Were We Doomed From The Start?

31.- Resting In The Resort

He closed his eyes, sighing before looking back at Ninja with his usual expression while speaking again.

"...hey, lighten up, bucko! i'm just joking with you." He winked before looking at something else to the side.

"besides...haven't i done a great job protecting you?
i mean, look at yourself. you haven't died a single time. that's right, isn't it?
well, chalk it up to my great skills. heh."

He walked away, stopping at the end of the tables and turning back to look at Ninja again.

"well, that's all. take care of yourself, kid. 'cause someone really cares about you." He went over to the left, disappearing into the darkness of the resort, with Ninja carefully following behind him only to run into a wall, seeing how Sans had disappeared into thin air.
Ninja rubbed his nose after having collided with the wall, turning around and exploring while taking out his jar of glowing mushrooms to illuminate the room as he walked down it.
He made it into the next room which happened to be the main one, being on the other side of the shattered glass door he had seen at the entrance with a massive amount of space and a broken fountain in the middle, long since forgotten to time and overrun by some vines and a Ficus.

Ninja went around it and down the dark corridor, past the elevator that was visibly broken due to large chunks of concrete having fallen on it, one of its doors on the floor while the other hung on for dear life.

Down the corridor were four doors on the left, the first one being broken down entirely and the interior trashed while the second was barely on its hinges, the third either blocked from the inside from falling debris or another trash heap of space, with the last one missing most of the walls.

Ninja went back to the second one, carefully pushing it open to see a dark room, only slightly illuminated the cracked roof above, allowing the smallest bit of light in that shone on the end of the old bed there, looking freshly dusted.
He held the lantern up to see more, noticing how Gaster and Shadow were asleep on the bed, cuddling with each other as they slept.

Ninja breathed a sigh of relief as he sat down on the bed, putting away the lantern and unequipping his Temmie armour as he took out the folded blanket from his backpack, having somehow survived the scorching heat of Hotland and used it to cover himself as he lied down at the foot of the bed.

It didn't last long before he was being dragged up to the singular pillow by both Gaster and Shadow, being stuck in between the both of them as Gaster pulled up the huge blanket on the bed, tossing it over Shadow with a swift movement.
He tucked them in as the sound of the core was softly heard in the distance as a piece of ambience, soothing Gaster in a nostalgia kind of feeling, despite not having a single memory of it left.

Shadow on the other hand, was sort of melting into the bed unlike the coat he was still wearing and the 3d parts of him, which sat somewhat upright on the bed as he drifted off to sleep in the comfort of being with the two he trusted most, and the only ones.

Ninja managed to just barely push them both of off him, still remaining too close to his face for comfort, his legs starting to ache from all the nonstop walking they had been doing, having walked for hours on end with little sleep and fighting enemies while trying to keep his stamina up.

He eventually got a bit bored and crawled to the foot of the bed, taking his journal out of the backpack and pushing Gaster over to Shadow who was on the left side of the bed while placing the lantern on the small nightstand next to him.
Ninja occasionally dipped his feather pen in the small glass container of ink he had placed next to the lantern, writing about his advances and discovery of the void, a place that seemed between worlds, maybe even space itself.

Although, as much as he wrote and sketched about his journeys in Hotland and The Core, having been so sleep-deprived for such an extended period of time finally caught up to him as he leaned back on the bedframe, sighing and placing the journal on his lap, his eyes feeling heavy as he finally drifted off to sleep.

It was impossible to tell what time it was when he woke up, but the other two remained sound asleep, with Gaster even lightly snoring despite not having any vocal cords.
Ninja grabbed the journal, closing it while taking his things and holding up the lantern, using it to light his way to the door as he groggily meandered throughout the collapsed building.

He minded his step as he did so, dragging his hands across the wall while holding the journal under the arm holding the lantern.

Everything was dimly lit, the lantern only helping him slightly as he kept adjusting and cleaning his glasses, the lens having threatened to break a significant number of times under the sweltering heat outside.
The whole building felt a bit cold and stuffy, a slight lack of ventilation due to the partial absence of plants in that region.
Outside was no better, the vines and Ficus's being the only way air got recycled. Ninja went back inside, going over to the door he had avoided this whole time, a shattered sign above it just barely spelling out "CORE".

The doors were heavy and partially stuck, making Ninja have to both push and lift it at the same, barely managing to and opening it just enough for him to slip through, a tree on each side with the roots being the main cause of the blockage. There were some handrails on the sides before leading to a suspended bridge, sturdy but without railing or floor under it, an endless void below as some wind gently howled.

The holding wind gave him that mostly fresh scent of air that the atmosphere had briefly lacked practically the entire time they were in the Underground, some leaves gently falling next to him from the trees as he stepped out onto the bridge.

Halfway across the bridge he saw the entrance coated in a light blue glow, the pipes beneath it emanating a dark yet subtle red glow, his eyes playing tricks on him as he thought he saw two shadows on the other side, running off.