AYDA

Murderer

"Child mur- What!?" Maui had a look of such total confusion on his face that for a moment I felt my confidence waver and fail. If he was so confused, how could he possibly be a murderer? A moment later my stressed brain answered my own question: He could be faking. My eyes narrowed.

"You know exactly what I mean!" I yelled angrily.

"No, I don't!" He shouted back.

Before I knew what was happening, the boat was tilting and rocking back and forth crazily as the waves around us buffeted out little canoe back and forth. I stumbled and fell to my hands and knees on the deck, instinctively checking the sky for signs of a storm, and surprised when I saw none. With a jolt, I realized that my own power was causing the waves to rise and bat the canoe around like a toy.

I clutched the tiller. Calm down, calm down, you have to calm down! I told myself, repeating the message over and over until the motion of the waves slowed and ceased, melting back into the now-calm sea. I breathed slowly and shook my head, clearing the anger from my mind as quickly as the seas had calmed at my will.

"Are you calm enough now for me to explain?" Maui asked, in a tone that was so infuriating that for a moment the wind pushed the canoe off course.

"Yes." I spat through gritted teeth as we got back on course and a steady southern wind began blowing us towards home. "Please, do explain why there's a picture of your lover throwing your child into the sea." 

"My lover... My child?" Maui stuttered, the utter confusion reappearing on his face. I wanted to slap him for his idiocy, but reasoned that it would only serve to make me angry and hurt my own hand in the process. "That's not--" He began to laugh, and I bit the inside of my cheek, casting my eyes down to the deck with doubt.

"You mean... That's not what's happening.. In that picture?" I asked, looking back up at the demigod.

"Of course not!" He calmed down moderately, at least enough to speak in a solemn tone. "The baby isn't mine, the baby is me." He said sourly.

I blinked as the puzzle pieces fit together smoothly in my head. "Aaaooohh..." I murmured. The woman tossing the child into the sea was his mother, and the baby was Maui himself. I frowned and there was a long, long period of silence. I looked back down and scorched circles in the wood of the deck with my fingertips aflame.

"Are you done jumping to conclusions now?" His deep voice asked, I could hear the smile that he was no doubt giving me. I sighed and nodded a little, my lips pressed tightly together. "Then come here princess." He said. I looked up to find him sitting there with open arms, and gladly I rushed against him in a hug.

"I'm sorry I jumped to conclusions..." I whispered.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you." He replied.

And for one, contented moment, we were both happy to be in each other's embrace.