The Love Between Enemies

Chapter 1 - Adira

As Merrick and Atlas pulled up to their apartment complex, after dropping Mia off, they exited the car to hurriedly go in so they could patch up the tiny human. Atlas, who had been going to college for the past year to become a doctor, carefully tried his best to rub in a burn cream onto her rough and blistered skin but due to how small she was it was difficult. Tears formed in her closed eyes as a wince of pain left her mouth.

"That should about do it", Atlas said as he exited the bathroom, he had been in there for over half an hour attending to the human.

"Is she ok?", Merrick asked as he stood from the patchy red couch in the living room.

"She should be fine, thankfully the amount of electricity they used wasn't enough to leave any permanent or life-threatening injuries, although for the next week I suggest she try to take it easy in order to give her wounds time to heal."

"Thanks Atlas", responded Merrick. "Hey by any chance do you know anything about the cuts on her arms and legs?"

"Sorry man, no clue, she probably got injured during one of the human games, I know the final round human is decided by whoever didn't win any of the previous games, due to that it can get pretty bloody", Atlas responded as he headed to his room for bed. It was late and Merrick was ready for bed as well.

Merrick walked into the bathroom to get the human but noticed she was no longer on the counter where Atlas had told him to place her. As he searched through the bathroom, he heard the faint sound of crying. There in the corner of the bathroom, behind the toilet and next to the shower, was the girl. She had curled herself into a small ball and was crying. As he knelt down to gently touch her, she noticed the movement and fearfully looked up. She had such strange looking eyes; her right eye was a warm hazel brown while her left was a beautiful icy blue that felt like it could freeze whatever she gazed upon. Her dark brown hair was long and so thick it looked as if it were about to swallow up her frail body in its abundant curls, a single strip of white hair that had settled towards the middle of her face partially covering her right eye. He noticed that the HGG tag, that originally hung from her choker, was gone.

"Atlas must have removed it while he was treating her wounds", Merrick thought to himself. As he watched the girl push herself further into the corner, she looked terrified and confused.

The last thing she remembered was landing on the electric net, pain, then nothing. She fearfully clung to the corner she had found, her eyes never leaving the giant in front of her. She remembered this giant from the final round of the tournament.

"I think the announcer called him Merrick?", she thought to herself. Where had this Merrick taken me? Why was I here? What did he plan to do with me? Her mind raced with questions, each causing her to grow more fearful. She snapped back to reality when he quickly shifted to a more comfortable sitting position. His hair was so red, it reminded her of the poppies that used to grow where she used to live. His eyes were a striking golden yellow that brought a strange warmth and comfort the more she looked into them. She watched as he slowly extended his left hand towards her. She flinched away fearful that he was going to grab her much like the other giants had done at HGG Studio, instead he just rested his hand on the floor with the palm of his hand facing up towards the ceiling. She starred at his hand then back at his face, a warm and comforting smile shown on his face as he hopingly watched her.

"It's ok, I'm not going to hurt you" he said in a warm and sweet tone. She was scared but not as scared as she originally was. As she starred at his hand, wiping her tears from her face she shakingly reached out hers and placed it on his index finger. He gentle grabbed her arm when he saw the scars on her arms again.

"How did you get this?", Merrick asked her, his tone still warm but with a hint of concern. Scared she tried to pull her arm back to her side, but Merrick was gently applying pressure to her arm preventing her from pulling it back. Tears began to form in her eyes again, struggling more now to retrieve her arm.

"Hey, it's ok, you don't have to tell me. What is your name?", Merrick asked trying to calm her back down. She starred up confused as if she didn't know what a name was. "What do people call you?"

"R-Rat", she answered meekly, her eyes now watching the ground.

"Not like that, what did your mother call you?" Merrick asked trying a different strategy.

"L-Little P-P-Pop-" before she could answer she burst into tears.

"I'm so sorry!" Merrick said in a worried tone while carefully scoping her up so he could try his best to comfort her. "What if I gave you a name?" she looked up in surprise with tear filled eyes like he had just showed her a magic trick. "How about Adira? I think the name suits you nicely!" Merrick watched her face grow the biggest and brightest smile he had ever seen, like a child opening presents on Christmas. She began quickly nodding her head up and down showing she approved of the name. "Alright, from this day forth you are Adira!" Merrick playfully said as she continued smiling. Her smile was soon interrupted by a long yawn, "I agree with you there, let's head to bed" Merrick said as he slowly and carefully got off the ground.

Atlas was fast asleep in his room as Merrick silently crept to his own room, Adira in hand. As they entered his room Adira was greeted to the warm atmosphere of his small room, for the most part Merrick's room was similar to a box except from this one part of the wall that opened to a small circular window seat that had a bookcase surrounding the inner part of it. To the left of the widow seat was Merrick's bed, and next to his bed a nightstand and a lamp. Merrick took her to the bookshelf window area where he had left a small space, between the book holder and the bookshelf wall, were a tissue box bed lay by the window with curtains on both outer parts of the shelf. Merrick gently nudged her off his hand and into the makeshift room.

"This is where you will be sleeping and if you need anything just use the latter and come wake me up" he pointed to a rope with toothpicks going through it for handles. Adira nodded and jumped on the bed falling asleep almost instantly, Merrick let out a slight laugh as he gently tucked her into bed, closed the curtain, then went to his own bed. He was too tired to change and just wanted sleep, tomorrow he would try to introduce Atlas to Adira but for now sleep. His eyes closed and he soon fell into the darkness of sleep.