Trying to sneak

Tightly clutching onto the blanket still, Layla's eyes darted back to the screen in front of her - still hours until they'd land. She didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. On one hand, getting off the plane and having somewhere she could actually go did feel good. On the other, she didn't want to need to move.

She shifted a little, adjusting her position again. She bit her lip, trying to mask her expression: it would never not feel wrong to have the rough fabric of the seat against her butt.

The blanket dropped slightly. She pulled it back up with her chin quickly, wanting to conceal her shoulders so she could at least deny her nudity if anyone-

"Everything okay?"

Layla squeaked, and quickly turned it into a very stationary cough. A hostess was in the aisle, peering in; Layla nervously fidgeted, pulling her stomach back as far as she could. Her legs were visible, long and toned and bare, and she hoped the hostress couldn't see any more than that.

"Um," Layla said.

No, things very much weren't okay. But what was she meant to do, ask for clothes? Was that even a service that they offered? Plus the idea of admitting that she was bare under the blanket was something her mind rebelled at.

"Fine," Layla said, "Just fine."

She watched nervously as the hostess rolled by. She only breathed out when they'd gone a few more rows, though she barely adjusted the blanket. She risked a look down, cheeks burning.

There was nothing she could do here. Layla looked again at the person sleeping beside her, making sure they weren't stirring, before quickly adjusting.

"Taweret," Layla whispered.

No, wait, that was stupid, she wouldn't be able to see Taweret, not anymore. Still, this felt magical, which felt gods-related.

"Or any of you, come on," Layla said. "Can one of you fix this?"

Someone walked past the aisle. Layla tensed, grip on the blanket tightening and face burning. She did her best to look forwards and act like nothing was amiss.

Surely her clothes could magically reappear as easily as they'd disappeared, right? She did her best to think very hard about them. Nothing felt different.

"Taweret!" Layla whispered, a little more pointedly.

The person next to her shifted, arm bumping into her side. Layla froze, eyes widening. Okay, this wasn't the best place to implore a goddess that she couldn't see. Layla poked her head forwards, and yanked it back as soon as someone looked her way.

It was hard not to think about the bathrooms; at least she could get a little more privacy in there. She could talk, and... she didn't know, but hopefully do something. At the very least she'd be doing more than trying to melt into the uncomfortable plane seat.

The problem was getting there. She looked uncertainly at the aisle. Getting up didn't seem like an enticing option either. She squirmed again, too aware of how bare she was. Well, if she did run, it wouldn't be far, and people were barely alert on long flights. She wouldn't be in the aisle for that long, maybe she could just hope no one really looked at her for long?

Was she really trying to reason her way through this?

Layla shifted, nervously adjusting her blanket; it wasn't even long enough to wrap around herself. it was a better fill-in for a hospital gown than a towel or something - not that she'd have wanted to streak down the plane in a towel either.

"Taweret?" Layla whispered urgently again.

How was she even meant to tell if the goddess was there? The last time she'd been able to really talk to the goddess, before she was an avatar, was through dead bodies, and she wasn't quite that **** to get dressed. Probably.

She looked around nervously again. At least it would be easier to focus in a locked bathroom than sat by the side of the plane, she supposed; she could barely think straight here, well aware of how close she was to being fully exposed to, well, way too many people.

She adjusted the blanket again, face hot, wishing she could will it a little further around her back, or further down her leg. Flustered, she let it drop a little, slipping her arms out over the top and baring her shoulders, to better cover her core.

Well, she didn't have any other options that she could see. Layla took a deep breath, and slowly pushed herself to her feet, trying not to disturb the person next to her.

Flushing furiously, Layla adjusted her blanket, turning to keep her back to the plane wall. She kept the blanket pinned to her sides with her elbows, all too conscious of how the back flared open.

No one would believe she was really naked under it, right? She inhaled shakily, repeating that over and over in her head. No one was looking, no one was staring long enough to figure that out. She hoped- No, no, don't think about it like that. No one was staring, no one knew.

She awkwardly squeezed past her sleeping neighbour, crouching a little, her butt pressed against the cold plastic of the chairs in front of them. She nudged them, and heard their breathing catch, their eyes opening.

Layla froze for a moment. She kept her arms to her side, tightly holding the blanket in place, eyes wide, a fair amount of cleavage exposed above the blanket, and abour three-quarters of her thighs exposed below. Her face went even warmer.

"Um. Hi," Layla said awkwardly. "Didn't mean to wake you. Um..."

She shimmied a little further, grimacing as her butt grazed past the cold glass screen of the chair.

No one was looking, she kept telling herself. Okay, there was a bare strip down the middle of her back that made it clear she only had the blanket on, but no one would look from that angle - no one looked backwards on planes. Right. Right.

She was a step away from the aisle. Layla froze again.

But no, she couldn't stay where she was, clambering over the legs of her now-awake neighbour while basically naked, and returning to her seat didn't seem that desirable otherwise. She just had to summon up her courage and...

Blanket tightly squeezed around her body, Layla squeezed into the aisle, and walked as quickly as she dared the direction she was facing, relying on no one turning around and seeing her bare ass. So long as no one looked too hard at the blanket, or...

Why was she trying to make all these excuses to herself? She'd never been so embarrassed, and repeating semi-justified explanations in her head wasn't diminishing any of that. She didn't know any of that for sure; dozens of people might have looked at her as she passed, turned their heads to get an eyeful. She could well have just show her butt to a dozen strangers, two dozen, or...

She gulped, zeroing in on the bathroom just a few steps away - there were no passengers in its immediate vicinity, offering a slightly secluded section, even if one wide open to the view of the rest of the aisle. She just had to get to it, and slip past the door, and-

"Miss?"

A hand grabbed her blanket. Layla yelped, the slight tug outweighing the tremulous grip she'd had from pressing her elbows against her sides; the blanket slipped out of reach.

Well there went subtlety. Layla reacted on instinct, sprinting stark naked past the next couple of rows, hoping no one would see any more than a vague flesh blur - she was just two steps from the bathroom, which she reached and grabbed the door and-

'Occupied.'

Layla froze for a second that felt like it was taking forever. She'd lost the blanket, she was naked in the middle of an airplane aisle, with only the fervent prayer no one was going to look up and down the plane (which for all she knew, people were doing already), and her one hope of cover was firmly locked.

Face displaying pure panic, Layla quickly dragged her arms back inwards, no longer pinning the inadequate blanket to her sides - an arm over her breasts, a hand over her core, and a matter of seconds to make a decision. To, what? Try and get the blanket back and accept that she'd been seen? Wait here and just hope that the stall opened? Streak even further down the plane and hope that the next bathroom along wasn't locked?

She didn't know what she wanted to do, and every split-second that she lingered there, the cool plane-air breezing past her shaking, bare body, was a split-second too long to be out in the open.