Consciousness came slowly. Sluggishly.

The fog in her brain was thick and dense, it's cold, damp fingers holding her eyes shut against all the effort it was taking to wake up.

For a while, things were so fuzzy that Moana didn't know she was awake at all. But then, the most wonderful sound in the whole world trickled through the silent mist like an ocean bird. She knew it in a second.

Maui was laughing.

It brought a smile to her numb face. At least, she hoped she was smiling. It's hard to tell what your face is doing when you're floating in consciousness limbo. At the moment, the only thing that could be trusted was the laugh she heard, so she listened with eager ears. The rich sound warmed her from the top of her tangled head down to the tips of her aching toes. She wiggled them, glad she was starting to feel something again.

The aches and pains only multiplied as her senses came back online, one by one, but her attention was focused on another sound reaching for her now.

Its familiar, wet, rippling chime was as soft as a lullaby. It washed away the remaining fog with an easy hand like the old friend she remembered, leaving a surprisingly pleasant exhaustion in its wake. It rocked her to and fro like a sleepy child, making her feel safer still. She hadn't realized she was this tired. It was probably time to try and open her eyes but they were suddenly so heavy. Just a few more minutes wouldn't hurt anyone…

Then, something warm and solid pressed against her forehead, calling Moana back to the world that was awake.

It was gentle, tender. Loving.

Who…?

Oh!

She managed to pry one sleepy eye open and, sure enough, the first thing that came into focus was Maui's great, big, happy face, exactly zero inches from her own, shining like the stupid sun.

Moana's heart sputtered and died for the second time that day.

"Hey, curly!" he hollered at full volume inter her blinking face, "Welcome back!"

"Hi.." she groaned and slammed her eyes shut again. He was way too bright and way too loud and the evening sun was peaking out from behind his big head, making things even worse. Her own voice was raspy and hoarse as she croaked out, "What happened?"

Almost as soon as the question left her mouth, a single bolt of lightning struck through her clogged memory and she tensed with remembered panic, but only for a moment, because she couldn't hear or feel a single trace of the earsplitting chaos she was sure she'd left behind.

Two massive arms tightened around her. Relax, they said. You're safe.

Maui's rumbling voice pulled her attention back the rest of the way, "It's over, Mo. We made it."

What? How?

Moana was too dumb-founded to speak and shockingly, their unexpected survival was only one of several reasons why. The most pressing one being where she was currently sitting- curled up, pretty as you please, in Maui's lap. His lap. She'd certainly never been there before and here he was acting like it was the most natural thing in the world- at this very moment giving her a look that said, 'Well, where else would you be?'

Yet, as she quietly palpitated over this, his countenance changed again. That expression- so serious.. Always a weird fit on his rounded features. He was just looking, no- gazing at her with the same intensity that marked everything else he ever did, invading every speck of her personal space as only Maui knew how.

Come to think of it, Maui only got this jarringly invasive when he had something serious to say. Judging from the way the tip of his nose grazed hers, this must be something really big. She could feel it waiting just beneath the surface and it was making her heart pound.

Maui finally tore his eyes away and sighed.

She gulped, barely breathing.

He opened his mouth and….

"Moana, I did something."

Yikes.

Looking at the wilting state he was in, Moana took stock of her options. Remorse was plastered all over his pitiful face so she knew she had to choose her next words carefully, or at least say them carefully. One wrong word and he'd probably throw himself off the canoe.

She sighed and closed her eyes, taking their proximity in stride and bumping her forehead affectionately against his. In a tone as kind as she could make it, she dared to ask the million dollar question: "What exactly did you do?"

Maui sighed back and physically braced himself, lifting his head, running a hand through his curls, already rambling, "First of all, I think it's important that we acknowledge that you are no longer dead."

Her eyes popped open and the Maui-consideration train came to a screeching halt as she processed only one word in that whole sentence. Did he say dead?

He cleared his throat awkwardly and blathered on, "So, you were a regular mortal, right? And-"

"Were?"

"-and mortals tend to, you know, die. So… I… might have made you… not… mortal."

He finished on a spectacular grimace and waited. It looked like he was waiting for a punch to the face but truth be told, she was still outstandingly calm, all things considered. Even if she didn't look it. (Her eyes were as wide as the sun.)

"A demi-god?" she asked Maui evenly.

"A demi-god."

"Immortal?"

"Immortal."

And there it was.

The choice of a lifetime- of a thousand lifetimes… gone. No wonder he looked so sorry.

That sorry look then glanced away and she couldn't help but follow his guilty eyes down, only to stare in open-mouthed shock at her roasted shoulder.

The sharp pains emanating from this new decoration blended in pretty smoothly with the rest of the general throbbing in her bones, so who knows when she would have noticed it. But still, how did she miss that?! The burn was huge. And… intricate.

Moana silently inspected the charred, striated pattern winding from her back to her front. There was gonna be some spectacular scarring later on. It actually looked like her hawk tattoo was shooting electricity from its wing, branching out with more than a dozen fingers across the shoulder, then joining into a single point again over her scorched heart. A different mark sat there, this one shaped like a giant star.

She could've sworn she saw bright, residual sparks glinting around them.

Her mouth opened, ready to fire off another round of necessary questioning but another flicker of movement caught her keen eye and her glance shot over to what remained of the legendary fish hook at the other end of the deck. Faint tendrils of smoke rose from the fatal crack running down it's length.

Oh…

So that's what happened.

Her eyes fell closed, finally understanding clearly. For a long, quiet moment, all the new demigod could do was stare at her hands, folded nervously across her stomach.

Still blistered. Still hers.

The breeze sighed with her, rustling her brittle, salty hair. Her heart beat on, steadily as ever. The impending freak out was definitely running late. Moana was quite sure she should be having the anxiety attack of the century- heart pounding, sweat beading… no longer standing over the great, fearful chasm of eternity but falling permanently through it's never-ending passage, screaming all the way down.

Except, that wasn't quite right. She wasn't falling at all. She was safe and warm and still. The rest of time wasn't flying past her scared, lonely face at a million miles an hour- no, it was holding her. Tenderly. Like she was made of gold.

Moana of Motunui, demigod of wayfinding (and storms, probably) looked up into the big, bright, beautiful face of the dearest person in her life and wondered how she could have ever thought she'd be alone.

"Are you mad?" he blurted, looking so lost it nearly broke her heart.

Mad? Really? Moana was absolutely positive the emotional stew in her heart was going to explode out of her in a big, ugly mess if she so much as opened her mouth, so she kept it good and shut.

"You gotta say something, Mo."

Loaded tears pricked at the corners of her eyes.

"Anything." he pleaded.

Words failed, so she threw her arms around him.

Relief. Happiness. So much gratitude. Love… all of it poured from her heart in an infinite stream. That joyful little heart then proceeded to leap right out of her when Maui buried his face in her hair, clutched her tightly to his chest and returned every single one.

—

One week later…

Moana let out a yelp and a gasp when the large, familiar hand on her shoulder shoved her right off the canoe, something that would have been way less cringeworthy if they were actually in the water and not still moored on the beach, hanging over a few measly inches of foamy surf.

"You gonna snap out of it, or what?" Maui shouted over the splash. Moana was still rubbing the saltwater and shock from her sputtering face and wishing ardently for a stick to throw at his big, fat head. She settled for a seashell. It whizzed right past him, ineffective.

Her eyes crackled with fire, "Snap out of what, you stupid, crazy, son of a-"

"There she is." he beamed fondly, his chin propped lazily in his hand. Then, he simply raised an expectant eyebrow at her and waited.

She could have punched that expectant eyebrow right off of his face but she only took a deep breath and pushed it out through her nose. Of course, he'd noticed. She knew she'd been acting strange all week but only now did she feel stupid for even thinking she could hide it.

"Fine", she mumbled under her breath, giving the shallow water a resigned, frustrated smack.

And only after another loaded pause did she dare to ask, out loud, the question that was weighing her heart down like a lava rock, burning a hole on the tip of her tongue, torturing her all week long. Another deep breath for good luck, and…

"Maui… do you want to stay here?"

A flash of surprise crossed his face.

She couldn't blame him for that. There certainly had been better times to ask this than the day they were supposed to leave. She sighed and looked away, down at the tiny fish inspecting her toes in the surf.

"It's just… you love it here. They love you. How can I ask you to leave, when-?" A sniff betrayed her valiant attempt not to cry. "I just can't."

"Why does any of that matter?"

Um, what? Moana blinked, taken aback by his surprising answer- not exactly what she wanted to hear for all her pains. It took two more seconds for her to bridle against it, eyes flashing defensively, "Excuse me?"

Maui huffed but extended his hand to her, deliberately gentling his tone to soothe her ruffled feathers, "Let me ask you something, Curly."

"What?" she grumbled, letting him haul her back onto the deck. They sat side by side again, though only one was dry.

He nodded toward the open ocean that was screaming her name. "When you're out there," he asked, "do you love them any less? Do they love you any less?" he glanced back at her, "Are you any less a part of Motunui?"

She looked at him like he'd gone insane. What kind of questions were those? And when did he get so philosophical? "Um, no…?"

He gave her a pointed look. "Am I?"

Oh.

"No." She sounded much more sheepish than she wanted to.

The grin on his face was a smug one. "Then I guess it doesn't matter."

Hands on her hips, she managed to return it with some added sass, "I guess not."

Still, the smile on her face did nothing to ease the tiniest inkling of guilt that still had a small foothold in her heart, and sure enough, he noticed that too.

She jumped when she heard the splash, suddenly face to face with the much-older demigod in a rare moment of unyielding firmness. His hands planted themselves solidly on either side of her soggy self as he leaned in incredibly (and predictably) close, yet again. But even so, he could do this a thousand times and she would still find herself frozen in a rictus of anxiety.

The sly tilt to his smile was also doing a great job of making her nervous. He tucked a stray curl behind her ear.

"Listen up, Buttercup, 'cause I'm only gonna say this one more time."

He was so close now, she was sure he could see the thoughts in her mind that were running around in a panic as he firmly grasped her chin between his thumb and forefinger, locking their eyes together.

His voice rumbled low and hard. "Where you go- I go."

Their noses touched. "Do you understand?"

Trying very hard not to look starry-eyed, she finally managed to nod. "Okay."

She went starry-eyed, anyway. Man, he had a great smile.

His large hand then released her chin and grabbed the oar that had been lying beside them. He brandished it with a twirl and held it out for her.

"Alright, then." he grinned. "Let's go."

FIN.

*cries*

I can't believe it's over.

I hope you'll forgive the long wait- this was my first conclusion (ever) and I wanted to treat it with respect. I hope I was able to do it justice and give you at least some satisfaction (and fanservice, let's be honest).

I was excited to really dig into my motto: Give 'em hell, then everything they've ever wanted.

The past 6 months have been so much fun with all of us together (You, me, Maui...) and there aren't strong enough words for what a fantastic writing experience this has been.

To all of you reading, and especially my besties who review- from the bottom of my heart, thank you. This was so much fun because of you.

On to the next FF adventure :) See you there, peeps!

As always, thanks for reading.