#let moana be childish 2k17

[fallen-gravity]

If I Were the Ocean

AO3

Fandom: Moana

Category: Gen

Word Count: 2,352

Summary: In Moana, he sees another young girl. From a thousand years ago. He remebers nothing about her, not even her name, but the last time Maui remembers seeing that girl, the one Moana is a clear descendent of, was out in the water among a fleet of canoes. He only sees that girl in Moana for a brief few seconds, but these few seconds are enough to further confirm Maui's suspicions

Out on the ocean, sailing the open seas, that’s where Moana’s meant to be. If anyone were to be credited as the one to start the tradition of wayfinding again, he wouldn’t want it to be anybody else but her.

Notes: and of course, only I would write an entire fanfiction based on my OWN tumblr post. The other day, when I was shamelessly watching through the Logo Te Pate sequence, the entire time, part of me was going "hey. guess what. Maui probably started planning his 'if I were the ocean' speech for her while they were doing this." and then, of course, it spiraled out of control from there. "How is she going to react?" "How am I ACTUALLY going to say this to her?" "WHAT am I going to say to her?".

and don't even get me STARTED on how much further I was dragged down when I started considering him arguing with Mini Maui about showing her something with the island tattoo. Or the fact that I had a LEGITAMATE conversation with someone yesterday about how this stupid argument would go down.

(See end of work for more quick notes)

For the first time since they set out, all is calm. The sun is just beginning to peak over the horizon, and all is quiet. Even the ocean itself seems to be producing fewer waves like it doesn’t want to ruin the calm atmosphere.

For the first time since they set out, maybe even for the first time in a thousand years, Maui is content.

He sits against the mast with his hook resting in his lap. The entire day yesterday, Moana took the time to help him become used to it again. Pulled the boat aside, assured him they wouldn’t start back out until he was ready, Te Fiti could wait, that it was fine, some things were more important if he really felt like he couldn’t face Te Kā yet. She took her precious time, time she doesn’t have a lot of, and put it aside for him. Te Fiti could wait. Some things are more important. Nobody had ever spoken to him like that before, and it was her encouragement that pushed his training to get used to his hook again, and it was her encouragement that finally had him feeling like his old self again. Like his true self again. Something he honestly can’t say he’s felt in over a thousand years.

And he is so, so thankful for that.

It’s not that he didn’t let her know this. He returned her favor by teaching her to sail. Really, truly teaching her to sail, and with enthusiasm, too. Enthusiasm he truly feels for this mortal girl who returned his awful behavior towards her with nothing but kindness. Soft, gentle kindness.

But there’s so much more he could say. So much more he could do to express how truly grateful he is of what she’s done for him. Briefly, Maui takes a look at his surroundings and how smoothly and steadily their canoe is pushing towards Te Fiti. Maui shakes his head in amusement. So much more he could do to express how proud he is of her.

Almost as if Moana’s reading his thoughts and wants to get a kick out of proving him wrong, the sail suddenly whips violently to the other direction, nearly hitting Maui in the back of the head. He turns to her, and opens his mouth to comment, but closes it back up when he sees her fighting to keep her eyes open.

“Sorry!” she mumbles when she catches him watching her. “Didn’t mean to-” She starts, and gets cut off by a massive yawn. “Didn’t mean to push it so hard. I’m...sleep” she mumbles, and slowly closes her eyes again before jolting herself awake a few seconds later.

“Alright, Chosen One” Maui says, amused. “I think maybe it’s time you took a nap. You’ve done more than enough wayfinding for the night”

Moana says nothing for a moment, but then she reaches her arms up in the air in a grabby motion. Rolling his eyes, he walks to her and picks her up before placing her gently down where he had been sitting before. Immediately, she lies herself down on the deck, curls up, and falls asleep.

Just as Maui sits down at the controls and prepares to fix the sail, a tiny flash of motion catches his attention, and he looks down at his chest to see Mini Maui smirking at him with his arms crossed.

“What?” He asks, and Mini Maui jumps to his shoulder and points at Moana.

“Yeah, well, of course I’m proud of her” He shrugs, accidentally flinging Mini Maui to his back, and Mini Maui scrambles back onto his shoulder and gestures to her again.

Show her?” Maui asks, tilting his head to one side in confusion. “What more could I do to show her that? I’m sure she must already know somehow” He says, and in response Mini Maui pulls out a little sheet of paper and pretends to read off of it.

“A speech. Like the one she gave me” Maui says, bringing a hand to his neck, and Mini Maui nods enthusiastically. That’s- That’s actually not a terrible idea. Probably the best one his tattoo self’s come up with in a long time. As for what the speech should be about, he’s not entirely sure.

And then it hits him.

Moana. Her name. The ocean. Her love of the ocean. They’ve gotta be connected somehow, right? Her love of the ocean, that’s what sparked her to come find him, right? That deep connection she felt to it was what pushed her to come find him despite her inability to sail, right?

Moana mumbles quietly in her sleep, interrupting his thoughts. He glances up at her and watches as her hair ungracefully fall over her face as she moves around in her sleep. He huffs out a soft laugh, and when he looks back down, his eyes once again lock on his fish hook.  Remembering what yesterday had been like, he smiles. Transforming into all of those animals, smashing those boulders in half- all of that-while she jumped around and cheered him on. His eyes then fall to the ocean, and his smile softens. If he were the ocean, he wouldn't've picked anyone different himself.

That’s it. The idea comes to him so quickly he nearly jumps to his feet. If I were the ocean.

He sends a small smile down in Mini Maui’s direction, and then goes back to working on adjusting the sail. As its bright red swirl becomes visible to him out of the corner of his eye as he’s fixing its direction, he pauses as he’s overcome with a sudden sense of déjà vu.  For the first time since he’s set out with Moana, he looks at it, really look at it, and that sense of déjà vu only seems to worsen.

He recognizes this sail. From thousands of years ago.

When he used to watch over a particular group of wayfinders, this canoe was always part of their fleet. When he pulled up islands for them, this canoe was always one of the first to find its shore. When he was carving some of his feats into the boulders on his island, he had carved this canoe to help him remember that group of wayfinders. Because this canoe always stood out among the rest in its fleet.

Figures they were Curly’s ancestors. He shakes his head, smiling. He knew she had it in her blood, the way she picked it up so easily, but he never would’ve guessed that her family tree was this deeply rooted in them.

Once again, Moana begins to stir in her sleep, and once again, it pulls Maui from his thoughts. He turns his attention away from the sail and looks at her just as she turns on her side towards him. And for a few moments, when she does, Maui sees someone else entirely.

In Moana, he sees another young girl. From a thousand years ago. He remembers nothing about her, not even her name, but Maui smiles. The last time he remembered seeing that girl, the girl Moana is a clear descendant of, was out on those boats in that fleet. He only sees that girl in Moana for a brief few seconds, but that girl and that red sail is enough to further confirm Maui’s suspicions.

Out on the ocean, sailing the open seas, that’s where Moana’s meant to be. If anyone were to be credited as the one to start the tradition of wayfinding again, he wouldn’t want it to be anybody else but her.

“Alright, buddy” Maui says, glancing down at Mini Maui on his chest. “How do you want to go about this?” He asks, and Mini Maui taps on his chin lightly like he’s trying to think of something. Then, when an idea seems to come to his little tattoo self, he perks up and somersaults himself onto Maui’s back. Even though he’s not able to look, Maui can tell by the way Mini Maui’s moving that he’s sitting down on that island tattoo.

Showing her his appreciation for her, his pride for her by literally showing it to her. Another great idea via the tattoo. Maui kind of wishes he could come up with these kinds of ideas as quickly as he could.

“Okay, yeah, that seems easy enough” Maui says, shrugging. “Do you think you could make a boat? I’ve got this whole bit about her ancestors and I think that’s the part I want to show her”

On his back, Mini Maui nods his head. He pushes the island back down into the water until just his little boat is resting on the surface on the water. He grins.

“Uh, not exactly, little buddy. I was thinking more like a canoe. Like this one” He says, and taps on the boat deck as lightly as he can to avoid waking Moana. Once again, he feels Mini Maui nod, and then he seems to pull a sail out of nowhere and stick it right into his boat.

Maui rolls his eyes. “Getting warmer, but I’m gonna need for there to be a fleet of them”

Like individual bits of hail hitting against his back, Maui feels about two or three more canoes pop up next to the one Mini Maui is sitting in.

“I said a fleet” Maui says, and rolls his eyes as more boats begin to pop up. But when they pop up, from what Maui can feel, they’re just sort of sitting still and bobbing up and down in the water.

“Do you need me to run through what I want you to do? Thought for sure you’d already know, seeing as I’m literally talking to myself here” He says, and Mini Maui impatiently taps his foot against the deck of his little boat.

“Fine” Maui says, sighing exasperatedly. “All I want you to do is pull up the island and then have the fleet of boats sail to it. Sound easy enough?” He asks, and Mini Maui gives him a thumbs up. Taking his little hook, he pulls the island out of the water, and then jumps over to the canoe as it floats at a molasses speed towards the island.

“Gonna have to go a little faster than that, bud” Maui says, rolling his eyes. “And don’t jump onto any of the canoes, either. I told you those are supposed to be her ancestor’s boats”

Mini Maui just pauses. He must be giving him a funny look.

“Yes, her ancestors. Which means you can’t be there, because we certainly weren’t with them when they found our islands”

Flipping back over to his little boat, Mini Maui tries again. He pulls the island up, and stays where he is, but the fleet of boats speed to the island so fast it feels like they leave a scratch across Maui’s back.

“Woah, buddy, that’s too fast! Try for something in between the two. Gotta make this as accurate as possible” He says, and Mini Maui slumps his shoulders dramatically like he’s sighing. One last time, Mini Maui hops back over to his tiny boat, pulls the island up, and the canoes finally seem to sail towards the island at a speed he’s satisfied with. Then, they seem to come to a stop, and Maui realizes Mini Maui is probably waiting for him to say something.

“Yeah, that felt fine” Maui says, and he can practically hear Mini Maui smack himself in the forehead. Jumping back over to his chest, he points again to Moana, who by some miracle had managed to stay asleep through all of his yelling.

“I can’t show her now” He says, and Mini Maui raises an eyebrow at him.

“What? I can’t the timing’s not right. If I do it now, she’ll never let me hear the end of it until we get to Te Fiti” He says, and Mini Maui’s eyebrow stays raised for a moment before he begins to mockingly chew on his fingernails.

“Nervous? Me? That’s ridiculous” He says, and laughs awkwardly. Mini Maui rolls his eyes and gestures to her again.

“Well, yeah, course I care about her” He says, and Mini Maui raises an eyebrow and starts tapping his foot as he gestures towards her again. “But my ‘great speech’ is nothing more than a bunch of scattered ideas right now, and if I told her those, she’d just laugh at me” He says, and Mini Maui instantly stops tapping at that. Instead, he leans over and looks down at the hook sitting a few feet in front of him. He then raises the little hook of his own and flashes into a small beetle.

Practice.

Taking a deep, quiet breath, he realizes that Mini Maui is right. Practice, and lots of it, is what got him used to his hook again. And if practice could help him get used to his hook after a thousand years without using it, than practice certainly could help him express his gratitude and pride for Moana. Taking another deep breath, Maui allows his thoughts to collect themselves, and he sends a glance down at the water.

You know, the ocean used to love when I pulled up islands.

As if reading his thoughts, the ocean burbles and begins to splash against the side of the boat in an encouraging pattern. Maui smiles, and darts his attention back to the sail. The same red sail he’d seen in use thousands of years ago.

‘Cause your ancestors would sail her seas and find them.

As Moana turns in her sleep again, her necklace makes a soft clank sound as it hits against the deck. Her grandmother’s necklace. The only piece of home she truly brought with her from her island.  

All those new lands, new villages,

Moana. Her name. The ocean.

It was the water that connected them all.

And if I were the ocean,

Maui turns his full attention to Moana, smiling proudly.

I think I’d be looking for a curly haired, non-princess to start that again.

End Notes: Hey, guess what- that bit about Maui recognizing Moana's sail and carving it into one of the boulders on his island: I didn't make that up. If you go back and watch the "You're Welcome" sequence, and pause right as he's going "Well, come to think of it-" before he starts rapping, you can see in the corner on the boulder he's standing in front of that there's a little boat carved into it with a sail that has a swirl on it JUST LIKE Moana's canoe.

The girl he sees in Moana is a reference to one of the ancestors shown during "We Know the Way" that someone pointed out looking pretty similar to Moana. She wasn't riding Moana's canoe, obviously, but you tend to take what you can get as a fanfiction author.