods who weren't actively trying to kill her, and released her grip on Maui's legs. For a moment, she hung painfully by the claws he had sunk into her shoulders, and then, with a tearing sensation as Maui's grip also gave way, she fell.

Moana's stomach dropped, and she bit down hard on her lip, opening her eyes again just in time to see the ocean rushing up to meet her from below, still swirling and ready to engulf her the moment she reached it.

Then, just before she hit the surface of the waves, she heard Maui's screech. She landed on his back as he shot beneath her, skimming the water with his claws. She clung to him, and he soared back up into the sky again, this time with Moana firmly nestled against his neck and bleeding onto his feathers.

Before too long, Moana couldn't see the whirlpool anymore, or perhaps it had sunk back into the sea. She watched the water below for a while, aching inside, as she and Maui made their way as fast as they could for dry land, something she'd never longed for so much in her life until now.

Author's Note: Goodness. Just writing this chapter gave me motion sickness. I don't think I could ever be a successful adventuress. Oh, well.