#tfw your older brother is much stupider and more of a DORK than you thought he was ten minutes ago

[fallen-gravity]

Fire and Water

Fandom: Moana

Category: Gen

Word Count: 4,247

Summary: When Moana is too drained to be out exploring on the sea, she and Maui instead settle for second best: Storytelling

Notes: I should literally never be allowed to listen to the Moana soundtrack ever. Every time I listen to Where You Are I seem to get like 15 different ideas for a gross, platonic fluffy story. This is the one that stuck out to me the most last night. All that came to me was a quote, something Moana would say to Maui, and I absolutely 100% found myself needing to write something out for it.

“Hey I know I promised I would take the canoe out with you but it’s been a long day why don’t we just sit around a fire and tell stories instead and we can go tomorrow”

The version of how Maui stole fire that I used can be found here. 

Moana's head is pounding. As she emerges from the fale tele, she brings her hands to her temples and rubs in a slow circle, hoping it'll help rid of the awful headache all of the negotiating and arguing she just did caused her.

When she turns her attention to her surroundings, the first thing she notices is that it's dark out. That meeting had taken hours. It was only meant to be a quick, in and out meeting with a few Chiefs from neighboring islands to discuss trade. But then, before she even knew what was happening, an ugly fight broke out, and the meeting quickly ascended until the focus was turned to getting everyone to stop. Both parties were stubborn, neither willing to compromise for the other, and it took everything in Moana to get them to calm and talk things over.

The second thing Moana notices is that there is no fire burning throughout the village. No spark of fire, no signs of groups gathered around them. No sounds of laughter filling the air as friends and families gather to tell stories.

A relaxing campfire, Moana thinks, is exactly what she needs right now. She starts towards the forest to gather wood, but the light flapping of bird wings above her stops in her tracks. She looks up just in time to see Maui swoop down from the sky and land in his human form beside her.

"Man, and I thought that thing was never going to end!" He says cheerfully, and nudges her lightly in the side. "I didn’t know what was going on in there, but it sure didn't sound pretty" he says, nudges her in the side again. "Good thing you were there though, huh? Nobody can manipulate someone into doing what they want like you can"

"Hey!" Moana yelps, and despite her exhaustion she punches him in the arm. "I didn't manipulate anyone into doing anything" she says, and crosses her arms. "All I did was convince a few arguing Chiefs to see the better of their ways and make up with each other"

Maui raises an eyebrow at her at that, and then he shrugs. "There's more than one way to say the same thing, Curly. Just because you say you convinced someone to do something doesn't mean you didn't manipulate them"

She punches him in the arm again. "Shut up" she says for her lack of a better argument, and he laughs.  He then steps away from his place at her side to stand in front of her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"So," he says, changing the subject. "Now that that disaster's out of the way, you ready to go?" He asks, excitement flaring in his expression, and Moana blinks at him in confusion.

"What?" She asks, and he goes to laugh again, she can see it clear on his face, but then he seems to realize that she's actually confused.

"Your promise" he says, and realization hits Moana at his words so suddenly she nearly gasps at his words.

She'd completely forgotten. A few days ago, when her duties as Chief were just starting to get to her, Maui had asked if she wanted to go take their canoe out to go exploring. As much as she was itching to be out on the sea, exploring unknown lands and realms with her best friend at her side, she had to deny his offer. It was much harder on her than she thought, so she made a promise to him that once this particular meeting was over, she would take the canoe out with him without a second thought. But she had made that promise days ago, when she thought the sun would still be shining in the sky long after this meeting, but now that the meeting had taken much more out of her than she expected, and nothing greets her in the sky now but the twinkle of the stars, Moana wants nothing more than to wait it out here for her pounding headache to go away.

Not to mention she was really sort of looking forward to that campfire.

She frowns, turns her gaze away from Maui's. "I'm sorry" she says, and shakes her head. "I don't think I can" she says. “That meeting really took a lot out of me, Maui, I’m sorry” she says, and runs a hand through her hair. “I know I promised, but I don’t think I can” she says, and returns her gaze to him. She expects him to be upset, or disappointed, but her exhaustion must really be showing on her, because he actually kind of looks concerned.

“It’s-It’s okay, Moana” he says, frowning, and removes his hand from her shoulder. “Don’t worry about it.” He says, and shrugs. “We could always go tomorrow” He says, the mischievous glint returning to his eyes. “Much easier to discover new lands in sunlight than in the pitch black anyway, right?” He says, and she smiles. At his understanding of her.

“You know, actually” she says as an idea comes to her. “While I have you,” Moana says, and this time she’s the one to nudge him in the side. “I was just about to start a fire. How about we just sit around it and tell stories for now?” She shrugs. “I mean, I know it’s not the same as being out on the water” she says, and absentmindedly turns her gaze towards the beach. “But it’ll give us something to do to hold us over until we can, right?” She asks, and laughs quietly. “It always worked on me when I was younger” She shrugs sheepishly.

Maui considers her for a minute, and then shrugs. “I don’t see why not” he says, and she beams.

“Great!” she says, and gestures with her head towards the forest. “Help me gather some wood? I was just gonna gather some myself,” she says, and shrugs. “But I think it’d probably take a lot less time if I had someone help me”

--

They emerge from the forest minutes later, both with arms full of wood. Moana had said they would only need a small gathering of dry sticks and leaves, but Maui insisted on carrying entire logs, claiming her “pathetic pile of sticks” would take longer to light and less time to burn, so Moana let him gather as many as he thought they needed if he promised to carry them all back himself.

Once they make their way to the area Moana often came with her parents for a fire, she drops her pile. Maui, arms full enough to make it hard to see what’s in front of him follows suit, dropping his pile right on top of hers with a frustrated grunt.

“You-” he says, and points an accusing finger at her. “Are horrible” his voice strains in an over exaggerated exhaustion Moana knows he does not really feel, and she rolls her eyes at him.

“Hey. You were the one insisted on using such heavy wood. Carrying it yourself was the least you could do” she says, and he glares at her. “Besides,” she says, and smirks, crossing her arms. “I thought you pulled up islands. I thought this kind of weight would be nothing to you” She says, and kneels down to start working on getting the fire going. Maui just glares at her.

“Yes,” he says. “But it’s not like I necessarily had someone with me who was perfectly capable of carrying some of the weight herself” he says, and Moana scoffs.

“You think I’d be strong enough to help pull up an island?” she says, pretends to sound touched. “Why thank you. That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me” she says, voice heavy with sarcasm, and Maui crosses his arms. She then goes to work on adjusting the wood Maui ever so graciously placed onto the ground, and tosses some dry grass over it to hopefully help get the fire started faster.

Seeing that she’s apparently done arguing, Maui sends a quick behind him to make sure there’s a secure log behind him before he sits. Moana rolls her eyes, and reaches for the two stones she needs to really get the fire started. She slams them together, and they make a satisfying crack, but no sparks emerge from them. Twisting her face in determination, she tries again, cracking them together from a different angle, and she watches with a grin as sparks sprinkle down and land right onto the dry grass, catching on fire immediately.

Grinning, she turns to Maui. “Ta da!” she singsongs, gesturing wildly towards the fire, and he rolls his eyes, an amused smile evident on his face. Moana picks up one of the sticks from the pile she hadn’t thrown into the fire, and she begins to poke at some of the wood to adjust their position as she takes her seat beside Maui.

“So,” he starts, and rests his arm on top of her head and leans slightly as he glances down at her. She returns his glance with a glare, and he laughs. “What kind of stories are you talking about?” He says, and she rolls her eyes.

“Oh, I don’t know-” she says, and prods him in the side. “Why don’t you start with the ones about yourself?” She tries for sarcasm, she really does, but she can’t help the hints of excitement that creep their way into her tone. Sure, she’d heard most of his stories tons of times before, but she’d never been able to hear them from his point of view. Sure, she knows his side of the story about Te Fiti by heart, and he’d covered a few of them briefly, but she’s never really had the time to just sit down and ask him for his side for any of them. “I’ll tell you one about myself if you tell me one of yours” she says, and Maui laughs.

“Alright, Curly, seems fair enough to me” he says, rolling his eyes. “Take your pick” he says, and even though Moana can’t see she can assume he’s probably gesturing towards his spread of tattoos. She rolls her eyes as she begins to poke at their campfire again, but then a thought occurs to her.

“Oh,” she says, out loud, and turns to him. “How about the one where you stole fire?” She asks, and turns to him. Maui glances first toward the campfire, and then to Moana, and he rolls his eyes.

“Why am I not surprised?” He asks, more to himself than to her, and then he grins. “Alright-” he says, this time to her. “I like you, Curly, so I’m gonna let you in on a little secret” He says, and pauses to dart his eyes from side to side, like he’s trying to make sure nobody’s eavesdropping. “The versions you’ve heard, most of them say I was the one who brought fire to this realm, right?” He asks, and Moana blinks curiously at the question.

“I guess so” she says, and shrugs. “Why?” she asks, and he laughs.

“Believe it or not, none of those versions are actually true” he says, and Moana just stares at him for a second, trying to find some indication in his expression that he’s joking, but finds none.

“But if you didn’t,” Moana says, her face scrunching in confusion. “Then who did? What really happened?” she asks, and he laughs.

“Hah, I had actually been asking myself the same thing” he says, and shakes his head. “Thousands of years ago, I was staying in this village just like Motunui, right?” he starts, gesturing with his head towards the village now illuminating with fires of its own. “It was pretty late, so I had this fire going myself” he says, and scratches at his head. “I? I think I had lit because I wanted to cook something. I don’t remember” he says, and shakes his head.

“Anyway, as I’m watching this fire going, I start to wonder where it came from. What really caused fire” he says, and Moana snorts a laugh at the thought that Maui would be so fascinated by something like fire.

“What did you do?” She asks, and Maui laughs kind of sheepishly at her question.

“So I waited for everyone in the village to go to sleep, right? And then I, uh,” he pauses to shrug at her. “...might have extinguished all the fires in the village after that. Made it impossible for them to get any more” he says.

“Maui!” Moana yelps, and punches him in the arm. “What good did you think that would do?”

“I’m getting there, Curly, I’m getting there” he says, and shakes his head in good humor. “The next morning, everyone in the village started freaking out, because without fire they couldn’t cook or provide for their families, so I graciously stepped in and offered to go retrieve it from Mahuika myself” he says, and Moana rolls her eyes at the way he stresses on graciously.

“Hush” he says, somehow reading her thoughts, and continues. “So I go to Mahuika, and I ask her if I could take some back for the humans, right?” He says, and Moana waves her hands around.

“You mean you fought her for it, right?” She asks, amusement clear in her voice, but Maui only blinks in confusion for a moment before he laughs again.

“Actually, Mahuika kind of liked me. She was close with some of the gods that raised me, right? So I walk in and I ask for some of hers, and she happily gives up one of her fingernails for me to take back for you guys”

“And...That’s it?” Moana asks, and Maui turns to her, grinning.

“You know me better than anyone, Moana, what do you think?” He asks laughingly, and Moana sighs exaggeratedly, burying her face in her hands.

“Maui, if you say-”

“But even that wasn’t enough for me” He finishes her sentence, and she groans.

“Oh my gods, Maui” she sighs, but can’t help the amusement in her voice. She elbows him in the side.

“What?” he asks. “All I wanted to know was what would happen if she lost all of her fire, too-” he says, and Moana shakes her head at him.

“Maui, I swear to the gods” She says, and she’s trying so hard not to laugh out loud that she’s physically shaking.

“So I extinguished that one, and went back and told her I’d dropped it. She gave me another one, and I kept leaving and coming up with all of these excuses so she’d give me a new one”

“How long did it take for her to figure out you were just tricking her?” Moana asks.

“All the way down to her last toenail, believe it or not. I came in asking for more, and that’s when she realized. So instead of giving it to me,” he pauses, turns to Moana again.

“She threw it at you?”

“She tried to. Missed me and hit the forest outside her cave where she lived. If I remember correctly, it spread to the Mahoe, the Tōtara, the Patete, and the Kaikōmako trees” He says, counting on them out on his fingers.

“So, Chosen One,” he finishes, turning his attention back to her. “As honored as I am that your people continuously give me credit for stealing fire, that’s not the true story. Once these trees burned, I took some of the dry wood back and taught them how to create fire themselves” He nods towards their campfire, and down towards the flints Moana had used to start it. “For that?” He says, and turns to her with a big grin on his face. “You’re welcome!” he calls, and Moana rolls her eyes as she reaches down to throw more sticks into the fire to increase its size.

“Wow” Moana whispers, and turns to him. “I can’t believe you’re an even bigger nerd than I thought you were” she says, and punches him in the arm. Maui crosses his arms and glares at her.

“But you can’t tell anyone I told you this version, okay?” he asks, and she snorts a laugh.

“Oh no, I wouldn’t dare” she says, and rolls her eyes. “Gotta protect my brother’s reputation and all. Can’t have anyone thinking he’s a nerd or anything” She snorts again, and punches him in the arm.

“Thank you for having such a deep understanding of me” Maui deadpans, and turns to her. “Alright,” he says, and folds his arms. “Your turn. You have any interesting stories?” He asks, and Moana rolls her eyes.

“Well obviously not compared to yours” She says, and looks around her surroundings in hopes that they’ll give her another idea. On instinct, her eyes trail towards the ocean, and she smiles.

“Oh!” She says, and elbows him. “Have I ever told you about the time the ocean chose me?” She asks, and Maui snorts a laugh.

“Kid, wasn’t I with you for that one?”

“What?” she asks, and then shakes her head. “No,” she says, and punches him in the arm again. “I meant the first time. When it chose me. As a toddler” She says, and the way Maui’s eyebrow raises up at toddler obviously means she hasn’t.

Oh. That explains a lot.

“Well,” she starts. “It all really started in the fale tele. I was about, two or three I think?” She says, and shakes her head. “My gramma had just finished telling me and the other kids a story” She rolls her eyes and turns to him. “I thought it was pretty cool, y’know, the story of how you stole the heart-”

“Naturally” Maui cuts in smugly, and Moana rolls her eyes at him before she continues.

“-But all these other kids started freaking out. They started screaming and freaking out, and my father had to come in and intervene. It didn’t exactly go over very well. Anyway, as my dad’s trying and failing to get a stampede of children off of him, I notice this little glisten out of the corner of my eye.”

“You followed it” Maui guesses, and Moana nods.

“And before I knew it, I found myself on the beach. I’d never been down to the ocean before, so I can imagine you can guess how excited I was”

“I dunno,” he says, and smirks at her. “Remind me the next time you’re anywhere near the water so I can get a better picture next time you tell this story”

“Hush. Anyway, as I’m walking down the beach, I turn to the ocean, and all of a sudden I see this really pretty pink conch shell being pushed up towards the shore” she says, and she thinks she can make out Maui glancing back towards the mountain peak.

“You mean like the one you put on your dad’s stone?” He asks, and she shakes her head, partly in amusement, and partly in nostalgia.

“I’d like to think it’s the same shell, actually” she says, and tucks some of her hair behind her ear. “So I’m about to reach for the shell, when all of a sudden I hear this squawking behind me. I turn around, and I see these birds preventing a baby turtle from making its way back to the sea. Each time it tried to take a step towards the sea, a bird would try to swoop down and take it. So I abandoned the shell, even though it was really pretty,” she exaggerates, and this time it’s Maui’s turn to laugh at her unnecessary exaggeration. “-and I go to help the baby turtle. I pulled one of the leaves from the bushes and I held it over the turtle as I helped it all the way back to the sea.”

“And the birds?” Maui asks.

“Oh, the birds definitely still tried to attack it when I was helping it. Each time a bird tried to attack it I’d just scare it off before I kept going. It wasn’t easy, but I did eventually get the turtle all the way back to the sea”.

“Huh” Maui says, almost sounding impressed, and sits back on his hands a little bit. “And is that it? Did you just assume the ocean chose you because of that?” He asks, and she raises an eyebrow at him.

“I don’t know” she says, nudges him in the side. “You know me better than almost anyone, Maui, what do you think?” she asks, and he shakes his head in amusement.

“There’s gotta be more” he mock-whispers, and Moana can’t help but laugh at that.

“There’s always more” she fills in, and Maui snorts a laugh at that. “Anyway, after I helped that baby turtle, I could’ve sworn that for the briefest of seconds that the entire ocean just kind of lit up.” She shrugs. “It was pretty early in the morning, so I couldn’t tell for sure. But then it started rumbling, and before I knew it the ocean was parting for me. Right in front of me where I left it was the shell. As I went to pick it up, I saw another shell right in the water’s path, so I grabbed for it, and the ocean parted and let me take the second one too”

“This kept going on for a while. I’d pick up a shell, spot another one, and go after that one as well. But then when I turned, the ocean was all around me, and when I looked to my side I saw that little turtle I’d helped swimming by with its mother. After that, the ocean raised its head up to look at me, and then it lowered itself down so I could say hello” She laughs. “After that it uh, started playing with my hair” she says, and begins to fidget with her hair. “And then I noticed something floating towards me, and when I looked up at the water all I saw was this pulsing green stone floating towards me-”

“You didn’t-” Maui says, and the shock in his voice has Moana laughing again.

“-And I picked it up. I had no idea what it was, of course. All I saw in it was some pretty green stone” She tucks more of her hair behind her ear. “But then before the ocean could do anything else, like give me some sort of-” she pauses to elbow him in the ribs “watered down explanation of what it was-” Maui groans in irritation, and Moana can’t help but giggle at the sound. “-My dad starts calling me from the village. The ocean sees this, completely panics, and before I know it I’m floating on a piece of driftwood back to shore. I dropped Te Fiti’s heart as soon as I stumbled off of it, but before I had time to look for it, my dad came over and grabbed me to bring me back to the village.”

“Woah, hold on. You dropped it?” Maui asks.

“Yep!” Moana says, sheepishly beginning to run her hands through her hair. “Chosen to bring it back to Te Fiti herself and I lost track of it the first day it was given to me” She snorts a laugh. “Maybe the reason the legends said I had to bring you along was to make sure I wouldn’t lose it” she says, and scooches closer to him. She leans her head against his shoulder and pouts up at him. “Don’t tell anyone I said that was the real reason, though” she says, and Maui laughs.

“Nah, can’t have people going around saying anything bad about Te Fiti’s favorite mortal” He says, and at favorite mortal he lifts the arm she had been leaning against and uses it to pull her into a headlock. “Te Fiti would smite me personally for it” he says, and with his free arm gives her the roughest noogie Moana’s experienced in her entire life. Moana screeches in complaint, but there’s a smile on her face as she forcibly yanks herself away from him. She punches him in the arm for that, and he laughs.

A comfortable bit of silence passes between them for a few moments after that, and Moana turns her attention to watch the crackling of the fire as it slowly begins to die out. But then out of the corner of her eye, she sees Maui shift next to her.

“How are you feeling?” He asks her, and she turns to look at him. Though he’s still got that mischievous smile plastered to his face, Moana can make out small bits of concern lingering in his expression.

Behind him, in the distance, Moana can make out the sun beginning to rise, just barely beginning to peek its way over the horizon. Next to her, the fire crackles reassuringly, and the scent of the smoke rising from it fills her with a sense of comfort.

There is no more of her pounding headache from last night. There is no more of her exhaustion, save for the kind that comes with staying up all night. Her stress from the ugly results of last night’s meeting is long gone, tossed into the wind as soon as she and Maui began to talk of their life stories.

Moana lets out a quiet sigh, and she returns her attention to him, smiling.

“Much better”