Iced and Locked

Peter looked curiously at the nondescript package Anna handed him, still wrapped for postage. It was large enough that it required two hands to hold, but it wasn't all that heavy.

"I know you like being locked up, Peter, and keeping the key away from you is always a challenge. Well, I happened to find this on the internet. Open it up."

He began peeling off the brown paper. He wondered quite what she could have found.

"Well, you haven't lost any keys yet," he said. The keys in question were for the padlock on the chastity cage he wore most of the time. It wasn't an expensive model, but it wasn't cheap either.

"Yet. But it's been a near thing. Probably more than you think."

"Oh?" But he wasn't sure he wanted to know. There'd been one truly scary day some weeks earlier when she couldn't find the keys. Peter was petrified she'd actually lost them and that he'd have to destroy his chastity cage to get out. It turned out she'd just left them at work, but it meant she hadn't got any sex that weekend, either. It had been the only time it had happened that he had known of. He discovered that whilst it was a nice fantasy to be permanently locked, he wasn't sure he really wanted that as reality.

"It would be so much simpler if I could just put it with my car keys..."

"... but you can't get out of the habit of leaving them around the house. I know." They'd tried that early on for a short while, but Peter could barely resist unlocking himself when the key was so easily available. It wasn't much more often than Anna would have released him anyway, and she'd been decent enough to realize that she had created that particular problem. Since then, Anna struggled with trying to keep a second set of keys on her person. Actually, it'd been kind of useful as she couldn't always find them quickly.

The package unwrapped, Peter looked at the box. It was plain white, and unmarked except for a barcoded label on one side. The text under the barcode said 'Ice key cup set, 5 cups. Deluxe model.'

"Ice key cup set?" He opened the box. Anna just smirked.

Inside the box were five large, grey plastic cups and what appeared to be a holder. There was also a slip of paper that clearly said 'Read The Instructions First' in big bold letters. Peter quickly noticed the cups weren't for drinking out of, however. The bases of them weren't flat but instead had a raised round section, he guessed for latching into the holder. The top was a kind of cage at the top over a hole perhaps half the size of the lid. The cups also appeared to be double-walled. Peter wondered if they were insulated.

Anna was watching him carefully as he looked briefly at all the cups, verifying they were all the same.

"You put your key in one cup," she said, "then fill all of them with water and put them in the holder and that in the freezer." She picked up a cup to look at it herself.

"Mmm. It's like a guessing game when you want the key." Peter was intriuged. And he had started getting hard.

"Exactly."

She picked up the holder to look at it. It was L-shaped with a latch on the bottom. The latches seemed to move, too, though why and how was not obvious. Peter noticed the instruction sheet and pulled it out to read it.

"The holder is important," he said. "Once you put all five cups in, it will only let you take out one at a time."

"Ah. That's cunning."

"Well, come on. Let's set them up."

Anna obligingly fished out a key and put it in one of the cups. It clunked inside. "It doesn't fall to the bottom does it?"

"I don't know. I guess you'd want it in the middle of the ice, wouldn't you?"

Both of them peered into the cup. The inside was black, however, and they couldn't see anything.

"It doesn't look like it's hit the bottom," he said. "Since there's a cage to stop it falling out, maybe there's one to hold it in the middle." Peter returned to the instructions that Anna had so far ignored.

"Ah. Look." He pointed to a diagram. "There's a cage inside, too. It holds the key in the middle." He read further, then took the cup out of Anna's hand, pushed hard down on the top and unscrewed. There was a loud screeching as he turned it and both of them wondered if he'd broken something.

"Is it supposed to do that?" she asked. Peter had another look at the instruction sheet.

"Oh Yes, look:" and he pointed. "The lid has a temperature lock so it can only open at room temperature or warmer. And it has a thing to make that noise when you open it." Peter turned it further, trying to ignore the screeching sound. It didn't need to be turned far before it came off. "I guess there's no way of opening it when it's full of ice and even when it can be opened it can't be done quietly."

"My stars."

Peter was marvelling at the ingenuous of the design. Anna peered inside the now open cup.

"And there is a cage. Neat. So even if you could get the lid off, the key would be smack in the middle of the block of ice." Anna put the lid back on - interestingly it didn't screech going back on - and filled it with water from the tap. Then before Peter could react, she filled the other four cups. Now there were five cups will of water in the bench and Peter wasn't sure which one had his key.

"Now to put them in the freezer." Anna pulled open the freezer and Peter picked up the holder and set it in the freezer.

"Do the cups just push in somehow?" She picked one up and tried to set it in the holder, but it didn't seem to fit. Peter fetched the instructions again.

"You've got to push it in on the bottom." He took the cup from her, placed the bottom on the front edge of the holder and pushed. It went in with a click. It also didn't come out.

"Ah." Between them they put the remaining four cups in the holder. Peter thought he knew which one held his key, and pulled it out of the holder. It was the second on the left.

"That came out easily."

"Try another." But a second cup woudn't budge.

"Wow. That's clever. But once I know which one has the key, I'll always grab that one again."

"No, you won't." Anna had finally started reading the instruction sheet, so now she took the cup from Peter's hand and pushed it between two others in the holder. Like magic, the two cups between the vacant spot and where she was pusing the new one slid smoothly along and then there were five in a row again. "It makes shuffling them so easy." She pulled out another cup and pushed it in a different spot. Then she saw Peter's look, so she did it again.

"We should leave them to freeze." And she shut the freezer.

---

Late the next day, Peter found himself home alone. Anna wouldn't be home for a few hours yet. He hadn't been unlocked for almost a week and the thought that he actually knew where his key was overpowering. It would just take some effort to get it.

Opening the freezer, he spent a few minutes trying to think which cup it was that had the key. He'd tried to keep track when he and Anna had set them up, but he still wasn't sure. He pulled out the one he thought would be it and shut the freezer. At first he wondered how long it would take to melt naturally, then he decided he could wait and set the cup on the sink upside and went away. He was really looking forward to being free. The need to wait an hour or so for the ice to melt was almost welcome.

It took almost two hours to fully melt. Peter had been checking on it in roughly 10 minute intervals as he looked forward to his immanent release. At about 90 minutes, it thought it was all melted, but there was no key. Unfortunately, he couldn't easily see if there was any ice still inside or not. He tried opening the lid a few times, but it wouldn't budge. He hadn't tried opening it before they'd filled it up, so he didn't know if it was just tight or the temperature lock was working. It was finally at two hours that the lid did finally come off, along with the horrible screeching noise of the telltale, only to discover the cup utterly empty. No ice and, more importantly, no key.
Peter was so dejected. He'd been so sure that that was the one with the key.

He mused over this a few minutes, still aroused in expectation, but it was so different this time at having been thwarted. The frustration was delightfully delicious and it was that in his mind that he put the lid back on, refilled the ice cup with water and put it back in the freezer.

Ten minutes later, he was back at the freezer, pulling a different cup out. He'd changed his mind. And this time he was determined not to wait.

First, he boiled the kettle. He had decided he was going to make the ice melt. Once the kettle was boiled, he propped the ice cup upside down in the sink, and poured the whole kettle of boiling water over the cup. Still no key. He picked up the cup again and thought it still felt full of ice. Hmm.

He refilled and boiled the kettle again and poured it over the ice cup again. He was becoming a bit suspicious now and had a closer look at the top of the cup. Strangely, it seemed to be shut. He tried to push it open, but it wouldn't move. He wondered how they'd filled the cup yesterday if it was sealed. As he watched, it slowly slid open and Peter could clearly see the ice inside. He was wondering what he did to make it open, when a dreadful suspicion grew in his mind. Putting the cup in the sink, he picked up the kettle again and just splashed some hot water on the top of the cup. Instantly the little door shut.

Peter stood looking at the ice cup. He'd been so taken with the anti-tampering they had discovered yesterday that it hadn't occurred to him that there would be more anti-tampering features that they hadn't discovered. He seemed to have found another: hot water in the top closed the hole. And since it seemed determined to prevent him cheating, he figured the insulation changed under hot water, too, protecting the ice.

He left the cup on the sink, defrosting naturally. 2 hours later, and it, too, turned out to be a key-less cup. At this point, Peter had had enough of this game, refilled it with water, and stuck it back in the freezer. He could stay locked.

---

It was almost three weeks before he finally defrosted the cup with the key. By that time, he'd grown used to shuffling the cups whenever he opened the freezer, or indeed, most times he walked past the fridge.

Peter and Anna had the best night together. After such long abstinance, they were easily able to satisfy each other multiple times until they both fell asleep in utter exhaustion, still half entwined and very naked.

When they had awoken the next morning, Anna had a suggestion to make.

"Would it be okay if I played, too?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you've been picking a cup when you think you want out and seeing if it was the lucky one with the key. What if I pull one out to melt if I feel like it, too? Makes me part of the game."

Peter was quiet a moment, not sure how enthusiastic he should be.

"Of course, if you don't want it," she continued, "then you could just put it back before it's unfrozen."

"Which means you want to be free to put one back if I pull it out." Ah hah. There's the catch.

"Well, naturally."

"Okay. I'm game for that."

"So you need to go back in, then. I believe you spent all night unlocked."

It appeared a new game was afoot...

20.02.08