Disclaimer: I own nothing. Not a thing
Author's Note: Wow. This AU is really, really fun for me. I hope I'm keeping the essence of everyone though in this story. Some of the timing elements aren't consistent with the progression of the original time stream of the manga/anime, but ehhh. This is AU, right?

"Did you find him? Did you find it?"

"—ey! —min!"

"The whole world is your enemy, boy."

"Hey! Armin! Did you hear what I said?"

"Uh," the blond started and blinked at his brunet friend hovering in his face. "Wha…?" He noticed Eren's worried frown and Mikasa's concerned, crinkled eyebrows. "Sorry," the boy quickly apologized. "I was thinking about, uh, the King's latest decre—" the boy lied before Eren cut him off with a disgusted roll of the eyes.

"Tch," the brunet's upper lip lifted in a furious scowl. "One day I'm going to…" as the boy rambled on another tangent about the latest of the corrupt king's newest policies, Armin turned his face away slightly and tried to flush his previous thoughts from his mind with little success.

He tried not to think of that day. It had been nearly three years since the pirates had attacked their tiny island and each of them had lost another family member. Eren's mother and Mikasa's adoptive mother had died instantly when a cannon shell caused the roof of their meager home to collapse. Eren would have bled himself to death trying to retrieve his mother's body from the carnage and jagged, shattered beams if a nearby dock guard had not been around to pull the grieving boy from the devastated remains of the home. Armin himself had only learned of the full story after several months of angry silence from the boy, as the dark-haired girl refused to share any details of the event.

Armin himself was almost thrown amongst the corpses until a friend of his family noticed the weak rise and fall of his chest. The boy had been the only survivor in that particular section of the town, as everyone else had been mercilessly slaughtered by the pirates. Still to that day, Armin wondered what strange twist of fate kept him alive when dozens of others were cruelly gutted and shot by the deadly invaders. He couldn't remember the face of the pirate captain who had spared him—if that's what Armin could call it—but he could remember the man's ominous advice. He could remember a flash of blonde and azure.

Armin glanced sideways at his ranting best friend. He had told neither Eren nor Mikasa about his encounter. When the boy had concernedly questioned the boy about his head injury after the attack, Armin merely lied and told him he had been knocked down by fleeing citizens on the outskirts of the town. Too wrapped up in his own grief and anger, the brunet had simply accepted the story with a terse nod. Mikasa looked unconvinced, though she did not ask the boy for the truth. His gaze traveled towards the quiet girl and noticed that the girl was staring at him. Startled, the boy forced a small smile to reassure her that he was alright. The girl did not return his smile and turned her blank stare back towards her adoptive brother after another moment of consideration, leaving Armin free to muse upon the past undisturbed.

When the king's soldiers pulled the boy's prone body from his dead grandfather, the note that the latter had left Armin nearly slipped through his unclenched fingers. However, the boy must have subconsciously recognized the importance of the scrap of paper, because when he woke up in the bed of the nearest safe house, it was still clutched in his grimy, bloody fingers. He couldn't even summon the strength to look at it until nearly a week after the invasion. To say he was mildly disappointed would be an understatement.

As far as the boy knew, his grandfather had had no secrets in his meager existence as an average mapmaker. Still, the old man's determination to pass the mysterious scrap of paper onto his last living relative confused and fascinated the boy. Obviously the crinkled possession meant a great deal to his grandfather. Armin had half wondered if the item was some long lost secret about his parents' fate or a clue to their whereabouts. He even would have felt some rush in his veins or a renewed sense of hope if the stained parcel had promised an adventure for the boy. However, when the boy gingerly unfolded the crinkled, aged paper, he was greeted with merely a messily scrawled circle with several unimportant numbers and letters around the rim. He could recognize his grandfather's handwriting at any time, though it must have been from when the man was younger, as Armin could not discern the messy quiver to each word that plagued the man's older works. Still, as Armin had fallen asleep that night after tucking the newly folded scrap of paper back into his undershirt, he had dreams of some sort of mystery that awaited him and his friends.

Armin finally pulled himself back into reality with a wistful sigh. He still kept his grandfather's final gift always safe on his person and he had memorized the repeating ring of symbols around the circle's edge, but he no longer entertained notions of treasure and adventure. The dream had died primarily with Eren, as the boy now only spoke of revenge against the very pirates who took his mother from him.

"Oh! Right! The King's Navy!"

Armin glanced towards his friend and blinked, confused again for a moment as to what the boy was saying. Oh, he remembered what he was going to tell me earlier… Armin flicked his gaze briefly up to the hot, mid-day sun. The King's Navy. Although they had to be going their separate ways soon, since their brief lunch break was over, Armin still felt a slightly interested pulse in his chest at the older boy's mention of the elite prowler of the seven seas.

"I saw the Freedom in the dry's for repair," the boy announced with wide, glowing eyes. Armin's own eyes widened, but Mikasa did not look vaguely impressed. Armin suspected that she had probably been present at the time.

"Why?" Armin breathed. Though it wasn't nearly as massive as the pride of the King's Navy, the Unicorn, the Freedom was a ship bourn from legend, as it was one of the only ships not built by the king's men. The ship's christening occurred when a group of imprisoned officers revolted against their pirate captors and commandeered the former pirate schooner.

Not only was the ship itself the star of many bold sea tales, the crew members of the elusive Freedom were larger than life heroes who dared to defy any of the pirates who terrorized the royal waters. Erwin Smith, now the current captain of the Freedom, had only been a mere cabin boy at the time of the revolt on board the former Colossus, but his determination and strength solidified his reputation as the undisputed captain of the Freedom.

Captain Erwin's first mate (despite being a "respectable" privateer for the King, Erwin maintained ties to the pirate hierarchy system) had been a dangerous smuggler for a majority of his life until the captain convinced him to work on the other side of the law. Few proven facts were known about the first mate, which made the legends about his feats soar beyond possible heights.

The Freedom was also one of the only ships in the entire navy that boasted the skills of an inventor. Hanji Zoe, an eccentric to the core, had been the first to develop a new technology involving the frames of pistol guns and an intricate set of leather harnesses and rope to create a quick, efficient way of navigating around the Freedom's various sails and riggings. Dubbed the "Wings" of the Freedom, these exclusive devices were highly coveted by pirates and sailors alike. The inner mechanisms of the "Wings" in particular was what fascinated Armin the most about the Freedom, although his brunet friend had been more awestruck by the legends of the blond captain and his deadly first mate.

Eren shrugged, mashing his lips together in a displeased frown. "I don't know," he admitted. "There were guards by the dock entrance, so no one could get too close." Despite himself, Armin felt his heart pound louder with anticipation and curiosity.

"I wonder why…" Armin mused softly, swapping wide-eyed glances with Eren.

For the first time, Mikasa spoke up. "Their navigator was killed after a pirate ambush," she announced sullenly. She hoped her comment would deter the boys from their sudden lapse in judgment and remind them that the sea and its inhabitants were dangerous. "They were in the Trost," the girl finished. Both boys nodded knowingly.

Since the death of their guardians, each child had been forced to get a job somewhere in the sea-side village. Mikasa found employment at the nearby tavern, affectionately dubbed the "Trost" by the locals after the obnoxious, drunken catcalls of "trost mee" intoxicated sailors directed towards the unimpressed barmaids. The girl had emotionlessly distanced herself from the two clearly drunken crew members of the Freedom, especially the ridiculous looking one who had bit his tongue after falling asleep in his drink. Still, the girl had heard from the louder one that their ship had been attacked by pirates searching for something.

"I wonder if they need more crew members," Eren murmured offhandedly after a considerable pause. Upon hearing the word "navigator," Armin's ears also perked up.

Mikasa narrowed her eyes at the boys slightly. Armin broke from his reverie and glanced back up at the noon sun. It had risen considerably higher than when he had last looked.

"We're going to be late," the boy remarked with a disappointed tone.

"Dammit!" Eren cursed softly under his breath and glanced over his shoulder. "If I'm late one more time, Shadis is going to kill me." With a quick "bye" and a haphazard wave, the boy spun around and darted off towards his job on the docks. Mikasa followed the boy after giving Armin a friendly bob of the head.

Armin smiled at the backs of his disappearing friends before turning and hurrying in the opposite direction. As he kept the books cleaner and neater than even his employer, the latter, a balding old man with a fondness for his poorly concealed canteen, was rather lenient on Armin's punctuality. Still, the boy rushed to get back to the little building that served as the customs office. He quickly burst through the doors and slid into his small clerk's desk, immediately copying the ledger before him into the record books. Amidst the calming scratch scratch of his pen, Armin could hear the soft murmur of a conversation. He forced himself to look busy as the heavy thuds of footsteps in the room sounded next door and the door knob to his employer's office squealed softly.

The boy was intrigued, though he did not tear his eyes from his work. He rarely sees people in his office, the blond thought curiously.

Suddenly the forced silence erupted into hearty laughter as Armin's employer and his mystery visitor entered the workroom. Armin was unable to keep his eyes on the suddenly repulsive papers on his desk and glanced up. His blue gaze met the steely, yet surprisingly warm stare of the stranger. The man's decorated lapel and determined expression terrified Armin (he knew exactly who this was) but he couldn't look away.

"Ah, Erwin," the older man beside the privateer captain smiled, "this here is my best worker, Armin. Armin Arlert," the man added after a knowing exchange of glances with Captain Erwin.

The blond captain nodded with a faint smile. "Ahh," he murmured, sending Armin another curious look before turning back to his host. "I would like to thank you again, Pixis, for your…insight," he told the older man. "It has been very enlightening," he finished with another cryptic smile.

"My pleasure," Pixis responded with a wide grin. "Any way to help…"

Although Armin considered himself to be bright, he was still dumbfounded by the conversion and its participants before him.

The Captain Erwin. Wait until I tell Mikasa and Eren!

The blond captain again wished the store manager a good day and disappeared through the door with another smile in Armin's direction.

The boy quickly pursed his parted lips when he realized how foolish he must have looked, gawping at the captain of the Freedom. Pixis turned towards the boy with an eye-crinkled grin before lifting the canteen to his lips and taking a deep swig of the brown, strong liquid.

"I always forget, Arlert—didn't you say you liked maps?"

The boy nodded uncertainly.

"Good. My colleague is a bit lost at the moment and could do with a good map." Armin felt his hand subconsciously stray to the pocket that held his grandfather's scrap of paper for good luck.

"Eren! Eren!"

The brunet looked up, surprised to see his best friend running along the creaking dock planks with an uncharacteristically reckless abandon. "Armin…?"

The boy skidded to a wobbly stop on the sunbaked dock, breathing heavily with his chest rapidly rising and falling. He must've run all the way from Pixis's shop, Eren mused. The boy's wide, shinning eyes and bright smile made Eren grin despite his exhaustion and confusion. The blond was more excited than Eren could remember in a long time. The last time he had seen his friend so consumed by childish glee was when the younger had found his grandfather's book of maps all those years ago. The older brunet glanced to his right to make sure Shadis was looking the other way before he lowered the heavy crate he was transporting on the ground with a grunt.

"What is it, Armin?"

"Captain Erwin came into the shop today!" the boy exclaimed, all of his words coming out in an excited jumble.

"What?" Eren blinked. "Why…?"

Armin hesitated for a second before glancing nervously around him. Eren got the message and nodded understandingly. The blond didn't want to rick being overheard.

"Wait a minute—meet me in the alleys." Armin returned the nod and headed for the meeting spot, while Eren quickly found a way to ditch the glowering Shadis.

Armin quickly disappeared amongst the crowd, making his way casually towards the agreed upon location. As he crossed in front of one of the unloading ships, the blond felt a slight prickle across his neck as if he were being watched. He quickened his pace and took less traveled paths, hoping to throw off any suspecting trailer. Once when the boy glanced behind his shoulders, he spied a pair of disinterested, narrowed eyes observing him, though when he looked again, the steely orbs were gone.

After a few more detours, Armin finally made it to the meeting location, feeling his heart pound from multiple reasons.

Luckily he didn't have to wait long. Eren was good to his word. Within moments, the brunet's panting face appeared around the side of the grimy alley walls. "What did you want to tell me," he asked with a curious grin.

Armin decided not to mention the previous occurrence and instead dove into his original news. "Captain Erwin dropped off a map today," he repeated.

"And?"

"And what?"

"Where did it lead to?" the boy responded exasperatedly.

"Oh," Armin frowned. "I'm not exactly sure…" he answered slowly.

"I thought you've seen every map from here to the king's castle," Eren sighed, faintly disappointed. Then his eyes lit up at another idea. "Unless of course the map was of places we've never heard of before," he added.

Armin tilted his head and considered his mental reconstruction of the map. "I'm not sure," he repeated. "It wasn't like a typical map. Its key was all wrong and the compass—well, I think it was supposed to be the compass…" Honestly, the strange map had reminded Armin of the scrap of paper his grandfather had given him, but since he hadn't ever told anyone else of his secret possession, he kept that observation to himself.

"Can we see it again?"

Armin shook his head with another frown. "I only got to look at it when Pixis left the room. We were studying another one of Captain Erwin's maps—just one around the Stohess coast—" the boy answered before Eren could interrupt "—but it accidentally fell out of its case when Pixas bumped into the table on the way out." I swear that man is getting clumsier… "When he came back, I had to pretend I didn't see anything."

"I wonder what it means," the brunet murmured questioningly.

Armin shrugged, more confused than his friend. "When I came back from delivering notices, the map was gone. Pixis said Captain Erwin came back to pick it up while I was out. Whatever it was—it's gone now."

"Not exactly," Eren grinned with a determined flare in his eyes. 'Not if we join the Freedom." He stated with a wide grin. Armin took half a step back, wondering if his friend's eagerness to join the sea was becoming too consuming.

"Join the Freedom?" Armin half-sputtered. "But you heard Mikasa today—they were just attacked by pirates a few weeks ago."

"Exactly! They need a new navigator, right? I bet you know maps better than anyone else here."

Armin's cheeks reddened slightly at the older boy's praise. "I don't thi—"

"Besides, they're probably in need of help since they've come in for repairs earlier than the usual docking time," Eren continued excitedly. "I bet all three of us could get a job on the Freedom?"

Three? Oh, right. Mikasa. She'd hate it, but she'd go if Eren went. "Maybe…" the blond murmured doubtfully.

"Exactly!" Eren announced, as if it were final. "After we tell Mikasa, we're going to find Captain Erwin and join the crew Freedom. Then you can find out what's on that map and we'll finally find those damn pirates," the boy added softly, his determined grin turning flinty at the past relocation.

Armin watched the dark change that overcame his friend with a wary frown.

"Yeah," he echoed weakly.

The girl's lithe fingers gently traced the smooth, worn leather straps encircling her upper thigh. A gift from her deceased father, stolen from the corpse of a crew member from the Freedom. She was perhaps the only pirate to ever don a pair of the kitschy-named apparatuses apart from the troublesome privateers onboard the Freedom. Wings, the girl echoed with a suppressed snort of derision.

Despite her unimpressed attitude towards the self-righteous crew members of the Freedom, she was still more wary of Captain Erwin and his first mate in particular than any of the other privateer ships flying under the king's tyrannous flag.

"Did you find him? Did you find it?"

Erwin had something that her father wanted, so she wanted it now.

"The whole world is your enemy."

Thomas Wagner had been his name. Her father always asked for their names, as if it made a difference. He cried when she watched her father kill him. His harness fit the girl's thin frame perfectly.

That was the last day the girl had seen the Freedom, though she often heard stories of its daring feats in the dockside taverns.

"Captain!" The girl's head snapped up and she turned expectedly towards her first mate.

"What?" she demanded, feeling a bit irritated and disoriented from the sudden jar to her thoughts.

"We're approaching the Garrison. It's about two leagues from us now. We'll be in range in an hour if the wind stays on our side. Orders, Captain?"

Her disinterested gaze rolled lazily towards the frantically retreating ship before them. Once they strung up their flag, every ship in the King's Navy (save one) tried to flee. The cat and mouse game was no longer amusing to the girl.

"I'm not interested in prisoners, Mister Braun."

Anyone feeling the mystery yet? Thanks for reading! Let me know how this is going, please!

Also, thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed, followed, favorited, etc!

Seseorang - I'm glad you're enjoying this so far! Thank you so much for the encouraging words. I hope you like the impending AruAni meeting, though unfortunately it is a few chapters away D:
Shadow-ying - Thank you so much! I'm glad this seems interesting to you :D
RonaldWeaslyTheHero - I realized the similarities in the titles the moment I posted this. I hope you don't mind! I'm really glad you caught the swimming description! I've been waiting forever to reveal my swimming headcanons for these cuties for ages. Thank you so much!
jrlara14 - Hopefully this next chapter won't disappoint! Thank you!
BloodLily16 - Thank you! See, I've updated :D
Moochki - First of all, don't feel the need to apologize for not reviewing. I'm just so excited to see people reading my stories. The review is just the icing on the top of the cake. Ahah! I'm glad you caught that thing with the end lines. I promise it will make a bit more sense in the future. Hopefully this next chapter will make you speculate a bit more :D