Chapter Text
What had started as a visit turned quickly into a semi-permanent housing.
Tamatoa on Motunui was…interesting.
He towered over pretty much everyone, including Maui (who was as wide as he was tall) after the shockwave of people greeting their chief back from her journey . Both stood behind her, accessingthe crowd and their distrusting faces.
With his 'gifts' of higher perception the Gods had bestowed to the cursed crab-turn demi-god, Tamatoa looked out over the mortals, frown deepening his otherwise smug face. Whatever he found, displeased him.
To avoid more silence to greet them, Maui, -who was more in tune to the crustacean's mood thanks to some small insight ,- rapped a knuckle against his bicep and whispered an inaudible phrase when Tamatoa leant down. Seemingly encouraged by his words Tamatoa strode up to Moana, still caught in the embrace of her parents .
Detangling from their hold, she stepped back to lay a hand on his arm.
Raising her voice to introduce them both as the demigods, Maui of the wind and sea, and Tamatoa, treasurer of mankind and sentry to the realm of monsters .
Her announcement said, a sea of confused faces and muttered praises followed. Some not to pleasant to hear if the arm stiffening under her hand was any sign.
To discourage her friend from taking jusitice in his own claws, Moana nudged the impossible giant with her side; pleading for either mercy or patience . Tamatoa relented, switching the fierce bipedent to his other hand to pat hers
Neither Sina nor Tui looked very happy at the exchange.
Knowing that their questionable presence was the least of her problems, Moana marched on.
She was going to show them her home, because if anything, there would be more change tomorrow than her island had seen in the last thousand years .
-
After restoring Te Fiti, and learning that she had been in possession of the heart since the very beginning; their little company had not been separated from the malicious monstrous crab.
For a fact he refused to so much set foot off the island unless accompanied by one of their party, whether a true bond or desperate plead for something stable.
Moana hadn’t expected to not only bring home one thousand year exiled demigod, but two.
Of course being gods they couldn’t stay still for more than a month; there was treasure to plunder, hero-ing that needed to be done.
New islands pulled from the ocean floor for her people to travel too. But for now, her friends happened to take their time in enjoying a few things that neither had been able to for the last thousand years.
The plentiful food, for one.
Tamatoa had been insatiable when on their adventure, and when he wasn’t suffering from his rare seasickness, her lessons in Way-finding was interrupted for stops on neighboring islands that housed some form of food.
She’d known both gods had a ravenous appetite…but this reached the par and skipped a few thousand miles beyond.
It was only fortunate that the fish had returned to their waters, the trees bloomed with fruit again, or she would have to take some very stern restrictions to her friends.
“It’s amazing, - “Moana started, chin propped on one hand and eyes squinted, “that you managed to survive long enough only to have the worst table manners… Ever . “
Both of them were on their fifth helpings of a particularly favorite dish of hers. Something she’d loved ever since she was a child, and because if there was one reason to get full on messy while eating dinner, it was to dismantle bowls after bowls Sua i'a.
Turns out it’s not just her favorite either.
“I’ve no excuses, - Crustacean~,”- Tamatoa quipped, picking his teeth with a lone fishbone. “Its mister ‘no- home, no-hearth, no-rules ‘who’s gotta answer for it.”
“Leave off, coconutso, the Gods might be benevolent but they tried, it’s just …been a couple of thousand years since I last sat down and ate . More of a ‘dine and dash’ to kick monster butt, pull up more islands guy. “
“Still, you’d think that some of what the Gods taught you would stick right? I mean, you guys make eating a banana look obscene; and now I can never quit look old Pika in the eye.”
Moana shuddered, frowning when the pair guffawed into their bowls.
Stifling a yawn, ( it was getting rather late) Moana stared off into the darkness, squinting to make out the stars against the bright flaming imu . Remembering her journey, the many places they would find, effected much, much more heavily the closer they sailed to Te Fiti.
On one such island, there were mountains reaching as high as the heavens, higher than the peak that sat on Motonui.
Amongst the dead plants and the faint traces of humanity, stood a collection of rocks. Nothing like the stones her father and ancestors used to mark their rise to rank.
These stones stood high as her shoulder, spread round in a vague circle that would mirror a constellation if viewed from high above.
Leaving Maui to the shore to do what little fishing there was to do, she bullied Tamatoa into a search around the sight for kindling...
“I’ve forgotten what stars looked like.”
“ Really ? “
“Hmm,” Tamatoa puffed, and then drew a finger down the line of stars above him, skipping right past the Backbone like a pebble across a ponds surface.
“Not much navigating to do down in Lalotai, too far underneath the ocean to even feel the sun…” dropping his eyes from the great heavens to the glimmering waters below, he turns quiet, spinning the metal of one ring around his thumb . It’s an older looking piece, chunky and crude, with a flat amethyst worn into its setting.
His lair had been the closest to the ocean’s barrier in all of Lalotai, sheltered because of the sheer drop-off into a dangerous abyss and volcanic geysers.It was also because of these irregular waterspouts that they managed to escape, so near to the portal that the ocean only had to propel them back onto the shore.
Though even with its clamshell skylight tunneling what few rays of sunshine into his cave of wonders and treasure, it had taken only minutes for her toes to start numbing. Due to the unwelcome environment and general laws of physics ( what little there was in the underworld) it had been like standing in permanent shade, cut off from the suns radiance even if the decorations made up for its warmth.
Moana shudders lightly , can only imagine living in a world your whole life without that light. Even when bound to an island because of some old rules, they had always had the sea and its warmth.
Maui was exiled on a deadened piece of rubble for centuries; sharing the fate with the humans as the seas turned too dangerous for them, forgetting their identity and future.
Tamatoa banished to the land of monsters underground for his failure’s to rise above mortality, turning monstrous and wicked and maddened by his curse.
It seemed that they all had suffered a lack in their lives; a cruel twist of Fate by the Gods who were ambiguous at turns and vindictive at others.
And I’m supposed to fix it…somehow. Moana thought, scared and small under the pressure of such a feat.
Shaking off the pulse of life resting within her necklace, - so much power for such a small and seemingly insignificant thing, - she steps around to his other side, giving a silent thanks when she can reach over his shoulder much easier now that he’d seated near the stone formation.
“Lift your hand, like this. “Stretching out her forearm to the nearest constellation she nudges his elbow with the other, - bullying him into lifting his colossal hand to meet hers.The heat from his skin causes bumps to form on her own, luring her closer for the casual contact she’d begun to miss from home.
She’s just not as used to camping out without a fire or the shelter of a fale, she blames it on that.
“Hold it just so, looking over the tops of your fingers. See? ” And sure enough, mimicking her silly eye squint and head tilt, he can.Can see how the small spattering of lights are enough to see her face by, how it turns her brown eyes into a crystal of glistering sparkles. Maybe the stars are good for something; if not for showing him the way to go, it’s to admire her by.
“What’s the use of this? “
“So you can read the sky, and help out on the water…” But she’s still looking at their hands, giving slight adjustments to achieve a better lineup.
“I can read perfectly fine, babe, like right now… “- Moana turns when she feels the puff of breath on her cheek, startled to see how close they’d been leaning into each other . “-, I’m reading the signs of how great we’d look together.”
Quickly dropping her gaze from his open admiration, (and ridiculous comment) she searches for a way to diffuse the rapid heat growing in her face.
“You know what else would be great? If you weren’t puking over the side of the boat and instead helped steer it. That would be totally great. “
As if the simple reminder of his apparent weakness is enough to bring on another bout of expelling his stomach’s content, Tamatoa dry heaves and slouches away from her.
“Nothing like ruining the mood to bring that up. “
“What mood? You’re cracking jokes just as bad as Maui."
“Where’d you think he got it from? Oh, forgot to mention, his folks totally didn’t throw him over because he wasn’t wanted . Trés horrible, barely two days old and he made a rather unbecoming joke about his ole ‘ma’s cu, - “ Clapping her ears so hard she’d be surely ringing the rest of the evening Moana swiftly stood up and began marching towards the little encampment they had set up earlier, shouting to drown out the rest of his crude prank .
“I’M GOING TO LOOK FOR SOME MORE FIREWOOD. I’LL SEE YOU LATER. “
Tamatoa’s giggle followed her all the way down the path, making her feel flustered for leaving behind the ancient formation and its distant connection to her ancestors.
Even before he ruined it with his lewd jokes and strange nature, it had been nice to share that with him. Even days later Moana still felt exhilarated to be sailing, - Way finding-, excited to reconnect with her past, her lineage, maybe even her future.
If it took a few fighting words and a couple of quick trips into the ocean to get one demi-god to take her seriously , surely she would find a way to do the same to the tittering denounced demigod.
“ Seriously man, I know you’re sorta still considered a monster…but this is just ridiculous!”
Turning a deaf ear to their squabbles’ was never an option though; Moana huffed, turning back to the bizarre sight of Maui looking at his long last enemy with genuine shock.
Tamatoa was once again heaping his bowl (a large coconut husk about the size of her head) to the brim and downing it without stopping for breath.
Noticing he was at the centre of their attention the demigod stalled, looked from face to face, and then shrugged while slurping the last dregs from his bowl . He was even chewing the bones!
“What? I’m famished!”
“I’ve seen you ravenous, buddy…this is just weird. You know there’s no such thing as winter hibernation here right? No need to bulk up in times of aplenty…” Using both hands Maui gestures a rounding around his middle, earning a lone fishhead aimed for his head to sail past without harm.
“One more joke about my weight and I’ll give you a nap, Maui man. I’m just …peckish.” He admitted, looking positively defalted. A moment passes before the demigod picked up his bowl to pinch the leftovers from the bottom. his face was cast briefly with firelight, brows knitted and gaze searching.
Tilting her head to the side, Moana arched a brow. " Peckish?..."
Catching her look, Tama struggled to shake off the expression before pointing a lone fish bone at the pair of them.
"No jokes!"
And nothing is said on the matter.