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Chapter 14 by gramana gramana

What's next?

She tells the truth

There was another polite knock on the bathroom door. Layla faltered. She couldn't stay in here forever, she knew, and she wasn't sure how long she was meant to be able to stall for. Not five hours, certainly.

"If you're not okay, I can open the door," the attendant said.

Layla's eyes went wide.

"N-no, don't do that!" Layla said quickly.

She hesitated.

"Um," Layla said.

She looked into the mirror, her arms back to being tightly crossed. Just the idea of walking out of the bathroom like this made her face burn. Which, unfortunately, only seemed to leave one option.

"Are you still there?" Layla said.

"Miss?" the flight attendant said. "Do you need help?"

"Er. I can't really explain this," Layla said. "Um. I'm kind of naked."

There was a pause. Layla made a face, awkwardly shuffling so that she no longer had to stare into the mirror. The sink jutted out into her upper thigh as she stared at the door, flushed.

"Say again?" the attendant said eventually.

"You heard," Layla said quickly. "No shirt, no shoes, no underwear, nothing. I swear it was nothing I did, everything I had on just sort of..."

There was a long pause. Layla squirmed. Stupid idea, she should've known, what did she think would happen if she...

"Oh, okay, got you!" the attendant said. "We have some spare uniforms if you need one to return to your seat?"

"Er, that'd be great," Layla said. She blinked.

Okay, that was easier than she'd thought. Not that she was complaining. Still, her face burned to think what the attendant thought of her.

Layla fidgeted a little, listening as it went silent outside. She looked at the inside of the door, not completely sure what had just happened, and halfway to being sure she imagined it as she waited. As it turned out, being naked somewhere she shouldn't be still felt off to her, even with the relative privacy of the bathroom.

Then there was a knock on the door again. Layla jumped.

"Miss?" the flight attendant said. "Are you still in there?"

"Wouldn't go anywhere else," Layla said.

"I need you to open the door," the attendant said. "I have a uniform here, but I can't pass it in."

"Er, r-right," Layla said.

Hastily, hand shaking a little, she unlocked the door, then quickly sidestepped to press herself as close to one wall as she could. She opened the door the tiniest amount and stuck her bare arm out until she felt something soft pushed into it. She grabbed and yanked it back inside.

Huh. It was like she'd said: Layla quickly locked the door, and laid out the outfit. A pale button-up shirt, and a dark navy skirt. No underwear, but all things considered she was more than fine with that. She quickly pulled the shirt on, doing it up; she made a face at how her bra-less breasts looked in it, but nevertheless was glad of the comparative cover. Then she pulled the skirt up her bare legs, adjusted the garments, and looked herself up and down in the mirror.

That was... way better. She unlocked the door again, and crossed her arms on instinct. The shirt wasn't see-through, but it did show a few more shadows than she necessarily wanted.

"Um. Thanks," Layla said.

"Is there anything else we can do?" the attendant said cheerfully.

Layla felt people staring at her. She nervously looked sideways, and tried not to think about the fact that she'd been seen streaking in there. Face warm, she tried to focus on the flight attendant.

"I'm good, I think," Layla said. She paused. "Listen, not that I'm not grateful, I just sort of thought this would be harder."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know, I figured if I told you I was naked in there you'd assume it was something weird, or complain,or... It wasn't anything weird, for the record."

"Oh!" the flight attendant said. "Oh, no, don't worry. After the purple guy a year back, we get it, sometimes magical stuff happens. You should've heard what went on by the pyramids a few weeks ago, there was a giant bird skeleton having it out with a crocodile."

Layla laughed nervously. The flight attendant dropped her voice.

"And I think there's someone in first class who has hooves," she said.

"Er. Right," Layla said. "Wow, the world's gotten weird in the last few years."

"Tell me about it," the flight attendant said. "You tell me your clothes vanished, I believe you, stranger things have happened. Can I take you back to your seat?"

"Um, I'm fine," Layla said.

Still, the attendant followed her. Layla tried to think more about that, than about what the people she was walking past had just seen. Well, there was a lot of craziness in the world, the cabin crew probably had regulations for it by now - she was probably just following Layla to make sure she didn't turn into a supervillain.

Still, she felt oddly relieved. Okay, they'd have to figure something out when she landed - she definitely wanted shoes - but for the time being, she was comfy. She could make it to London, meet up with Marc, and either forget all this or figure it out.

She could probably talk more to Taweret when she had a better way to contact her than a fogged-up mirror. Hopefully iron out a few things. She didn't want to keep dealing with a goddess following around and trying to make her an avatar again.

Layla was carefully squeezing past her neighbour, back into her seat, when a few textures started to feel... wrong again. One moment she was sure she was in the skirt, sliding past the other passenger and the chair in front, back to her own seat. The next, gone was the feel of fabric, and back was the sensation of the cold plastic back against bare skin.

She froze. The passenger, unfortunately awake this time, stared. Layla stumbled. She crossed her arms over her breasts, and toppled back into her seat, hastily grabbing a laminated manual from the pocket in front and holding it over her core, face burning.

"Oh. Wow it really is magic huh," the attendant said.

Layla made a noise she refused to describe, mind racing again. Back in her seat, but naked again, and-

How? How did that keep happening?!

"Um. Can I have another uniform?" Layla said weakly.

"What?" the attendant said. "I mean, if you go through them that fast, I don't think we can afford to. Oh, don't worry, I'll have a word up front, there's procedure."

Layla stammered, suddenly at a loss for words. The stranger next to her looked uncertainly towards her; Layla bit her lip, crossing her arms more firmly. She could feel just how much her bare skin stuck out against the bright coloured plane seat.

One arm over her breasts, the other pressing the laminated safety guide to her crotch and trying to ignore the fact that their neighbour had already seen it. She fidgeted, trying to slide back into her chair and pretend that the other aisles couldn't see her.

The attendant had already left. Layla stared incredulously. She didn't even have her blanket now! She was naked in the window seat of a plane, with no way to get dressed, apparently with her clothes vanishing off of her body for reasons she couldn't puzzle out, and they were still hours from landing.

But procedure, she told herself. The attendant had mentioned something about procedure. Maybe that would help?

Layla squirmed. And her heart dropped pre-emptively as the plane's speaker beeped to life.

"Hello, this is just an update from your crew," said the ever-measured, neutral tones of the announcement. "Your cabin crew is aware of the nude woman in row twelve. This is currently out of our control and so will likely remain the case for the remainder of the flight. I repeat, please do not contact our staff about the nude woman in row twelve, we are already aware."

The intercom beeped. Layla's cheeks burned as she wriggled, as if there was any better way to hide. She could almost head dozens of heads turning in unison. Did they have to tell everyone where she was?!

What's next?

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