Book of Cursed Ships

Armin Arlert x Shrek - Aot x Shrek

Welcome to my first crossover! Pls enjoy :)

Aot manga spoilers!! Takes place 7 years after the manga ends. Do not read if you don't want to be spoiled in a major way.

A fear that hadn't Armin hadn't felt in years sunk its nails into his heart. He felt his throat go dry as panic began to set in. It wasn't possible. All the titans had been eliminated 7 years ago— Eren had made sure of that. So what was he looking at?

The world around him swayed, so he grabbed Mikasa's arm for balance.

"Armin, what is it?" Her eyes were the color of rich Brazilian coffee beans and duller than ever. Tiredness hung beneath them in bags, but at the sight of Armin's fearful face, she immediately began looking around, alarmed. Being friends with the world's most contreversial and hated mass murderer, even if they were dead, did not bode well with the millions of civilians across the globe who'd lost their families in the rumbling. While Eren's efforts to paint the Eldians as the heroes of the story had paid off in terms of ending the violence between the nations, that did not stop them from demanding reparations that the people of Paradis could simply not fulfill. On top of that, there were still plenty of individuals who had their doubts about those who'd originally been on his side. Death threats were not anything new to Eren's friends, leaving them constantly wary of their surroundings.

After Annie died of ovarian cancer, Armin, Mikasa, and Beshmep* had moved into a cottage together just outside of the forests of Paradis. Their time for fighting titans and protecting the public was over, and it gave them some semblance of peace of mind away from the criticism and troubles of the people. Waking up every day was hard, but they did for Eren, they did it for each other, and they did it for Beshmep.

*Bertolt, Eren, Marco, Sasha, Hanji/Hange, Erwin, Petra. Armin and Annie's lovechild.

In fact, the two were thankful to have Bemshep around to distract them from succumbing to the nightmares, from succumbing to the pain. Taking care of a child was no simple task, and Bemshep made no effort to prove this wrong. Everyday, Armin wondered how he'd produced such an insolent creature, but there was no mistaking it. The blond haired, blue eyed, and bushy tailed toddler was unmistakably an Arlert. Bemshep even spoke like Armin, in poetic uttering rather than toddler babble. Armin and Annie had made a rule against baby talk; this was perhaps the reason for Bemshep's formal speech.

The large face that Armin had seen in the window disappeared in a flash. Perhaps he'd imagined it all. He let out a relieved air and looked to Mikasa.

"Hopefully nothing. I'm going to go check it out. Watch Bemshep while I'm gone?"

Mikasa nodded, but her eyes were knitted with worry. It wouldn't have been the first time Armin hallucinated, if that was what this was. She watched, concerned, as the blond retrieved a set of their old ODM gear, strapped it on, and left their cottage without another word. With a sigh, she went to find Bemshep.

Armin scanned the earth before him. There was quite a bit of space between their house* and the forest, but one could never be too careful. He circled their cottage with careful steps, blades in hand. Emptiness. Silence. Not a single being in sight.

*fun fact: I wrote house, not home, because it will never truly feel like home without Eren.

After several minutes, he put the blades back into their holsters and let his arms relax. He'd imagined it after all. Throwing one last glance at the woods, the man spun around to smack straight into something big and hard.

Armin jumped back several feet, nimble like a cat, and unsheathed the blades once more. What stood before him resembled a 2 meter titan, much smaller than the smallest of them, but still a force to be reckoned with. There was something off about it. The titan's skin was green, it was wearing clothes, and its ears were less like ears and more like antenna sprouting from the sides of his head. On top of that, there seemed to be a... donkey(?) beside it. Dread started to percolate into Armin's heart. If it was truly a titan, then Eren's sacrifice would be for nothing.