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Chapter Text

The sounds and fast paced environment of the John F. Kennedy International Airport were doing nothing for your already frayed nerves. Flying was never fun for you. It never had been and never will be. The fact that you were going to be thousands of feet up in the air in what was, essentially, a tube with wings, didn’t make you feel safe at all.

Unfortunately, flight was rather needed in your line of work. You were a researcher for the Religious Studies Department at Stony Brook University, your speciality being polytheistic religions. Travelling was a must and not having time on your side meant that you had to get to where you needed to be as fast as possible, thus, flying was your only option.

The sound of the overhead system ringing through the airport snapped you out of your nervous daze.

“Good afternoon passengers. This is the boarding announcement for flight 73A to Hamilton International Airport New Zealand. Please make your way to the gate and have your boarding pass and identification ready. I repeat, this is the boarding announcement for flight 73A to Hamilton International Airport New Zealand. Please make your way to the gate and have your boarding pass and identification ready. Thank you.”

Looking up, you saw the LED board confirm the message.

“Dammit all…”

You stand from your spot on a random bench and grab your small carry-on roller bag from the seat beside you. You start to make your way to the gate on shaky legs that want to do nothing more than drag your happy ass back home and back into bed.

As you approach the gate the attendant gives you a sympathetic smile as you shakingly hand her your pass and ID. She was a kind, middle aged woman with bright eyes and an even brighter smile.

“Is this your first time flying, honey?”

“N-No...more like my hundredth, but it never seems to get any better for me.” You end your statement with a nervous chuckle before averting your eyes elsewhere.

“Well, don’t you worry, the captain for this flight is a veteran pilot who makes sure to take care of his passengers. Plus, you’re first class! The stewardesses will take care of you and anything you need! Don’t be afraid to ask!”

With a slight nod and shaky smile you thanked her and made your way onto the plane. Once you were on, the stewardess helped you find your seat and placed your carry-on bag in the overhead compartment. The seat was nice and plush, helping calm your nerves a bit as the other passengers filed in and took their seats. Fate was on your side this day. No one had the seats on either side of you. The group mentality that people wanted and needed their own space was working in your favor.

Time ticked by and as it did the stewards and stewardesses helped direct everybody in the safety procedures and practices. Time ticked by even slower as the plane finally took off and was in the air. Your hands gripped the armrests tightly as you bit your bottom lip, trying your damnedest to even out your breathing. Once the sign went off for no electronic devices, you quickly pulled out your phone and headphones. Plugging it into the charger near the window, you started up your standard playlist and quickly popped the earbuds in. The noise cancelling technology ensured you would have only one thing running through your ears as you closed your eyes and let yourself be taken elsewhere.

“How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence impoverished, in squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar?”

Chapter Text

Never in your life had you been so ecstatic about seeing a poorly patterned carpet. The hours stuck on that god forsaken plane were absolutely horrendous. You had hoped that the sultry tones of Lin-Manuel Miranda and the rest of the Hamilton cast would have calmed your nerves, but it seemed that things just didn’t quite work out that way. Along with yourself, there was some diplomat and his family in first class. For some reason, they all thought it amusing to let their twins run up and down the aisle as they screamed like a couple of howler monkies. Needless to say your mind went to the worst case scenario...scenarioS. To say that the sigh that left your person as you exited the plane was completely audible would be a major understatement.

After your heart beat dropped to a reasonable pace, you glanced up at the rest of your surroundings. People from every walk of life were around greeting friends and loved ones. A small smile had made its way across your face when a shouting caught your attention.

“Dr. [Y/L/N]! Dr. [Y/L/N], Over here!”

You turned to the left and saw a young woman, probably in her late teens/early 20s, jumping up and down excitedly. She waved one hand while the other clutched a sign with your last name printed on it. Her curly, short, black hair bounced against her tan cheeks with every jump.

Gathering up your carry-on, you made your way over to her with a bright smile on your face. This was typically how things went for you. You always caved in on yourself during the trip to your destination. Your fear of flying took over your demeanor until you were, essentially, a scared child. The minute you got on solid ground, though, you were a new person. Your attitude always did a complete 180 and you were, for all intensive purposes, an excited puppy. The prospect of gaining more knowledge and stories to tell uplifted your spirits like nothing else could.

Before you could get a word out, the young woman was practically in your face.

“Dr. [Y/L/N], I’m so happy you made it safely! My name is Ailana and I’m going to be your guide to the island! We’ve all been so excited for your arrival! It’s not everyday that an outsider willingly wants to learn more about our culture! Thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to teach you!”

“It’s my pleasure, really! And please, call me [Y/N]. If I’m going to be living on the island for 3 months, I want to be on a first name basis with everyone.”

Her eyes lit up like Christmas lights.

“Yes! Of course, [Y/N]! Now, if you’ll follow me, we’re going to go get your luggage and then meet my grandfather outside where the docks are. From there we’ll make our way over to Motunui!”

Ailana grabbed your free hand and pulled you towards the baggage claim area. People seemed to clear away as she moved which made the journey there a lot shorter than it usually would be.
Once you arrived, she pulled you to the conveyer belt and started looking.

“So what kind of bag are we looking for?”

“Oh, um, it’s going to match my carry-on. They actually click together.” You pointed towards your small, blue, vintage style roller carry-on. “It’ll have a Stitch luggage tag.”

Ailana’s golden brown eyes met your own as she smirked.

“Like...from Lilo and Stitch?”

A light blush bloomed on the apples of your cheeks as you nodded.

“It’s one of my favorites…”

“I don’t blame you! It’s a good one!”

She laughed as she pulled your bag off of the belt and pulled up the handle.

“Here we go! All found!”

“Thank you so much, Ailana.”

You grabbed your carry-on and slid down the handle before clicking it in place on top of your main suitcase. When everything was all situated you gave her the thumbs up.

“Alright, are you ready to see a side of the world you’ve only ever dreamed about?”

The smirk on your face was answer enough.

“Of course I am!”

“Then let’s go!”

For the second time today she grabbed your hand and pulled you along. After 3 moving walkways, 2 escalators, and a massive family that you could only assume was there for a reunion of some kind, Ailana finally got you outside into the sunlight. The air had a slight saltiness to it. The unmistakable scent of the ocean breeze hit your nose in the most pleasant of ways. Beach trips had been so few and far when you were younger, so getting to work near the ocean was a treat all on its own. The stroll to the docks was comfortably silent until the docks actually came into view.

“Grandpa! I have her!” Ailana’s pace picked up as she saw a rather tall portly man standing near a large ship. His long, white hair, was pulled up into a bun and a large mustache adorned his face. He wore an open button up shirt that was printed with island flowers with nothing underneath. Covering his legs he had a traditional patterned skirt.

“It took you long enough, my dear!” Ailana let go of your hand as she approached the man. You watched as he leaned down to her height and performed a hongi with her. Your mind was taking as many mental notes as you could while your hands itched to pull out your notebook.

Pulling away from her grandfather, Ailana came up and brought you to him.

“Grandpa, this is [Y/N]. [Y/N], this is my Grandpa, Rewi.”

Rewi took your outstretched hand and gave it a good shake, the vibrations of which went all the way down to your toes.

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. I’m sure Ailana has been gushing to you about the island’s excitement so I’ll save you anymore of that.”

The smile he shot down at you was contagious as you took your hand back and tucked some hair behind your ear.

“It’s all good, sir. The excitement is equally met on my side of things. Thank you all so much for the opportunity and honor of being able to learn from you all.”

Rewi’s booming laughter startled you as he rested his hands on his large stomach.

“There’s no need for that with me, young lady. Save all of that for my cousin! Now, let’s get on board and get you over to Motunui!”

Ailana led you all on board and Rewi got under the large covering and behind the wheel. Within minutes you were on your way to the island that would be your new home for 3 months.

You leaned against the railing and watched as seagulls flew alongside the boat. The only sound that filled the air was the boat cutting through the water. It was Rewi’s thundering voice that broke the calm.

“Girls! Look off the starboard side!”

You and Ailana made eye contact before racing over to the railing on the right side of the dock. There, in its beautiful and magnificent glory was a large humpback whale. The gasp that left you was loud and clear.

“Holy hell…”

“Have you ever seen a humpback in person, [Y/N]?”

You could only shake your head “no” as you quickly cracked open your carry-on and pulled out a worn, stone gray, faux leather sketch journal. As you unsnapped the latch on it you pulled out a random pencil that was thrown into the carry-on and immediately flipped the next free page. Your hands started fidgeting all across the page as the image of the humpback whale in front of you started forming. Every detail was caught and transferred to the sketch, which ended up causing you to stop. Looking as closely as you could at the whale, you could have sworn you were seeing a definitive fish hook shape on its skin.

“What the…?”

Your eyes trailed back up the humpback whale’s body to look for more hooks when your [E/C] eyes met its own...and it was staring right at you. With what seemed like a wink in your direction, the whale blew a large stream of water from its blowhole.

You and Ailana squeaked in surprise as water started to fall all over you both. You had luckily shoved your journal up under your shirt before the falling water could get to it. When it finally stopped you looked up and saw that the whale was gone.

“Awww it left, Grandpa!”

Rewi chuckled as he continued to steer the large ship.

“It does have a life of it’s own, Ailana.”

Turning his attention towards you, Rewi nodded his head towards the front of the boat.

“In more important news, Motunui is straight ahead.”

Your attention quickly turned away from the questions going off in your mind to the approaching island. From where you all were, you could see the bright green foliage of the island. The beating in your heart picked up as a huge smile spread across your spread across your face.

“Motunui…”

You all failed to notice the brightly colored beetle that was now perched on your carry-on.

Chapter Text

Once the boat approached the docks of Motunui, you couldn’t help be feel a little...disappointed. What you saw in front of you was nothing like what you had expected. At the base of the Mountain in the middle of the island was a large resort and presumably the one the college had booked you in. From that point out towards the docks everything looked like a small town. There were paved roads, cars, tourists everywhere, the whole nine yards. It didn’t look anything like the Motunui your mind had come up with.

Ailana looked back at you and laughed at your facial expression.

“Not what you were hoping for?”

A small squeak escaped you as you jumped and blushed bright red.

“No, no, no! It’s not that, I swear! It..um...uh…”

Laughter bubbled up from both Ailana and Rewi. The hand of the latter patted your shoulder and nudged you to step off of the docks. Rewi grabbed your bags and started heading towards a Jeep that was parked off the right of the docks. With a tilt and jerk of his head, he signaled you to follow while Ailana finished tying up the boat to the dock. You nodded slightly and ran after him, soon falling in step with him.

“I know that what you see probably isn’t what you were expecting. You were probably expecting a lush tropical paradise with huts and canoes with natives running around living simple yet fruitful lives, correct?”

You rubbed your neck as Rewi glanced at you out of the corner of his eye.

“There was definitely more to it than that, but yeah, that’s the basic gist of what I had in mind.”

As you both made it to the rough up vehicle, Rewi threw your stuff into the back of the Jeep and opened the back door for you. After helping you climb into the tall vehicle, Rewi hopped into the driver’s seat and called for Ailana and started grumbling under his voice. From where you were sitting you could see Ailana flirting with a tourist. She jumped at the sound of Rewi’s voice and booked it over to the Jeep.

“That girl…,” Rewi sighed before turning his attention back to you.

“Well, don’t you worry your pretty little head, keiki, the other side of the island is exactly what you’re looking for. The front of the island is where we and the rest of tribe live. This area here is considered the backside of Motunui.”

Ailana jumped into the Jeep looking slightly guilty and sheepish as Rewi shook his head and started the vehicle, turning onto the main road towards the resort.

“About 65 years ago the chief and island elders decided that it was time for Motunui to catch up with the rest of the world by finally jumping into the 20th century. Plans were immediately drafted and work began soon after. The clearing, road work, and buildings were finished by the end of the 1950s. The resort followed afterwards and was finished by 1962.”

Turning towards you in her seat, Ailana smiled and continued after Rewi.

“Ever since then, this side of the island has become a really popular tourist spot! People from all over the world come here to relax and spend time in a little slice of an island paradise. It brings in a lot of revenue and a decent chunk of the profits go into the island and conservation efforts!”

Admittedly, you started to drown out Ailana as she kept going on and on about the tourist area. As nice as it was, you weren’t here for this. You could find the same thing just off the coast of Florida.

The scenery flew by you as the Jeep got closer to the resort. Little unique shops littered the sides of the streets. You could see a local grocery store about a road or two down, an old looking pharmacy down another road, and more shops and vendors all along the way. A tickling sensation on your hand drew your attention downwards. Slowly walking across your hand was a rather large and colorful beetle.

“Whoa. What’s this little guy?”

Ailana stopped talking and leaned forward a bit as you held your hand out towards her.

“Hmm...looks like a Manuka beetle to me. They’re pretty common around here, though I gotta say, that pattern is pretty interesting.”

You pull the beetle back over to you and look at the pattern on its exoskeleton. Your eyes widened in disbelief. A fish hook. Again.

The Jeep coming to an abrupt stop made the beetle fly off of your hand and back out towards the trees surrounding the sides of resort that you were now in front of. Rewi stepped out of the Jeep and helped you out as well before getting your luggage from the back.

“Here you go, young lady. The sun’s going to be touching the horizon soon, so we won’t be doing anything tonight. Just take the time to relax and unwind. Around 10AM tomorrow, myself and another one of the villagers will come get you to head into our part of the island. Where we live is closed off from tourists. There’s a border patrol that keeps the tourists out and you will need one of us to get in. Make sure you’re ready by then so we can get you in as soon as possible.”

You smiled up at him and stuck your hand out to shake his one last time before he left.
“Thank you so much, Rewi, you and Ailana both. You guys have been so good to me and have helped me immensely. I really look forward to tomorrow!”

Rewi laughed and grabbed your hand. With little to no effort, he pulled you into a tight hug that easily pulled you off of the ground.

“I think we’ve spent enough time together to skip the handshakes! Have a good night, keiki!”

Rewi jumped back into the Jeep and pulled away as Ailana waved at you. Waving back, you went into the resort’s lobby and checked in. You were on the 14th floor in a small suite that was, in your opinion, perfect.

The suite had a small kitchen and a moderate sized living room with a coffee table and large TV across from the couch. The wall next to the living room was a huge floor to ceiling window with a sliding glass door that lead to a balcony furnished with lounge chairs and a table. Behind the living was the bedroom and conjoining bathroom.

The bedroom had a simple yet elegant tropical theme to it, with furniture looking like it was made from palm trees and a wood floor instead of carpet. A large king-sized bed sat against the back wall of the room with a netted canopy around it. Embarrassingly enough, you also discovered a mirror on the ceiling above the bed. Across from the bed was a dresser with a large flat screen TV hovering on a wall mount above it. There was another glass door in there that led to another balcony that connected to the one from the living room.

The bathroom alone was probably your part of the whole suite. The whole room scheme was black and white modern theme with a tiled wall along with back where a large jacuzzi tub and a multiple headed shower sat. The counters were black and white marble and the floor was made of the same marble.

The college must really like you.

Instead of relaxing and taking a load off, you opted to grab your sketch journal and head down to the private beach left of the resort. The walk was short and the sand was incredibly soft. There was hardly anybody on the beach and you were able to pick a prime sport right in front of the ocean.

With a deep sigh you cleared your mind of everything and just looked around. Your hand started moving on it's own almost instantly. Small sketches of the waves crashing at different angles filled your paper and you had to flip to another. A small hermit crab with a bright green shell scuttled past you and led your mind back to the strange beetle from earlier.

Your hand started moving on its own again while your mind kept flashing images of the beetle. The fish hook pattern on its exoskeleton was strange, but it was even stranger on a humpback whale! What was with this damned fish hook and why was it on these completely different life forms? The ocean drawings were soon replaced with sketches of the beetle and whale.The world completely slipped away and time was all but forgotten as you kept drawing.

“Those are pretty good. I can do better, but they’re good.”

The scream that left you was loud and the altitude your pencil was reaching was high. You heard the source of your terror chuckle behind you as the pencil finally started obeying the laws of gravity. Looking up at it, you knew you weren’t going to be able to catch it.

“I got it...I got it...GOTCHA! I believe this belongs to you.”

You looked back at the voice that had scared the living hell out you, ready to rip into them about sneaking up on people, but your words died on your lips as your eyes took him in.

He was unlike any man you had every seen before. From what you could tell, tattoos covered almost all of his body. His arms were thick and corded with muscles. It seemed with every movement he made with them that the sleeves of the unbuttoned shark printed shirt he wore should be splitting. His chest was thick and muscular and your fingers itched to trace every defined muscle. The cargo shorts he wore hung low on his hips and gave you a peak and the ‘V’ muscles leading down into place where your mind should NOT be imagining. His legs were like tree trunks. They looked like he could kick anything down and it would just crumble beneath him or support some powerful thrusting . The necklace that rested against his clavicle had large and small sharp teeth along the cord and came down to a decently sized fish hook shaped charm. Wait. Fish hook?

Your [E/C] eyes shot up to his attractive face and saw a look that was the purest definition of smug. He held out your pencil towards you as his eyebrow cocked up and the smirk he wore grew in size.

“What’s up? I’m Maui.”

Chapter Text

Your mouth had gone completely dry yet was salivating at the same time. The man in front of you was extremely pleasing to look at and his voice wrapped around you like a warm blanket on a snowy night. He looked like a real life demigod.

You hadn’t even realized that your mouth was open until one of the man’s fingers went under your chin and pushed it back up. His fingertips traced along the skin there as he took his hand back, sending goosebumps and shivers down your body.

The man winked at you and waved your pencil in your face.

“Maybe later, princess. Take me to dinner first.”

At that comment your face turned bright red.

“W-WHAT?!”

You reached out and snatched your pencil from his hands.

He chuckled in response and moved to sit down next you, dropping into a cross-legged position that sent sand flying everywhere. Down your shirt, in your hair, in your sketchbook. Everywhere. You turned your book over and shook the sand out, glaring at him out of the corner of your eye.

“You had your mouth open like a gaping fish. I thought it was an invitation. My mistake.”

If your face wasn’t truly red before it certainly was now. Whether it was out of anger or embarrassment, you really weren’t sure.

“WHY WOULD YOU THINK THAT?! I DON’T EVEN KNOW YOUR NAME!”

The man put his hands up in a defensive nature and cocked an eyebrow at you.

“Hey, hey, hey, calm down now. I guess you were staring so hard you didn’t hear me tell you that bit of info.”

He dropped his hands and held one out to you.

“The name’s Maui.”

You glanced down at his hand and then back up to his face. He had an amused look there, but nothing teasing or malicious.

With a small bit of trepidation you took his hand and shook it, telling him your name.
“It’s nice to meet you. I normally don’t approach random tourists and introduce myself, but something tells me that you’re not a normal tourist.”

You had been shaking the sand out of your hair and stopped to look at him.

“How can you tell?”

Maui shrugged as he went to lean back on his elbows. He picked up a shell and started examining it.

“Normally tourists are already in their clothes that scream ‘hey I’m a tourist’. You aren’t. You kinda stick out like a sore thumb.”

You glance down at the outfit you had worn on the plane. You had gone for comfort and it was definitely far from what you wore to work. The v-neck top you wore had a design based on your favorite book/movie/video game and the flared sweatpants had the words “Love Doesn’t Discriminate” going down the left leg.

“Oh. I didn’t realize. Makes sense, I guess.”

Maui nodded and threw the shell into the ocean. The smooth underside of it helped the shell skip on the water a bit before being swallowed up by a small wave.

“So, if it’s not sun, sand, and relaxation that brings you to our island paradise, what does?”

“I’m actually here for work. I’m a researcher for a university in New York and I was given permission to come study here on Motunui.”

“What are you, an oceanographer or something?”

You glanced at him and shook your head “no”.

“I’m a religions researcher with a specialty in polytheistic religions. I’m here to study with the tribe that lives on the island.”

“Polytheistic?”

“Oh..um...polytheism is the belief that there are multiple gods that shape our world, as opposed to monotheism that is the belief that there is only one God.”

Maui looked blankly at you for a bit before a large smirk overtook his handsome face. His eyebrow cocked upwards, which at this point you could only assume was something he did on a regular basis based on how many times he’d already done so in your presence.
“So what you’re telling me is that you’re here to study the gods?”

You tucked some hair behind your ear before nodding.

“Yeah. There isn’t a lot known about polytheism in Polynesian cultures. It misrepresented a lot in western culture and I want to learn more so that can change.”

“That’s very noble of you, princess.”

Leaning back on your own arms, you glanced over at him with a smirk of your own.

“I’m not a princess.”

Giving you a one over, Maui shrugged.

“True. No animal sidekick.”

At that, you laughed loudly. Your arms weakened as you continued to laugh and you fell back onto the sand, now clutching your stomach. Maui took in the sight of you laughing and smiled. He liked the sound of your laugh. It sounded so human and unique, none of that “sounds like bells” crap.

As your laughter started to die down, you were able to open your eyes again. Glancing up, your eyes caught Maui’s, who had moved onto his side to wait for your laughing to subside. His smile caught you off guard. It had been a long time since anybody had smiled at you like that and the effect was almost immediate. Your cheeks turned pink and your heart beat skyrocketed.

Maui’s golden brown eyes caught yours and time seemed to stand still as you gazed at each other. You could see Maui’s fingers twitch through your peripheral and your own twitched in response. Why the hell did this man have such an effect on you? Just as your hand went move the moment was broken by the swash from a large wave rushing up and completely soaking your legs and sweatpants.

“HOLY SHIT THAT’S COLD!”

You stood up quickly and gazed down at your pants, the fabric sticking to your skin like a wet suit as the excess water ran off and onto the sand.

“Dammit...now my ass is wet…”

“It could be worse, princess. I probably shouldn’t call you that anymore since we established the whole lack of animal sidekick thing. What are you then? Y’know, with the whole researcher thing.”

Maui stood up and started to ring out his shorts. Walking up to a nearby tree, you leaned against it and started doing the same to your pants legs.

“I actually have my doctorate, so I usually get called ‘doctor’”

It was only then that you realized how late it actually was. The area around you was getting dark and you estimated it would be about a half hour before complete darkness.

“Well then, Doc, I hate to say it, but I gotta head out.”

The feeling of something landing above your head on the tree pulled you away from your pants. Your breath caught in your throat as you raised your head and came face to face with Maui, who was right in front you leaning on the tree.

“It was awesome meeting you. I definitely hope we see each other again. Something tells me you’re gonna like what you learn about on this island.”

He brought his hand up, and for the second time that day, placed a finger under your chin and tilted your head up. Maui leaned down and brought his lips right in front of yours and just a breath away.

“Have a good night, Doc. Sweet dreams.”

Before you could say or do anything, Maui pulled away and headed off in the direction that you HOPED was going towards the tribe grounds.

“Maui out!”

“Did he...really just say ‘Maui out’?”

You shook your head and grabbed your sketchpad before quickly making your way back to your room as your body pulsed with something you hadn’t felt in a long time.

Chapter Text

When your alarm went off at 9AM the next day, to say you were a bit peeved is a bit of an understatement. After getting back to your room, your mind just wouldn’t let go of the man from the beach. Maui. Maui was his name. No matter what you did with the rest of your night, he just kept popping up. When you were watching some movie on HBO and munching on the room service pizza (which was nothing compared to the pizzas you got back in New York but hey it was edible), your mind would drift to him. When you were taking a shower, you thought about him. When you crawled into bed, you thought about him. When you couldn’t get to sleep because you were thinking about him and you were staring at yourself in the ceiling mirror above the bed, you were thinking about him.

It had honestly been such a long time since anybody had caught your attention like this. You couldn’t even remember the last time you went out on date, much less flirted.

Your body finally granted you sleep after tossing and turning for a good hour or two. Your dreams, of course, focused on the muscular man.

Now, at 9AM, you were being forced to be a productive member of society and get to work.

After brushing your teeth and calling in a quick breakfast, you got dressed and prepared your bag for the day. You slipped on a pair of black cargo shorts and a gray muscle tank top with large tropical flowers printed on it. In your trusty backpack you threw in both your sketch journal and your academic journal, a couple mechanical pencils, your sketch pencils, your small digital camera, lens for said camera, and a couple of power banks you had charged up the night before.

Your breakfast came and went and, before you knew it, you were shoving your feet into a comfortable pair of high tops. Slipping one of the room keys into your one of your short’s pockets, you made your way out of your room and down to the lobby.

The clock down there read 9:55, but Rewi and another man you didn’t recognize were already making their way through the front doors of the lobby. Rewi spotted you almost immediately.

“There she is! Good morning, keiki!”

Rewi’s loud, booming voice startled the other guests that were down there, earning him plenty of glares and wary looks. A smile lit up your face as you started to make your way over.

“Good morning to you too, Rewi and…?”

Rewi clapped the other man on the back, causing him to stumble a bit. He looked to be in his mid 40s with short, salt and pepper, hair and some stubble running along his jawline. The bags under his eyes were pronounced against his tan skin. His outfit consisted of khaki cargo shorts and a dark blue tank top.

“This is my son, Ina. He’s Ailana’s father. He’s going to be accompanying us back home.”

Ina reached out his hand and gave you a relaxed smile.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, [Y/N]. Ailana hasn’t stopped talking about you since she got back, so it’s nice to put a face to the name.”

As you shook his hand, you couldn’t help but notice the slight resemblances between Ailana, her father, and Rewi. The eyes and smile must be a family trait.

“The pleasure is all mine, sir.”

Ina chuckled at that and nodded.

“She wasn’t lying when she said you were polite. It’s quite refreshing when compared to her. Ailana has her grandfather’s brash nature.”

Rewi laughed loudly before slinging an arm around his son.

“Ina is just a stick in the sand.”

Turning his son towards the door, Rewi slung his other arm around your shoulders and pulled you with them.

“Now, we’re going to get you to the other side of the island so your research can begin. The whole village is buzzing with energy. Everyone is excited to meet you and to help guide your studies.”

You all made your way out the door and towards the same jeep from yesterday. With a little assistance from Ina, you got back in the same seat and buckled up. With Rewi driving and Ina in the passenger seat, the trek began. Instead of taking any of the main roads, Rewi immediately turned into the foliage to the right of the resort. The ride proved to be bumpy as he dodged trees and bushes, until he found the start of a well worn path.

After a few minutes of driving, a large fence and gate come into few. There were two guards on each side, shirtless with tattoos covering parts of their chests and arms.

“Hey Rewi, Ina.”

“Keemo, Manu.”

“Is that her?”

Rewi nodded and threw his thumb and over his shoulder pointing it at you.

“Yep! This is [Y/N]! Remember her face just in case she ever needs to leave or come back in. Let the others know as well.”

Both men waved at you as they opened the gate. As the gate closed behind you, you could feel a shift in the air around you. Things seemed to be much calmer here. The sun filtered in through the canopy of palm trees and the sounds of insects and birds rang all around.

“We’re getting close the village. This is the beginning of one of our coconut groves.”

Ina pointed ahead where you could see the trees lined in rows with one big gap down the middle.

As you approached the groove, you could see a small group of men, women, and children harvesting the coconuts. Their heads turned as the jeep made its way towards the main center of the village. At the sight of you in the back, some of the children waved and started to chase the jeep. After waving back to them, you turned back around. Your eyes widened at the beginning sights of the village as the jeep came to the edge of the area and stopped.

“If you don’t mind, we’re going to be making our way in by foot.”

Rewi helped you down from the jeep just as the kids from the coconut grove were approaching. There were about 10 of them, ranging from ages 5 to 15. They all had beautiful tan skin and gorgeous dark hair in a variety of styles. Their outfits consisted of chest wraps or t-shirts with skirts made of cloth or palm leaves or just a pair of shorts. They all started asking you a million questions at the exact same time. There was no distinction between which question was which as they all blended together.

You were saved by Rewi and Ina as they broke up the circle around you.

“Okay, little ones, give her a second. You will have time to ask her questions once she gets settled in and meets Opetaia, alright?”

The kids begrudgingly agreed as they backed off a little bit. You felt a tug on your shorts and found one of the kids, a little girl with shoulder length black hair who seemed to be about 6 or 7, signalling you to bend down. Doing so, you bent down to her height. From behind her back she pulled out a beautiful purple flower and slipped it behind your right ear. She smiled shyly at you and you couldn’t help but return it.

“Why thank you! It’s so beautiful!”

She hid her face behind her hands and Rewi and Ina laughed.

“That little one is Kalili. She’s one of mine.”

Ina smiled down at her proudly.

“Would you like to hold my hand, Kalili?”

You stood up and held your hand out to her. Kalili’s eyes widened before a large smile spread across her face. She reached up and took your hand and your other was immediately occupied by a boy who was about 12 years old.

Wordlessly, Rewi and Ina turned and started leading your small group towards the main center of the village. Your eyes took in everything around you. Large huts were built all around, some looking like houses, others looking like storage areas and other facilities.

Villagers started noticing your group and made their way to gather towards the middle of village.

Standing in the middle of all of these people was a tall man. He held an air of authority about him. He stood with his back straight and his shoulders back. He was shirtless, wearing a necklace made of various shells and teeth that had a unique abalone shell pendant hanging off of it. His camo cargo shorts were covered by a leaf skirt and tattoos decorated his body. Atop his bald head, was a headdress made of shells and feathers.

Rewi turned to you, the kids having let go of your hands and gone to their families, and slipped his arm around your shoulders and brought you closer.

“[Y/N], this is my cousin and the chief of the village of Motunui, Opetaia.”

Chapter Text

You had never felt more intimidated in your life. The man before you held an absolute air of order and respect. You could see it in the eyes of the villagers that gazed upon him. You could see it in the eyes of the children that, more than likely, had no understanding of his position. You could feel it pulsing through you at this very moment. Immediately you dropped to kneel on one knee, bowing your head.

A warm laugh met you as hands gently grasped your elbows. Looking up, you met the warm brown eyes of Opetaia.

“There’s no need for that, my child. Rise up and stand.”

You nodded your head and stood up nervously.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir.”

Opetaia smiled warmly and held out his hand.

“And the same to you, haumana[1]. Come, let’s talk more in the lali.[2]”

Opetaia turned and started down a path that was cleared down the middle of the island towards the mountain. At the base of mountain stood a large hut .

The walk up there didn’t take too long at all. As you and the rest of the villagers followed Opetaia, your eyes flickered between everything you passed: the beautiful flowers and trees, the carefully crafted huts, the chicken eating a rock...wait what?

You stopped and stared at this strange phenomenon. The chicken, who looked a bit scraggly and bug-eyed, had a large rock slowly going down its throat. It’s bulging eyes went from being skyward to staring right into your own as a low whine made its way from its jammed airway.

“U-Um…is...is it going to be okay?”

Rewi clapped a hand gently on your shoulder before turning you back towards the path.

“He’ll be fine. His name is Heihei. He is a descendant of the original Heihei who helped save our island hundreds of years ago. Unfortunately, he takes after the original more than we would like, but hey, he always seems to live.”

With one last glance back Heihei, who was now regurgitating the rock, you turned and continued up the path.

The lali was a massive and impressive hut with strong sturdy walls and a thick roof. Rewi pushed aside and held the cloth drape back for you and gently pushed against your back when you hesitated to enter.

Inside, Opetaia and his council were already seated on mats in the front and the villagers were all getting situated in the rows facing them. One mat was sitting in the middle. Rewi walked you over to it and gestured down at it before taking his spot to the right of Opetaia. As you sat, Opetaia smiled at you.

“[Y/N], I would like to start this off by thanking you for coming all the way here. Rewi and Ailana have told me about how excited you are and I can tell you with 100% certainty that the feeling is mutual. Our culture is a dwindling one there modern times and the fact that an outsider is willing and interested in helping teach and preserve it means the world to us. So thank you.”

Your eyes teared up a little bit at his words and you nodded, smiling at everyone in the room.

“There is no need to thank me, sir. Your culture has the right to be properly understood and treated with respect outside of this island. I just hope that I can learn all that I can to make sure that happens.”

Opetaia closed his eyes and a serene smile took over. If you didn’t know any better, you would say that it seemed like a weight was taken off of his shoulder. When he opened his eyes again, you could see the gratitude reflecting in them.

“Speaking for the whole of the village, I can say with confidence that we all truly appreciate that. That being said, I hope you don’t mind that the council and I have already formulated a plan to help get you there.”

With a nod of your head, you begin to take off your bag and start pulling out your journals and pencils. Cracking open your brown, faux leather, academic journal, you look up at Opetaia and smile.

“That’s great actually! If you don’t mind, I’d like to jot this all down and make sure I have everything I need to know in order.”

Opetaia nodded.

“That’s fine. The plan that we have come up with will be a fully immersive experience. As you learn about our Gods and faith system, you will be simultaneously learning about how we live on our island. Our faith is completely based on how we live and interact with the world around us. We take everything we see, hear, taste, and feel and cherish it and use it to it’s full potential. For you to truly understand who and what our Gods are, you must learn why we believe in them and worship them. Only then will you understand us and them equally.”

You look up from writing in your journal and gaze at Opetaia.

“That makes sense. Can you give me an example of something you will be having me learn? For academic purposes?” You wiggle your pencil in the air, hoping that Opetaia understands your intentions of academic recording.

Looking around the hut, Opetaia’s eyes fall on a basket of fruit sitting in between him and you. He stands from his mat and walks over, pulling something out and tossing it in the air. He catches it and smiles before turning his attention back to you.

“Consider the coconut.”

With confusion, you glance up at him.

“The what?”

“Consider its tree. With the way we live here, each part of the coconut is all we need. We make our nets from the fibers, the water is sweet inside, we use the leaves to build fires, and then we cook up the meat inside.”[3]

You glanced nervously at the coconut the chief was holding out towards you before meeting his eyes again.

“Will I have to eat the coconut?”

One of Opetaia’s eyebrows rose.

“No. Not necessarily. Why, is there something wrong with the coconut?”

Your eyes widened as you took in the defensive tone Opetaia had spoken with. You had done some simple research before coming here, and knew that the coconut was important to the people here.

“No! No, nothing wrong. It’s just that..um...I’m actually allergic to coconut. I can touch it and everything, but I just can’t eat it. My airways will swell up and it’s not a pretty picture.”

It was Opetaia’s turn to have his eyes widen.

“Oh. That makes sense. I’ll make sure that anything that is made for you here won’t have any coconut in it.”

“Thank you. I appreciate that.”
“Of course. That will be all for now. Everyone, expect us to be around at some point today for preliminary demonstrations of our work. Dismissed.”

As he placed the coconut back in the basket, Opetaia offered a hand to help you to your feet, which you accepted after putting your journal and pencil back in your bag. The villagers and council people stood from their spots and slowly started to filter out. Rewi came and stood on your other side as Opetaia wrapped an arm around your shoulders and led you back out.

“Now, [Y/N], it’s time to show you what island life is truly about.”

Chapter Text

Sunlight filtering through the curtains woke you from your deep sleep. You slowly opened your eyes and took in your bleary surroundings. Your body was sore from the previous day’s work and getting up was the one thing you did NOT want to do. With a shuddering sigh you struggled into a sitting position and waited for the straining pain to stop.

It had been about a month into your academic trip and the first thing you learned was not to underestimate Opetaia. After your first day visit, Opetaia had totally shifted from a serious toned leader to a man who appeared back in his twenties, rearing to go and ready to teach with the utmost enthusiasm.

Opetaia took each week to get you well acquainted with the village’s tasks. The first week was dedicated to learning how to harvest and cook the different fruits, vegetables, and livestock the island has to offer. Luckily, they didn’t make you harvest any coconuts...on the first day. The second week was dedicated to learning all the different properties and uses of the coconut. Needless to say, this particular week was the most stressful. You had to wear a mask over your mouth the whole time. If even a single fiber from that coconut had entered your mouth, your throat would have swollen shut. The third week was dedicated to learning the basics behind the textile and tool building for the island. You were taught how to properly weave fibers into fishing nets and how to make the various tools used for hunting and harvesting. The fourth, and final, week was dedicated to learning how to fish and sail within the lagoon. The fisherman took you out on the boats and taught you how to cast the fish cages and how to navigate the boats within the lagoon.

On your last day, a particularly windy day that had you throwing your whole body into keeping the boat in the right direction and getting it to turn back around towards the shore, Opetaia told you that he thought you ready to move into the theological aspects of their living.

As your mind caught up with you and you remembered what today was, you struggled to quickly get up and get into the shower.

About an hour later you were dressed in shorts and a crop top, had your backpack stocked up, and were headed down to the village. The bike the villagers had lent you was chained to a tree outside of the resort and you used it to take the path to the gate.

Like every morning, Keemo and Manu were waiting on either side of the gate. Keemo spotted you first and start to wave at you.

“Good morning, [Y/N]!”

Keemo was a tall man in his early twenties with bright blonde hair that stood out against his tanned skin. Per what he had told you, he is one of a small handful of villagers who are mixed. His mother, who you’ve had the pleasure of meeting, is a German-American woman who fell in love with Keemo’s father while on a vacation to the resort to have some time to herself after a nasty divorce. The tattoos covering his body tell the stories of his many wayfinding trips and surfing adventures.

“Aren’t you a little too excited to see her?”

Manu was the quieter of the two. He was around the same age as Keemo, but slightly shorter and with lighter tanned skin. His long black hair was braided and rested over his shoulder and on the side of his bare chest. The tattoos on his arms and chest told the story of how he had saved some of the village children who had wandered out past the lagoon when a bad storm had hit. He says the scars around his wrists and lower arms from the ropes he had to pull to get them back in and to his boat remind him that life is fleeting and to live it how you see fit.

“Oh hush, Manu, can’t I tell a pretty girl good morning?”

Your cheeks lit up a little as you stopped your bike in front of the pair.

“Good morning boys, how are you guys this morning?”

Manu shrugged and mumbled off something about having to help his mother with some early morning chores as he turned to open the gate for you.

“Mine’s been pretty okay, definitely better since you came along.”

The wink Keemo sent your way was exaggerated and definitely something special. You got off of your bike and walked towards the open gate, but stopped in front of Keemo. Leaning close, you smiled so sweetly you were positive you gave him a cavity or two.

“What would me coming along do? Manu’s been right beside you all morning.” Your smile turned into a smug smirk as Keemo’s face turned cherry red.

“W-What?! I-I..I don’t know what y-you’re talking about it!”

You arched an eyebrow and turned to walk through the gate.

“Uh-hunh. Sure.”

Manu looked at the two of you in confusion as he closed the gate behind you.

“What did you say to him?”

You waved over your shoulder and mounted your bike again.

“Ooooh nothing! Have a good day boys!”

At that, you left the two behind as you sped through the rest of the path until you hit sand. You left the bike against your usual tree and made your way to towards the lali hut. The villagers waved and called out to you as you passed by on your way. As you approached the large hut, you spotted Heihei outside the doorway continuously running into the outer wall.

“...How have you survived this long?”

With a quick turn towards a group of children who were weaving some baskets, you sent Heihei on his way to live another day...somehow.

You slipped off your shoes at the doorway of the hut and let yourself in when you heard Opetaia call your name. As usual, Opetaia was seated on his mat with Rewi on his right. Sprawled in front of the two were multiple scrolls and tapestries with some of the village historians seated along the sides.

“It’s wonderful to see you this morning. How are you feeling?”

You took your seat on your designated mat across from the village chief.

“I won’t lie, I’m sore. I’ll live though, I’ve dealt with worse.”

Opetaia chuckled.

“Well, you’ll be happy to know that a decent chunk of today will be spent in here doing no strenuous activities.”

A sigh of relief left you.

“Thank you so much.”

A hearty laugh left Opetaia. As he settled down he nudged Rewi and nodded towards you. With a wink that left you feeling uneasy, Rewi made his way over to you.

“Rewi?...”

The large man reached down and grabbed the corners of your mat and quickly dragged you closer to the chief and historians. We won’t talk about the high pitched squeak that left your mouth.

With a clap, Opetaia rubbed his hands together.

“Now, it’s time to get started. We will begin from the top with Rangi, Papa, Ku, Lono, and Kane.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hours later, your academic journal was almost completely full. The stories and legends that Opetaia, Rewi, and the historians had given you were long and detailed and you were practically weeping with joy with each one they told you. This was your niche. This was where your heart sang. These stories were timeless treasures that the world needed to know about. They were the key to the door of understanding and here you were, standing with the people of Motunui, grasping that giant key and slowly turning the lock.

Rewi was the first to stand and stretch his limbs.

“I think it’s safe to call it a day with the legends. Anyways, we saved the best for last, remember?”

Opetaia nodded and stood, reaching a hand down to you. With his help, you stood, the look of confusion giving away how you felt.

“Best for last?”

“Come, we need to be by the shore for this. Rewi, go on ahead and get a boat ready for her.” Rewi nodded and ran out of the hut, leaving you with Opetaia and the historians. The chief turned towards the group of elders and bowed his head, eyeing you to follow suit.

“Thank you for taking the time out of your day to help us. I’m sure our young researcher is eager to learn more from you all.”

“Very much so. Thank you all.”

With a returned bow they left, which lead to Opetaia turning, taking you out of the hut, and towards the shore.

“So what exactly is this “best for last?”

“Within our history, there is an important skill that all inhabitants of Motunui must learn. This skill is incredibly weaved into our culture and who we are. Since you are now an inhabitant of Motunui, you must learn this skill as well.”

You both arrived at the shore where Rewi was waiting with the same boat you had used when you learned how to fish and sail in the lagoon.

Opetaia turned to you and clasped a hand on your shoulder.

“This important skill is called wayfinding. True to it’s name it is finding the way to where you need to be. This skill is particularly used for long distance travel. You use the stars and knowledge of where you’ve been to guide you to where you need to be. For this skill, I have asked a very important friend of the village to teach you how to wayfind. You remember the lessons from today, yes?”

You nodded slowly.

“Good.”

From his necklace, Opetaia blew into a small conch shell. A loud whistle pierced through the air. Not a second later, the cry of a hawk sounded somewhere behind the distant trees. When you looked up, you saw a hawk flying towards you all. As it got closer and closer you couldn’t help but notice that it was a whole hell of a lot larger than a regular hawk.

The hawk landed on the sand next to Opetaia, sending it flying everywhere. Down your shirt, in your hair, in your shorts. Everywhere. As you started to shake the sand out of your crop top, you couldn’t help but notice the hawk giving your body an appreciative look. Which was weird. Very weird.

“Soooo...this hawk is going to teach me how to wayfind?”

The hawk shrugged as it ruffled out its feathers.

“I might...if you ask me nicely.”

If your jaw could physically hit the sand from how hard it just dropped, it would have. The bird just talked...it just…TALKED. WHAT THE EVER LIVING FUCK WAS GOING ON?!

Right before your eyes, the hawk changed into a man, and not just any man. He changed into the man that has been plaguing your dreams and sheets nightmares for weeks now.

“M-Maui?!”

With a smirk that sent butterflies rampaging throughout your entire body, he nodded at you.

“What’s up, Doc?”

Opetaia and Rewi looked mildly shocked at the exchange.

“You both know each other already? That ruins the surprise a bit. Why didn’t you tell us you had already met the demi-god, keiki?”

“I-I didn’t know he was a demi-god! I didn’t even know that Maui was the name of a demi-god at the time!”

A low “ooh” left Maui as he raised a hand to his heart.

“That hurts, Doc. It really does...but don’t worry, we’ll get to know each other veeeery well ”

Maui approached you and gently grazed the skin of your exposed tummy with his calloused fingertips. If the butterflies had been rampaging before, they were full-on violent mosh pitting now.

If you had to guess, your face was probably an extremely bright shade of fire engine red.

Opetaia awkwardly coughed into his hand in an effort to break up the oddly sexual tension between you two.

“Maui has agreed to teach you how to wayfind. Most of here on the island have been learning to wayfind since we were children and have perfected our own techniques. You need to play catch up, and who better to teach you than the demi-god of the wind and seas. I will leave it up to him to explain to you why he shows himself to us when the other gods and demi-gods have not. For now though, I’ll leave you to it.”

Both you and Maui watched as Opetaia and Rewi walked away. Once they were out of sight, Maui turned back around and pressed a hand to the small of your back and pulled you into his broad chest.

“Are you ready to learn a thing or two from the Master?”

Chapter Text

“M-Master?!”

Maui smirked and leaned down slightly, his cocky smirking face filling your whole line of vision.

“I gotta admit, Doc, that sounds pretty nice coming outta your mouth.”

If your face wasn’t red before, it certainly was now.

“T-That’s not! I wasn’t! NO!”

Maui’s shoulders started to shake as he let go of you and let his loud laughter fill the area, drawing the attention of any nearby villagers.

“You’re too easy to tease, Doc.”

Maui wiped a tear from his eye and walked past you to the canoe. He patted your shoulder as he passed and tilted his head. You cautiously followed him and stopped as Maui started to push the vessel into the water.

“You ready for our romantic adventure for two?” Maui wiggled his eyebrows at you before wading in after the canoe. Your eyes rolled as you took off your sandals (it didn’t take you long to switch out your high tops to these seeing as your high tops had some sort of personal vendetta against you and sand) and waded into the water.

Maui held out a hand and helped you up onto the canoe before climbing up himself. As Maui messed with the ropes and paddle, you put your bag in the lower compartment in the middle of the canoe.

Within a few short seconds, Maui had the canoe setting off towards the reef, not without throwing a wink your way of course. As the two of you set forward, you couldn’t help but eye Maui up a little. He looked the same as when you first met him on the beach your first night on the island, minus the printed shirt. His profile was differently something to behold and your mind hasn’t let you forget it. You looked away as the memories of the dreams you did remember started popping up. The feeling of heat on the apples of your cheeks was starting to annoy you. It had been a long time since anyone had made you feel this way. You were so used to being completely level headed 100% of the time. Feeling this thrown off because of one man...no...demi-god...was odd to say the least. It was movement caught through your peripheral that pulled you out of your mind.
On Maui’s back, was a smaller version of him...waving at you. You blinked a bit as the small Maui started to jump and wave, trying desperately to get you to come over to him.

“Do your tattoos...move?”

You shot up from your spot and walked over to Maui and watched as the little figure jumped and ran from area to area, trying his best to impress you with different tricks and feats.

Maui looked at you from over his shoulder and shrugged.

“Yeah, why?”

You glanced up at him and smiled.

“Because it’s super cool? This little guy back here is super cute!”

The tattoo placed his hands on his cheeks and bashfully smiled up at you.

“His name is Mini Maui.”

“Mini Maui?”

The small tattoo nodded his head and puffed out his chest.

You giggled lightly as you poked Mini Maui in the stomach and tickled him.

Maui would never admit it to you, or to anyone, about how good that small touch felt on his skin.

“Does he have the same cocky ego as you do?”

You could almost hear the gears switch in the massive man’s mind.

Maui looked you in the eye and smirked, and a feeling of dread washed over you.

“The same ego? Yeah, a little, but the cocky part is on a whole different scale.”

Maui’s laughter boomed from him as your face turned cherry red. Your forehead met his shoulder blade as you sighed.

“I waltzed right into that one.”

“That you did, Doc.”

As you lifted your head from his shoulder blade, Maui slightly turned and wrapped an arm around your waist and pulled you close.

“Brace yourself.”

Without asking, you tucked yourself closer to him and placed your palms on his wide chest as his arm tightened around you. The canoe started to tilt upwards as it passed over a large wave that came through over the reef. The wind picked up as the canoe reached the top of the wave and sent it airborne with you both on it. With minimal effort, Maui was able to get the canoe to land safely and steadily on the other side. Your knees had buckled a bit as the canoe had landed, but Maui’s strong arm and grip kept you upright and firmly pressed against him.

As the canoe evened out and began a steady pace, Maui began to release you.

“You good, Doc?”

You stood on steady legs and looked up at him, lightly smiling.

“Yeah. Thank you.”

“No problem.”

The flirtatious wink he sent you caused you to roll your eyes again, but not without a smirk. You walked behind him and took your bag out the compartment. You pulled out your sketch notebook and a pencil before turning back around and sitting down. Your eyes glanced up as you started to sketch the demi-god in front you, trying your best to get each individual detail of the tattoos on his back.

“So, demi-god of the wind and sea, where are we going?”

Maui didn’t look back as he guided a boat in the direction of an island in the distance.

“Nowhere special, just an island I pulled up about 2 weeks ago at the request of Chief Mr.Clean.”

The snort and laughter that came from you caused Maui to smile and laugh along.

“I’m so telling him you said that.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time he’s heard it from me.”

You smiled up at him as he glanced back at you, his eye catching your drawings. Maui’s face turned a deep shade of red as he realized what was on your page.

“Wait...are you drawing me?”

“Like one of my french girls.”

The saucy smirk and wiggling eyebrows from you made the demi-god break out into more laughter.

You would never admit it, but that shade of red looked really nice on Maui’s skin...and you wanted to see more of it.

Chapter Text

It only took about 45 minutes after the drawing gigglefest before you both were approaching the island. It wasn’t a large island, per say, more modest in Maui’s “humble” opinion. It was only slightly bigger than the island he had been forced to stay on all those hundreds of years back. What it lacked in size, it made up for in overall presentation.

Maui worked his way through the boat gently brushing onto the shore with little turbulence. Grabbing your bag, you quickly jumped off of the boat and onto the soft sand. You gaped at the scenery around you, completely speechless. This was the experience you had been hoping for when you first arrived on Motunui. This was what had popped into your mind when you imaged an island.

The trees were lush and plentiful, many of them bearing many different tropical fruits (and those accursed coconuts). The sand was a gorgeous beige color and, upon slipping your sandals off, you discovered that it was almost as soft as silk. You could hear and see all kinds of birds in the high up canopy.

“Y-You...you made all of this?”

The stammer and awe in your voice made Maui swell with pride. No...pride was not the word he was looking for. There was something much more than that inside him and he didn’t know why. [1]

“Yep! Well, not by myself. I pulled up the island and got all the wildlife on here. I got a little help from The Jolly Green Giantess with the plant stuff.”

“Who?”

“You’ll find out later. I have some stuff I want to show ya.”

Maui held out his hand to you and you gladly took it. He led you to, what looked like, a premade path through the beautiful bulk of the island. The trees and foliage were even more beautiful up close. The leaves were so much greener and the flowers and fruits so much brighter. The fruits alone were a marvel! All around you, you could smell the sweet ripeness of each fruit. Your stomach growled loudly as you both passed by a passion fruit tree. Maui had looked back at you with a smirk and promised that you both would enjoy some of the food once he got done showing you his “main attraction” ( ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ).

He took you all the way around the island, showing you the many different plants and bird species on the island. He even got a group of different colored lorikeets and a rather large masked shining parrot to land on you.

You both eventually made it back to the beginning and Maui once again pulled you onto the path, but instead of taking the same path that led you around the island, he took the path going straight to the center. As you kept to the path, you could see a clearing up ahead with some kind of figures in it. Maui turned and started walking backwards in front of you.

“So what I’m about to show you hasn’t been seen by human eyes in thousands of years. I was thinking about these around the time Opetaia asked me to pull up an island for you to get your feet wet with for wayfinding. The way I figured it, this would be one heck of an amazing thing to show a researcher such as yourself.”

Your lovely guide stopped and smirked at you before turning to the side with his arm out, bowing at the waist. Your eyes widened at the sight in front of you.

In the clearing was a semi-circle of tiki totems, all bearing a different face and all of them taller than you. In the center was a huge tiki totem that was even taller than Maui. This one looked the most detailed and regal of them all.

Maui walked over the tiki that was closest to your right and leaned against it.

“Now, I know you’ve probably seen these at those “luaus” on TV, but these are-”

“Tiki, originating from stories of the first human.”

Maui stared at you with a blank expression on his face. He wasn’t expecting you to know that.

“There are multiple different stories telling of the origin. According to Maori mythology, Tiki was the first man created by Tūmatauenga, the god of war, cooking, and food cultivation like hunting and fishing. There’s also the story of Tiki being the son of Rangi and Papa. The story goes on to tell of him creating the first human by mixing his blood with clay and Tane, the god of forests and birds, turning it into the first...woman...I’m rambling aren’t I?”

Maui’s gaze had turned from blank to awe.

“How do you know all that already?”

“O-oh...um...I wrote a paper on totem history and appropriation back when I was still working on my bachelor’s. I had a section of it dedicated to tiki totems.”

Maui smiled at you.

“You’re right, though there are many more stories-”

“Most of which I know.”

The smile turned into a smirk.

“I have no doubt about that, Doc.”

Admittedly, he was a little excited right now. Yeah, you already knowing some of these things took away from his thunder, but to find someone who could keep him on his toes with their brain alone was exciting. Over the years, there had been many who tried to keep up with him on a physical scale. Hunters, fishers, bodybuilders, you name it. Nobody had ever tried to keep up with him on a mental level.

“What’s your opinion on these bad boys?”

You stepped closer to the totem Maui was leaning against and examined its features. The wood was rather worn, but in a pretty stable condition. There were nicks and small pieces missing here and there, but mostly all there. The exaggerated facial expression was typical of tiki totems, and the other smaller details were intricate. A lot of work had been put into this. Glancing at the other ones, you could tell that all of them had a lot of work put into them.

“These are all extremely well made. Little damage from what I can tell, though the wood’s coloring is off. Tiki typically mark sacred areas. If you pulled this island up, then what were these guys doing at the bottom of the ocean?”

“Well, you can blame that on this guy.”

Maui walked over to the large tiki in the center and patted it’s side. Unlike the tikis around it, this tiki was more ornately made. There were more fine details and intricacies carved into the wood around the face and body. Paua shell pieces were used throughout the whole piece, creating a lovely burst of color against the dark wood.

“I might be the demigod of the wind and sea, but this guy is the big kahuna. This is Tangaroa, God of the sea. This space was originally built as a place of worship for Tangaroa and the demigods who were associated with him. You see, the big guys don’t really like showing their faces to humans. They think that they shouldn’t have to do anything for the praise of humans. The problem with that is humans eventually want to start seeing to believe, so after a couple hundred years they stopped. That kinda ticked off Big T and he decided to give the humans three days to get off the island before he reclaimed it as his own. He messed up all of my hard work to be petty. It’s in my kind nature to forgive though.”

Glancing up at the intimidating tiki, you circled it before turning to the others.

“They’re all in amazing condition for having been underwater for so long.”

“Yeah well, Tangaroa was a bit too egotistical to just let these get ruined and go to waste. He took care of them as best as he could. He didn’t even put up a fight when I went to pull them back up. I guess not being worshipped for so long gives you some perspective.”

Your feet stopped at the tiki directly behind Tangaroa’s. This tiki was slightly bigger than the others and so easily recognizable. The look you threw over your shoulder at the demigod was unbelievably snarky.

“I wonder who this could be. Intricate tattoos, long hair, a smaller tattoo of himself carved right on him. Who could this be?”

Maui shrugged and threw a smug smirk in your direction.

“What can I say? Humans love me. Can you blame them? I mean look at me: the hair, the bod. I’m a package deal no one can pass up.”

He quickly followed his statement with one of his patented (*pending) pec pops of love. [2] The unflattering snort that left you was chased by a peal of loud laughter that had you wiping away tears.

Maui laughed along with you and smiled has he watched you. He liked you, he knew that much to be true. You were incredibly real. He had been interested in all kinds of people before but there always seemed to be some kind of angle when it came to their returned affections. He definitely had to wait until he got to know you better, but his first instincts were telling him that you were genuinely you.

Your laughter died down and it left you slightly breathless. Maui had found a way to catch you off guard again. If you were to keep count, he had a decent lead over you. You normally wouldn’t let your competitiveness get the best of you, but Maui brought it out of you pretty badly.

“You know, there is another pretty significant story about the tiki that I didn’t mention.”

“And which one is that, Doc?”

Maui’s golden brown eyes followed you as you turned and slowly walked over to him. You had a calm look on your face that worried him more than it should have. As you stepped as close as possible, with your chest just barely brushing his, your calm look turned to sultry.

“The one about Tiki creating the first woman out of his loneliness. Legend says that Tiki was so lonely and desperate for company that he thought the reflection he saw in a pool of water was a new companion given to him by the Gods.”

You lifted your hand up and started to slowly trace the tattoos on his abdomen with your fingertips. Maui was certain his throat had closed up because it was suddenly very difficult to breathe.

“In his desperation, Tiki covered the pool with earth and from it a woman was born. Tiki was so happy to have a companion and he lived with her happily and innocently...that is...until one day she saw an eel…”

Your fingertips slowly made their way down to rest on the hem of his grass skirt.

“... and became excited.”

Maui almost lost it when you looked up at him from beneath your lashes and bit your bottom lip.

“Her excitement was quite contagious and was easily passed on to Tiki. One thing led to another, of course, and the first act of passionate sex was performed between the two. Did you know that one, Maui?”

Willing his body to move became very difficult, but Maui nodded slightly. He could practically feel the blood built up in his cheeks.

“Good! Just wanted to make sure you knew!”

And like a lightswitch, you changed from a sultry nymph back into the excitable researcher you normally were and it left Maui completely blindsided. With a pat on his stomach with the back of your hand, you made your way back to the path.

“Now let's go and get some of that fruit, I am starving !”

After shaking off the initial shock, the demigod followed behind you, his mind whirling and confused.

What Maui couldn’t see was your blood red face as the gravity of what you had just done crashed down on you. When the ever living hell had you ever been that brave?!

Chapter Text

Three weeks after your “island adventure” with Maui, things had returned to a relatively normal pace. You continued to learn more about the spiritual and practical aspects of the Polynesian culture from Opetaia, and Maui became a source of escape from all of the scholarly stuff. He always seemed to find a way to find an adventure for you two to go on while on Motunui. The banter with him continued of course. You didn’t know why, but it seemed to flow so easily between the two of you, no matter if it was funny and sarcastic or suggestive and sultry. You knew you were starting to fall, but you really did try to hold yourself back.

Currently, you were sitting near the edge of the water, examining a couple of sea shells you had found in the shallow water. Your lesson with Opetaia had been rather short today. Hell, it was still in the AM when he dismissed you to be left to your own devices. You had already done some sketching in your journal and had taken your bike around the island before stopping at the shore to hunt for shells. Now, as you finally went through the last of your pile, you found yourself bored again.

You stood up and scooped up your shells before putting them into a side pocket on the outside of your backpack. As you slid the straps of your bag up onto your shoulders, a pair of large hands covered your eyes. A warm breath escaped the person behind you as they pressed up against your back, causing a shiver to course down your spine.

“Guess who.”

A smile graced your face as you raised a hand and to tap your pointer finger against your chin in an inquisitive manner.

“Hmm...well...the voice definitely sounds familiar...It’s definitely gotta be my most favorite person on the island!”

The body behind you chuckled and a light blush overtook over their cheeks.

“It’s definitely gotta be...Rewi!”

The hands dropped from your eyes, to your shoulders, and spun you around to see the annoyed face of Maui.

“Ha ha. Very funny.”

“I thought you would enjoy that. It’s not my fault you have the sense of humor of a wet towel.” You shrugged and winked at him. The “completely done with you” look he shot towards you forced a grin onto your face.

“So what does the demigod of the wind and sea want with me today?”

Maui leaned in close with his face only centimeters from your own.

“You up for a little adventure, girly?”

You tried to control the blush on your face caused by his close proximity, but a little bit of color dusted the apples of your cheeks.

“If it’s another adventure somewhere here on this island, I’ll pass and save it for another day.”

Maui straightened up and put his hands on his hips.

“What if it wasn’t here and somewhere infinitely more interesting?”

“Oh?”

“Follow me, young padawan.”

Your eyebrow rose as he turned and walked away, leading you to an unknown location.

“How do you even know what that means?”

Maui turned his head back at you and smirked.

“What, because I’m a demigod I can’t keep up with popular culture? I’ll have you know that I was at the opening night of ‘A New Hope’.”

Your eyes widened a bit.

“Dang, that’s kind of impressive.”

“I know.”

You rolled your eyes but continued to follow Maui to wherever it was that he wanted to take you.

The rest of the walk was pleasantly silent up until you got to the desired destination. The demigod stopped you at a small section of the island that went further out into the water than the rest of the land. Similar to a small peninsula, the point gave you a clear and unobstructed view of the water. The ocean spanned far and wide in front of you both, the surface glittering in the sunlight like beautiful diamonds.

“So, has Polynesian Professor X taught you about the creepy stuff that comes with our culture?”

You glanced up at him in confusion.

“Creepy stuff?”

“Creepy stuff.”

“...Liiiiiiike?”

“Monsters.”

“Monsters?”

Maui glanced down at you with his eyebrow raised.

“So he hasn’t explained Lalotai?”

“Lalotai?”

A slow smirk spread across Maui’s face.

“The realm of monsters.”

Maui could hear the gears turning your head as you turned from him.

“There’s a realm of monsters...and it’s real? Like...you’re not messing with me right now?”

“Yes, it’s real and no I’m not messing with you. I mean, I can totally show you if you don’t believe me.”

You turned back towards him so fast you swore time momentarily stopped.

“YES!”

The demigod chuckled and then clapped his hands together and rubbed them.

“I thought you’d say that! Alright! Lalotai here we come! Normally, to appease Uncle Fester, I would have us wayfind our way there, but that takes a couple days and we want to get this done now. So-”

Maui grabbed the hook from around his neck and changed it from it’s small size to its normal massive size. Grasping the end in both of his hands, Maui swung the hook through the air.

“CHEE-HOO!”

In a blinding flash of light, Maui was suddenly transformed into the large hawk you had seen before on a handful of occasions.

Maui turned his back to you and lowered his altered body to the ground, spreading his wings to give you ample space to climb on.

“Ummm…”

“C’mon girly, climb on up.”

“Are you sure that this is safe?”

“I’m positive. I know what I’m doing. You’re nowhere safer than with me. With my speed and mastery of the wind, it’ll take us about an hour and half to get to Lalotai.”

You slowly stepped towards Maui and carefully climbed on his back, trying your best to not hurt him.

“There we go. Now wrap your arms around my neck and wrap my necklace around your hands.”

Your forehead pressed against the back of his head as you situated your arms and hands as he had instructed. With a light tug to the necklace, you signaled to Maui that you were as ready as you’d ever be.

“Hold on tight!”

With a piercing cry, Maui launched into the sky and did a loop. Your grip tightened on him until he leveled back out. Even still your face was buried in his feathers.

“You can look now, Doc.”

Your eyes opened as you slowly lifted your head. The scene before you was absolutely breathtaking. The ocean was so expansive and crystalline with little islands here and there dotted across the surface like freckles. Flocks of seagulls and other tropical birds flew alongside you and Maui, though not being able to keep up with his speed. As you went to speak, Maui cut you off.

“Just take it all in, Doc. We an chat once we get to Lalotai.”

A comfortable silence surrounded the two of you. The only thing to be heard was the wind blowing past you and the sounds of the ocean. Before you knew it, your eyelids were growing heavy and your face returned to soft feathers.

-------------------------------------------------------------

In what seemed like a short span of time, you were awoken by a slight jolt. You slowly sat up and rubbed your eyes as you yawned. Everything around you was hazy as your eyes tried to adjust.

“Mmmm...how long was I out?”

“I dunno...the whole time?”

“Are you sure? That felt like such a short nap.”

“Positive. You were out like a light.”

As your eyes finally readjusted, Maui transformed back into his normal form with you now laying princess style in his arms. Your cheeks burned a little as you told Maui that he could let you down.

As you steadied yourself, you took in your surroundings. You could still see the ocean from where you were, but upon further inspection (because you seemed to be pretty damn high in the air for you not to be on Maui’s back), you discovered that you were actually on top of a very tall and narrow stone mountain. The cloud of dust that blew past you drew your attention back behind you. Maui stood on the far side of what looked like a large face carved into the plateaued top of the mountain.

“That’s...a really big face.”

“That also happens to be the entrance to our destination.”

“Uhh..what?”

Maui walked onto the face and stood upon the nose. Bringing a hand up to his face, Maui coughed into his fist before beginning a traditional haka. Towards the end of the aggressive dance Maui jumped up high in the air and came down with a mighty “HEEEEEE”, slamming his fists on the face. The entirety of the mountain started to shake as the mouth started to slowly open up.

The separating teeth widened until the mouth was fully split. With hesitation in your step, you walked towards the edge and looked down. The path down was completely dark, with the only illumination being the bright purple light at, what seemed to be, the very bottom.

“U-Umm.”

“Don’t worry, I’m gonna be with you the whole way down.”

Maui turned you around to him slowly. His face was bright red and he refused to look you in the eye.

“Thing is, on the way down, I need you to stay with me at all times. Yeah, this is an adventure and all, but it’s a dangerous one and this huge drop is the only way down there…”

You looked up at him in confusion, tilting your head to try and catch his eye.

“So what do you propose we do? It’s not like you have a bag or anything that I can get in.”

Maui slowly opened his arms out to his sides, still looking anywhere but you.

“You want me to ride you?”

Maui’s face turned the reddest it had ever been. It wasn’t until a few seconds later that the implications of what you had said registered in your mind. Quite suddenly, your face matched his.

“I-I’m so sorry! I-I-I didn’t mean it like that I swear!”

Maui coughed into his fist and shook his head to try and get rid of the blood in his cheeks.

“It’s fine. I mean, technically you’re not wrong. There’s gonna be a lot of water once we hit the bottom and I’m gonna need to keep a tight grip on you as you keep a tight grip on me. The only logical way I can see this working is if you straddle me.”

If you thought your face was red before, that last statement took it to a new level.

“Oh dear Gods, can we please stop…”

Snickering, Maui opened his arms to you.

“Hop on Doc.”

With a shuddering breath, you took a step towards Maui and placed your hands on his broad shoulders. With one last glance into his eyes (because let's be honest, eye contact after this was going to be incredibly hard) you jumped up and wrapped your legs around Maui’s waist.

The feeling of Maui’s warm hands sliding up your thighs distracted you from the thought of there being absolutely no space between yours and his groins.

“I’m sorry again…”

“I-it’s fine. Really. If it means getting down there safely, than it’s fine.”

With a nod, Maui walked both of you to the very edge of the opened stone mouth.

“Hold on tight, Doc. Whatever happens, don’t you dare let go of me until I say.”

With a quick hand slide to your waist, Maui jumped high into the air and plunged you both into the deep well. The urge to scream bubbled up rapidly. One of Maui’s large hands pressed your face into his neck.

“Hold on tighter, don’t look, and hold your breath” Following his commands, you kept your face in place and wrapped your arms tightly around his neck. Right as you held your breath, the feeling of impact overcame your body as you hit the ocean level. The water surrounding the both of your bodies was warm at first and gradually got colder as you both sank. In what felt like hours, the two of you broke the...surface?...Surface...and your decent increased in speed. The whole ordeal felt like the definition of worst carnival ride in the history of carnival rides. With a final bounce, Maui finally landed.

“You can let go now, girly.”

A shaky nod was all you could muster up as your limbs slowly and carefully loosened their grip on the demigod’s body. The sigh of relief that left your lips as your feet made contact with the ground was audible and made the massive man in front of you chuckle.

“You okay there, Doc?”

“I-I will be…”

With your body still shaking, you wrung out your wet hair. Glancing down, you noticed your clothes were soaked and clinging to you like a second skin.

“Let’s get walking, you’ll dry off as we go.”

With that, Maui led the way through the almost neon-like ecosystem. You both walked for what seemed like a good hour or two. You encountered, from a safe distance mind you, all manner of monsters and creatures. There were bat like creatures with multiple eyes, and a large jagged rock monster that looked oddly familiar. After many close calls and sneaking around, you both came upon a set of meticulously arranged shells the size of skyscrapers. Upon looking inside an opening, a rather large pile of gold met your eyes.

“Here we are. We’re gonna have some fun.”

“Fun?”

Maui smirked down at you and snuck in, signalling you to follow.

“This is the lair of Tamatoa, a greedy, bottom-feeding crab I’ve had a few run-ins with before. There’s still beef between us, but from time to time I like to come down here and mess with him to remind him to not mess with the humans up above. He started holding grudges against your kind after me and a human friend of mine kicked his ass while trying to retrieve my hook (*sob* she ded).”

“I am not “their kind”.”

“Yeah, yeah, you all are special and unique, but we all know deep down inside, you all are human.”

Before you could edge in your remark, a new voice entered your hearing.

“I know that voice...MAUI!!!”

The ground beneath your feet began to rumble as the gold pile started to move and rise up. Within seconds, there was a ginormous coconut crab standing in front of you, all bright blues and golds, gazing down at you both.

“Hoo, hoo, hoo, you’ve put yourself in a rather nasty predicament, haven’t you? Oooh, and you brought another human with you! Perfect, it’s another one to wipe off the face of the planet, though,-” Tamatoa sniffed the...air?...water….yeah….water around him and glanced down at you again,”-she doesn’t smell like-” Suddenly, Tamatoa’s face was slammed into the ground with a shaking force.

“Time to put up or shut up, Sebastian!”

Never in your life have you ever seen a truly angry looking crab until now.

“HOW DARE YOU! I DON’T EVEN HAVE THE RIGHT ACCENT FOR THAT!”

In flurry of limbs, Tamatoa started going ham on Maui. This of course was no good, seeing as Maui just continued dodge and parry each attack. Legs were kicking in every which direction, smashing into walls and beams, sending rocks tumbling towards you. By some form of miracle, and a lot of frantic running and screaming, you were able to avoid getting turned into Wile E. Coyote in a classic episode of the Roadrunner cartoons. (For those of you who might be too young to get this reference, there are many episodes of the Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner cartoons where Coyote ends up flattened under a boulder)
The fighting between Maui and Tamatoa continued with claws slamming into arms and hook, and one liners and insults flying fast between the old rivals.

“Is this really the best you can do, you walking STD?”

“Oh, you think you’re so clever, because I haven’t heard that one before! ‘Oh, he’s a giant crab so we have to make the STD joke!’ WELL YOUR MOTHER HAD CRABS!”

Maui suddenly stopped and stared at the giant, blue and gold, crab.

“My mother cast me into the ocean because she didn’t want me.”

Tamatoa stared back at Maui.

“Oh...I’m sorry to hear that...IT WAS BECAUSE YOU HAD CRABS!”

With that, Tamatoa slung his big, meaty, claws (hang me), at the demigod. Back and forth the fighting went with not much headway being made on both sides.

“Are you actually planning on putting any effort into this? I could let my tattoos fight you and they’d win!”

“Well I hope they pay more attention than you do. You think my lousy fighting has been my lack of skill, when in reality-” a dark chuckle came from the massive crustation, “It was because of my lack of attention being solely on you.”

Suddenly, a sickening crunch rang through the shell based cavern of a home. Maui’s eyes widened as he remembered that he wasn’t alone in this journey. He had gotten so caught up in the fighting…

Turning his head towards the crunch, Maui’s sight met with a vision that had all the warmth drain from his body.

Pinned to the wall by one of Tamatoa’s legs, you feebly grasped at the foreign appendage now forcing you to the wall. More force was applied and blood oozed it’s way from between your lips and down onto the crab’s leg as you coughed. You weakly reached your hand towards the demigod that had grabbed so much of your attention before falling forward...lifeless.