It was dawn when Monet came to fetch her for her new duty down at the facility. Whatever the 'Biscuits Room' was, it seemed to be important enough that Katya was talked through procedures about when the children had their medicine.
She was a little sore from the previous day. When she had quickly inspected herself that morning, she saw that her behind was beginning to bruise in two very distinct patterns of fingers from where Law had gripped her. She had practically destroyed his upper back with her nails, so at least it was even.
The freckled woman had retrieved her clothes from her airtight bag and felt much more confident with her thin purple coat once more over her shoulders. Inside the facility was mostly warm, despite being in a freezing cold part of the island.
"You shall not address the Master. Any issues, contact one of the people that report to me, Grace-san."
Katya had used a fake name when Monet had asked her who she was. The brunette had considered using her stage name, Silena Siren, but she couldn't risk it. Doflamingo may be looking for both Takimi Katya and Silena Siren. Law had said to keep a low profile, so she had given the name Grace. She was wary of seeing these children that Monet had spoken of. She imagined rows upon rows of hospital beds in a cold dark room, each child frail and clinging to life. It made her stomach turn.
"Here. Someone will be here to bring them their medicine at 11." Monet gestured to a large door and Katya opened it.
Inside was nothing like she had expected. The floor was brightly coloured and dotted with toys; meanwhile, there were sea creatures hanging from mobiles and rainbows painted on the walls. It looked like a normal playroom for children.
The normalcy stopped there. There were huge wooden blocks around and a football twice the height of Katya. The children in the room were a mix of sizes, but some were absolutely huge. Katya gasped. Some of these children had to be at least eight metres tall!
"M-Monet-sama..."
She turned to ask a question but the door had closed behind her.
"Hello," she waved at the children sheepishly. "I'm Grace, I'll be looking after you for now."
The children seemed a little wary of her but a few walked forward to investigate.
"I've not seen her before." One of the children said quietly.
"My ship crashed," Katya lied. "I washed up on the island. I didn't have a way home so I got a job here looking after you."
"Oh..." the children looked at each other warily.
"I promise I'll do my best!" Katya smiled warmly and noticed a drawing in one of the smaller children's hands. "Oh, that's a great drawing. Is that a ship?"
"Yeah!" The child replied.
"It's a good looking ship! I've seen lots of ships in my time."
The child's eyes brightened. "Can you tell us about them?"
Katya sat down on one of the block and began to tell the children about the Kuja Pirates ship that was pulled by snakes, of the Red Force with its huge flag and of course, her own Captain's submarine. The children listened in fascination, and their earlier fear at the unexpected arrival dissipated. She began to learn their names one by one. Mocha. Sind. Ally.
The children didn't seem to be very sick, but Katya assumed that maybe it was some kind of immunodeficiency or something. She could probably ask Law about it later. They said that the Master of the facility, Caesar, had apparently lost his son to the disease that they all had.
"Medicine time." The door opened after a few hours and an unfamiliar woman walked in with a tray of what appeared to be sweets. "Ah, you must be the new caretaker. Pass these round to the children." The lady, dressed in scrubs, gestured to the candies.
"Of course," Katya complied and began to distribute them across the room. When she was finished, she spoke gently to the woman. "Why do they look like candies?"
"Oh, some of the children found or frightening to take pills, so Caesar-sama made them look more fun."
That would make sense, Katya nodded. "Fair enough."
"They'll probably fall asleep soon, so you can go for your lunch break."
"I'll stay here a little longer." Katya waved her hand. "But thank you."
The woman in scrubs disappeared and Katya sat with the children until they napped, even singing them one of her more appropriate songs to soothe them into sleep.
Katya was already tired by the time she made her way to the mess hall. There were a number of people in there with hazmat suits on. Some had foregone them, however. She collected a tray of food and sat on a table by herself.
"Excuse me?" One of the men strode up to the table. "Are you the lady that washed up on the island?"
"Yes, I am." Katya smiled warmly. She didn't want to get friendly with any of these people, but it was part of the facade she had to continue. "I'm Grace, a pleasure to meet you."
"So cute!" A number of men behind the other instantly rushed to sit by her table.
"You were so blue when Caesar-sama brought you inside!"
"Your freckles are adorable!"
Katya waved her hands shyly and answered their questions. She lied that she had been on a merchant ship but it had capsized and she had escaped in the only lifeboat as the singular survivor of the wreck. The men fussed over her and told her lots of encouraging things about shipwreck survivors. It was all rather ridiculous, but Katya at least had company.
"So Grace-chan," one of the men, Jared, asked. "Where do you come from?"
"Oh, I come from a small island in the South Blue. I came to the Grand Line with my relatives to begin a new life. But my grandpa passed away..." Fake tears swam in her eyes.
"Grace-chan, we're so sorry!" Jared cried and several of the other men joined in. They were buying her lies so easily, and by the end of the lunch break, Katya had a large proportion of the men in attendance under her thumb. They had enthusiastically offered to walk her back to the Biscuits Room.
As they walked along the corridor, Law passed them. Katya was giggling and thanking them ever so much for all their 'gracious chivalry'. She caught Law's eyes briefly but the two couldn't acknowledge each other out in the open.
"That Shichibukai freaks me out." Another of the group of men, Liam, had commented.
"Does anyone know why he's even here?" A second man said.
"I think he serves as Caesar-sama's bodyguard." Jared mused.
"He seems so frightening." Katya put on a terrified face. "What a man like that could do to someone..." she clasped her hands together. "What a horrible thought!"
If Katya's hearing hadn't been so good, she might have missed the slight snort that came from Law's direction. The others did not hear it and began to comfort her.
"Don't worry about him, Grace-chan!" Jared said. "You're one of us now! That Warlord won't lay a finger on any of Caesar-sama's staff!"
"Absolutely!" Liam agreed and put an arm around her shoulder. Katya struggled to keep a straight face as her Haki detected the rage coming off Law as a result of the other man touching her.
The men led her to the Biscuits Room and said their goodbyes. Katya went back into the room and the children's eyes lit up.
"Grace onee-chan is back!" They crowded around her. "Can you sing for us again?"
"Of course! What kind of song would you like?"
"One about adventures!" Ally said, sitting next to her.
"No! One about robots!" Sind argued back.
"Um..." one of the regular sized children tugged on the bottom of her skirt. She looked to be about five or six.
"What's your name?" Katya knelt down.
"I'm Jess, Grace onee-chan."
"Hello there, Jess. What kind of song would you like?"
"Can you sing a song that we can dance to?" Katya was taken aback.
"Are you well enough to dance?"
"I think so." Jess nodded. "My parents used to dance a lot." She said nervously.
"That sounds fun," Katya smiled gently at her and she looked up at the other children. They looked at each other.
"But Grace onee-chan, we don't know how to dance." One of the larger girls, Mocha said.
"Dancing is about having fun, not always looking good." Katya grinned. She'd trained to dance in order to perform, but the best kind of dancing was always the kind that was improvised, goofy and fun. She swirled her arms above her head and tapped her feet. "See?"
Mocha copied her movement and beamed as the other children looked at her with sparkly eyes. "That was so cool, Mocha!"
Katya did a few more moves and did a few silly dance moves that Penguin often did when he was drinking. Lots of waving arm work and no technique whatsoever. Jess bounced up and down and the room was soon full of awful dance moves.
Katya began to sing as they danced around the room.
"All we need is a drummer, for people who only need a beat! I'm gonna add a little guitar and make it easy to move your feet!"
She climbed onto one of the wooden blocks and kept singing as the children jumped around happily. "Dance to the music, dance to the music~!"
She took Jess's hands in hers and twirled the young child around. The girl began to smile for the first time since Katya arrived. It reminded Katya of the reason she sang. It was to bring joy to others. Music brought people together.