#and it literally states that the only reason she didn't run is because tamatoa stil had maui pinned down

[fallen-gravity]

Would you ever consider writing the Tamatoa scene from Maui's point of view? Particularly from the part where Tamatoa brings up Maui's abandonment and you can see Maui glance back at Moana to where she comes back with his hook...? His expression is so shocked when she helps him up, and I wonder if he's ever been supported like that before. BTW, I love your writing! I literally spent the past couple of days going through all of your Moana tags and stuff and you bring the duo to life so well!!!

aah, thank you so much!! I’m touched

what’s this, an oportunity to write a fic about Maui’s inner dialouge about Moana? What is this, my birthday? :D

It was supposed to be easy.

It was supposed to be a quick, in-and out type ofmission. Send in the kid, grab the hook while she keeps Tamatoa distracted, andget out of there. He was even going to wait, just for dramatic effect, untilTamatoa started threatening Moana to swoop in just in time to save her. You’renot my hero, she’d said when they met almost a month ago, and he wasprepared to prove her wrong.

And it was. Although she complained a lot, and Mauimeans a lot, Moana eventually agreed to go in and distract Tamatoa whileMaui snuck around the back so he could grab his hook. The kid kept him talking,which was good; because once Tamatoa starts about himself he could go on hours.Maui had climbed up to the second layer of the cavern, pretended hewasn’t keeping an eye on the kid, just in case, and crouched until he wasright above Tamatoa’s shell, his hook only a mere few feet away from him.

Maui lept once, and missed, but that’s okay becausehe still had both of his hands on the ledge. He pushed himself back up, andcrouched back down again. Moana’s keeping Tamatoa busy again, good, and Mauistood to leap again.

…Until Tamatoa started singing. When Maui catchesa glimpse of Moana as Tamatoa turns around, she’s got the same confusedexpression on her face that he does. Tamatoa wasn’t really one for singing anddancing as far as Maui was concerned, but he supposes that’s what happens whenyou live alone in a dark cavern and somebody finally comes to see you.(Not that Maui would know anything about that, of course).

Moana’s sudden outburst of yelling snaps Maui fromhis thoughts, and when he looks toward Tamatoa again he’s slowly lowering herinto his open mouth. Oh no, no no, if Tamatoa thinks he can get awayfrom this scot free, after trying to eat his mortal, than he’s really gotanother thing coming to him. Maui was just gonna leave the guy alone, becauseMoana seems so insistent on getting to Te Fiti as fast as her littlecanoe can carry her. But now? Tamatoa’s gonna have to pay, and what better wayto get back together with his hook than to fight Tamatoa to save a mortal’slife? Maui leaps again, and thankfully lands solidly on two feet on top ofTamatoa’s shell, and grabs onto the hilt.

“Hey, Crab Cake!” he calls, and flashes Moana a grinas he yanks it out of Tamatoa’s shell.

–

Everything’s going great, until it isn’t. Veryquickly.

The failed transformation isn’t even what registersfirst. It’s Moana’s small gasp from the ground as she watches him, like she’s worriedfor him. Which is ridiculous, because she doesn’t need to be, Maui’s foughtTamatoa a hundred times over and he’s won every single battle.

Plus…they’ve only known each other for a month,and he’s been nothing but cold to her. There’s no way she’s actually worriedfor him. She’s probably just…shocked, is all. Because if she were worried,that would mean she cares, and nobody’s ever cared long enough to worry overhim about something.

…Especially not over something as small andpointless as this. So his hook is a little rusty. That…that shouldn’t worrythe kid as much as it does. That shouldn’t send little frissons of fear throughher like she’s worried he might not make it out okay. He’s a demigod. Of coursehe’ll make it out okay.

The second thing that registers is just how quicklyTamatoa turns the tables on him. No, literally. One moment Maui is finestanding on two feet on top of Tamatoa’s shell, and in the next, Tamatoa startsrocking his shell as violently as he can back and forth, and before Maui evenhas time to look for another foothold, he slips off his shell, gripping tightlyonto his hook to prevent himself from losing it.

Big mistake. As soon as Maui starts plummetingtowards the ground, Tamatoa grabs onto the curved end of the hook and he comesscreeching to a stop. Before Maui can even finish processing that motion,Tamatoa starts swinging his hook in a violent circle, and Maui suddenly findshimself careening towards the cavern wall.

He smacks into the wall with a dull thud, and whenMaui’s finally able to focus on Tamatoa fully again he’s clicking his pincerstogether and grinning like he’s having the time of his life. Ooh, Maui reallydoesn’t like that look on his face. Maui growls to himself, quietly, beforehe hefts himself to his feet. He grabs for his hook in front of him, and swingsit out towards Tamatoa.

And because the universe itself seems to beholding a grudge against him, he mistimes his swing just enough to allowTamatoa to grab his hook and flick it upwards, sending him flying towards theceiling of the cavern. And as he’s flying upwards, out of the very corner ofhis eyes, there’s Moana again, staring up at him, and that horrified expressionplastered to her face almost hurts just as much as Tamatoa’s claws do.

And as he begins spiraling back down towards theground, even though everything is spinning again, even though his head ispounding from rapping it against the cavern ceiling, and even though Tamatoa isstill singing his own praises, Maui doesn’t miss the way Moana flits forward,like she wants to try to catch him but isn’t sure if she should, or thepanicked way she cries out his name as he plummets back towards the ground andslams into it.

There’s the sound of fast, panicked footstepsrunning towards him, the sound of footsteps far too large to belong to Moanacutting off her path, and then a surprised yelp as she’s lifted into the airand tossed aside to some other part of the cavern. If Maui had a moment tothink, to breathe, he would laugh. Really, he would. Because this kid,Moana, tried to bypass a crustacean fifty times her own size to run to hisside and help him back onto his feet to see if he’s okay. In a moment of panic,she chose his life over her own, without hesitation, to help him keepfighting.

If Maui had time to laugh, he would, but he doesn’t,so he shoves that thought down and takes Tamatoa distracting himself with Moanaas an opportunity to reach for his hook again. But he’s too slow, and Tamatoa’stoo quick, and as soon as he places a hand on his hook Tamatoa digs a claw intohis foot and drags him backwards. Moana’s watching him from a makeshift cage,but before he can turn to look at her, to whisper some kind of promise to herthat he’s going to be okay, because her worry is still burning into him, Tamatoaslams his claw into him and, if only for a moment, everything goes dark, so hecan’t. He reaches for his hook again, because it’s right there, butTamatoa picks it up and wipes at him with his claw until he’s forced to let go.

Maui flops to the floor, exhausted, and feels asthough he can no longer do anything but to stay lying there and accept defeat.

Above him, Tamatoa slams a claw into the wall, andthe entire cavern goes pitch black, save for Tamatoa’s bioluminescence. BeforeMaui has time to imagine what horrible thing Tamatoa could do to him in thedark, he steps forward and pushes his hair aside, and Maui’s heart drops to hisstomach.

No. Tamatoa wouldn’t sink that low. He would never.Maui hasn’t told Moana about his mother or how she abandoned him to the sea.It’s the story he’s most ashamed of, the story he spent his entire life tryingto cover up and forget, the story he’d swore to never tell again. Everyone he’sever gotten close to, and everyone he’s ever trusted ran once he told them thestory. They got scared, because they thought he would be too much to handle.He’s scared hundreds of others off with his abandonment issues and needs to beclose to someone else. Mortal and immortal. It never mattered to them, becauseonce they figured out how much work he would be, how much hurt he’s been through,they decided it was too much for them.

He was just beginning to think that Moana wouldstay, too.

He spares a nervous glance back at her, trying tosee her reaction, but can’t see anything past the pitch black and Tamatoa’sbright claw reaching down to pick him up by the hair. But it turns out hedoesn’t have to guess her reaction at all, because when Tamatoa holds him overher little cage he locks eyes with her, if only for a brief moment.

And he would’ve expected disgust, or pity,or even sadness, but when Maui looks into her eyes he finds none ofthose things. There’s concern, sure, but there’s also anger, and determination,like she’s angry at Tamatoa for what he’s doing to him.Tamatoa yanks Maui off into some other part of the cave, but not quicklyenough, for Maui can spot, vaguely, as Moana begins to scale her makeshiftcage.

Before Maui can process anything else, he’s flyingthrough the air again, momentarily, before he slams roughly down onto thesurface of Tamatoa’s shell. He makes one last attempt to reach for his hook,but when Tamatoa begins to spin roughly in a circle again, Maui finally acceptsdefeat and his arm flops to his side.

Maui’s all and willing to give up when Tamatoatosses him into the air and catches him in his mouth. Because even he knows,realistically, that he has no chance of getting out of here alive. His best betlies with one last prayer to the Gods, hoping at least one of them iswilling to listen, and-

“Hey!” Moana suddenly shouts, and when Tamatoa turnsshe’s waving the heart of Te Fiti around in her hand, and Tamatoa spits himaside as he dives after her. Despite everything, despite the exhaustionpounding through every muscle in his body, Maui leaps forward and grabs atTamatoa’s leg, because Moana’s doing it again, she’s choosing his lifeover hers again, she’s risking herself for him again.

And surprise surprise, it doesn’t work, and Tamatoakeeps storming towards Moana anyway. Maui drops his head down, because he can’twatch, he can’t watch Moana throw herself away for him, because she doesn’tdeserve this, he doesn’t deserve this, not since he’s been cold and rudeand an overall-

A soft hand gently touching his shoulder catches himso off-guard he flinches. When he finds the strength to look up, Moana’shovering over him, a hand placed gently on his shoulder.

“You okay?” She asks, and he’s so shocked, and thewords sound so foreign to him that it takes him a moment to realize she’stalking to him.

“Yeah” Maui breathes, and tries to push himselfupward again but fails. “B-but how did you-” he starts, but she shakes herhead, and picks up his hook from the ground next to her and shoves it into hischest.

“We gotta go,” she urges, and nudges her headtowards the cavern entrance.

Maui scrambles for a response, for a question, but beforehe can so as much open his mouth Moana tucks herself under his arm and places agentle hand on the small of his back and his throat closes up. And before he’seven halfway through processing that motion, Moana presses her side against hisand curls her other arm around his.

She could’ve run. There are about three or fourdifferent ways to escape out of Tamatoa’s cave, and Maui knows for a fact therewere at least two she could’ve run to after she escaped her little cave. Shecould’ve looked after herself, she could’ve ran, she could’ve abandoned himhere to face Tamatoa alone.

But she didn’t, and instead chose to supporthim. She’s pressed closely to his side, one arm slinging around his sideand the other around his arm. She slowly helps heft himself to his feet, andimmediately tightens her grip on him when he starts to stumble backwards alittle bit. Moana clicks her locket closed with the real heart inside, grinningmischievously up at him, and curls her arm even further as she guides him intothe geyser and back towards her canoe.

He knows, now, that Moana isn’t like the others.

He knows, now that Moana will never leave.