Author's Note: You all have been unbelievably kind, thoughtful and encouraging in the comments that you've left on my work, even about my author's notes! I'm deeply, deeply touched and gratified. You're all lovely people, do you know that? I hope you know that, because it is absolutely true. Thank you so much. My head is feeling much better, for now.

For the next…oof, almost 24 hours I will be auditioning both friends and strangers to perform in my theater company's upcoming production of Much Ado About Nothing. There are seventeen roles, large and small, and we're currently looking at over 40 actors potentially coming out to fill those roles.

It is going to be a rather long, very exhilarating couple of days. I will try to update a couple of times this weekend, if only to relieve some stress!

I'm ready for some stress relief right now, aren't you?

Chapter Twenty-Six

After meeting with the village council and delivering the happy news that the ocean was now on her side again, Moana walked back out into the square just in time to see Maui, with his hook raised over his head, as though he was about to transform.

"Hey," she asked, walking up behind him. "What are you doing?"

Startled, Maui spun around, dropped the hook in his surprise, and swallowed.

"Nothing," he assured her." Me? What? I'm uh…nothing. Doing nothing, yep, that's me. Not a thing. Uh, how are you?"

Moana had a suspicion that she knew exactly what he was doing. Smiling, she pointed an accusing finger at him.

"You were about to go back to the ocean, weren't you…to go fishing?" She shook her head at him. "You know, I didn't believe it when I first met you, but sometimes, when you're trying hard, there are some very, very heroic things about you after all…but don't expect to hear me say that again. Oh, but if you're going down to the sea, I'll come with you. We'll be able to carry more fish, that way."

"Uhhh…no." Maui took a hasty step away from her. "Thanks, but I don't need any help. Pretty sure I got too much fish last time, anyway, so it's not like we need to carry more. I'll be fine."

"You don't want a little company?" Glancing over her shoulder at her parents' house, Moana sighed. "Okay, come on, if you leave me in the village by myself, Mom and Dad will remind me of all the 'important, Chiefly duties' I've been shirking while you and I were off having adventures, and I won't have a good excuse not to go tally the chicken-feed stores, or to practice my flute before my lesson with the Tohunga in the morning, or…you know, any of that stuff. I can't do any of that, though, if I'm down by the water fishing with you, to feed my people, right? Please? Pretty please? I promise, we can use the harness this time. I won't even argue."

She tried a winning grin, but Maui didn't look even remotely amused.

"Can't," he muttered. "My, uh, shoulders still hurt from our flight back at Rarohenga. I can't carry you right now."

He shrugged and held out his hands in a gesture of apology, and Moana was surprised to notice that the deep, dark gashes in his right palm seemed somehow to have gotten worse. Blood had dried in little patches all over the hand, but around those patches the skin was stained, puckered, drawn and shriveled like old fruit. It looked dry and terribly painful.

"That looks…awful," she mumbled. "Um, I think maybe you should see a healer."

"I told you, I'm fine," he snapped, snatching the hand away from her and tucking it self-consciously behind his back.

"I've never seen a wound like that before," she insisted. "Maui…what happened back there?"

Maui didn't say anything. He looked distant, distracted, like he was thinking hard about something else. Moana realized what she'd already begun to suspect, ever since they'd escaped from Rarohenga; something was more than just a little bit wrong.

"Okay," she began slowly, taking a deep breath and doing her best not to sound like she was pushing him. "Well, if you don't want to tell me, I guess that's fine, but…you probably can't carry that fishing net on your own; not with your hand injured like that. Let me come fishing with you, and I can help you carry your catch back to the village. Deal?"

Maui opened his mouth to argue, then paused, sighed, and deflated.

"I'm not going fishing," he admitted quietly.

"Oh?" Moana frowned. "Then, where are you going?"

It took a moment before Maui answered.

"I have to ask the ocean for a favor," he said eventually

Moana considered the habit Maui had of upsetting the gods and making the ocean's life much more difficult than it needed to be, forcing it to get involved and to sort out the messes he'd made.

"I have an idea," she suggested helpfully, trying to sound casual about it. "How about you tell me what the favor is, and I ask the ocean? Okay?"

Maui gave her a doubtful look.

"Look," sighed Moana, "honestly, of the two of us, I'm more likely to convince the ocean to see my point of view. I think we can both agree on that." She crossed her arms over her chest, shrugged, and added, "I'm just saying, it's a better idea to have me ask, and for you to…whaaaat are you staring at?"

Maui seemed to be suddenly fascinated by the vicinity of Moana's crossed arms. Self-consciously, she dropped her arms to her sides again, glared at him, embarrassed, and coughed.

Maui blinked, and, to Moana's amazement, turned slightly pink.

"Wait, uh…what are you talking about?" He laughed nervously. "I'm not staring. Definitely not staring. It's just, uh, have you always had…?"

He trailed off, and Moana just raised an eyebrow at him.

"What?" she demanded. "Have I always had…what?"

"Absolutely nothing," mumbled Maui, now alarmingly bright red. "Forget about it. Aaaaanyway, you're right. You and the ocean are best buds, so you'd have better luck than me."

Moana, hoping to dispel the weird awkwardness in the air, gave him a smile.

"I thought," she reminded him brightly, "that you and I were best buds."

She'd expected that to cheer him up, but instead, he just looked confused and gave her a slightly pained smile, then turned his back to her.

"Yeah," he mumbled. "Right. Of course we are."

Moana gave up. Everything felt weird, and it wasn't a healthy, normal-Maui kind of weird, either. She had a really bad feeling about this.

"I'll go and get the ropes," she sighed. "Back in a minute. Don't fly off without me, okay?"

Minutes later, they were down by the water, Maui standing in the boat that was, once more, moored to the rocks. Moana slid down off Maui's back, but even after he had changed back into human form, he didn't seem to want to look at her.

"Maui," she began, beginning to lose her patience with this, "what-?"

"I can't put the island back," he said dully.

Moana paused. "What? Why not? Is it your hand? Because I totally understand about that, and, like I said, you don't have to put the island back until you're feeling up to it; I mean, until your hand heals. We can keep going down to the ocean to get fish for a few days until you're well enough. Nobody can blame you for that."

"My hand isn't going to heal," muttered Maui, shaking his head. "This isn't a normal wound, Moana; it's a curse. Hine-nui-te-po put a curse on me. She dug all of the god-like stuff in me out through the palm of my hand…all of my immortality, everything. When she was done, she left a mark to remember her by; to remind me what she'd taken. I'll have this wound forever; I'll die with these holes in my hand."

At first, Moana wasn't sure she'd really understood. The world around had gone strangely slow and cold, the words my immorality standing out red-hot and painful against the back of her brain.

"Wait," she managed finally, "you'll…die? I…I don't understand. She took your…? But, you can still shapeshift, right? So, that means-!"

"My hook works fine," interrupted Maui. "It's the only thing left that's magical. The life force that kept me around for thousands of years is gone. My super strength is gone. Everything that made me a demigod…is gone; everything but the hook. I'm basically a human, now, only with a magical toy. I'm not strong enough to put Motunui back under the water. I can't do it. I'm…I'm sorry."

Turning around, he finally looked Moana in the eye, expectant, obviously waiting for her to react. He was miserable, angry, painfully hopeful, and the knife twisted in Moana's chest.

Her head was reeling.

"Are you," she whispered, feeling suddenly much less confident, much smaller than she'd been before. "Are you…going to die?"

Maui just shrugged.

"Yes," he admitted, "but so are you, remember? I don't see myself keeling over any time soon, if that's what you're worried about."

Moana, who had absolutely been worried, allowed herself a little sigh of relief.

"But, well…yeah," Maui went on, sounding a bit dazed. "Yeah, I guess the Maui party can't go on forever anymore. Honestly…I'm not sure how I feel about it. A little…dunno, confused, I guess. I hadn't really expected it to end so soon, you know?"

"You went down there for me," Moana mumbled. "You knew she might kill you, and you did it anyway…for me. For my people."

"For you," muttered Maui, but Moana wasn't really listening.

"You knew she might kill you if you gave yourself up, and…and she did." Moana just shook her head, bewildered by mortality and the fact that, despite everything, they didn't seem to have gotten their happy ending after all. "I'm so sorry, Maui, I'm…I don't even know what to say."

Tears threatened at the back of her eyes, but Moana valiantly held them back, aware that crying, right now, wouldn't do anyone any good, no matter how desperate and angry she was beginning to feel.

"Don't beat yourself up about it too much," said Maui gently. "It's not your fault. I did this to myself, from the very beginning, and so I paid the price for it. Someday, it'll be a cautionary tale for village kids. Hah. That's a kind of immortality, I guess."

Moana just shook her head.

"Let's get one thing straight, though," Maui went on, looking her directly in the eye again, forcing her to meet his gaze. "I'm not sorry. Maybe I made a few mistakes, maybe more than a few, but going down to Rarohenga to meet Hine-nui-te-po this time wasn't one of them. I'd do it again. I'd do it tomorrow. I'm glad I don't have to, okay, but I'd do it. I made things right…didn't I? Even if it means that I'm just a normal mortal, now, I made things right."

"Yeah," managed Moana, nodding once. "You did, and," she added sincerely, "there's nothing even a little bit 'normal' about you, Maui."

Maui snorted a laugh, and Moana paused, frowned, and then hastily shook her head.

"That's not what I meant," she insisted. "I meant that in a good way. Like, not normal, like, you're special. Oh no, I'm making it worse. I mean, special in a…positive way, you know?"

"Yeah," agreed Maui, giving her a small but very real smile. "I know. Thanks."

Unsure what else to say, Moana reached out and gave Maui a quick, fierce hug, trying to convey somehow that she was on his side, that she had his back, that she cared and wouldn't let anything bad like that happen to him again…even if that wasn't worth too much anymore.

Maui returned the hug, and, somewhat to Moana's surprise, held her much more gently than he ever had before, almost tenderly. It was too careful, not at all like him, and it sent little shivers down her spine, making her frankly dizzy and a little uncomfortable, so she disentangled herself from his embrace and turned quickly to face the sea.

"Okay," she announced, maybe a little too loudly to cover her confusion. "So…what did we want to ask the ocean?"

Behind her, Maui paused for a moment, and then she heard him sigh.

"I need," he told her, "for the ocean to agree to help put Motunui back under the sea."

"Oh." Moana blinked. "That's…um, I hadn't thought of that. It's so…simple and obvious. Uh, yeah, let's try that. Great idea."

"Heh," said Maui. "I try."

Author's End Note:

So, hear me out, beloved friends. I had this crazy idea.

I teach and edit professionally. I have been seriously considering teaching an online course (probably on Udemy) focused around helping people improve their writing and editing, as well as their characterization, plotting, and scripting. I was thinking of structuring this course around the idea of creating fanfiction, since that's something fun that a lot of people enjoy, and since that's a way of helping people work on their writing skills while still interacting with their most beloved fandoms.

What do you think? Is there any merit in this idea? I'd love to hear your thoughts.