Put Down for a Nap (m/m)

[nchlsh]

I've been itching to write again, but trying to continue either of my sagas feels like preparing to climb the Everest, and I risk getting frustrated and abandoning it. So I thought of something short as a warm-up—no plotting, just getting it out of my system. I realized I've never shared a true story before, so let's do this. The first chapter of The Boys Knotty Summer saga is based on parts of this episode.

Put Down for a Nap

When I was around 13 and phones still had wires, my cousin Rafael would call my landline to ask if I could come over during summer vacation. He felt bored at home without videogames, cable TV or a computer. My aunt divorced my uncle when my cousin was little, and she struggled to raise two kids on her own. Rafa's brother was much older and never home, probably chasing girls or partying.

Sometimes I didn't feel like going. Don't get me wrong. I liked my cousin, but around that time I had gotten a dial-up modem, and a whole new world opened up to me. But my mom was keen on my leaving the house more. Rafa was two years younger and didn't do well at school, and she thought I was the straight-A student he needed as a role model.

It's not like I didn't have fun at his place. When we weren't playing soccer at the park two blocks away with other neighborhood kids, we would play inside variations of nerf wars, cops and robbers, or come up with new games. We got creative back then. I can't recall exactly how or when it occurred to us to tie each other up. It probably started as part of a game that involved keeping prisoners. It just happened, as natural a game for boys as wrestling. Heck, boys have been probably doing it for centuries. Most of them think nothing of it, a roughhousing fun moment like any other. To some of us, however, it awakens something inside.

I have memories of a few episodes, most of them pretty mild or short-lived. One that has stuck with me happened during a blazing-hot weekend afternoon. In subtropical Brazil, you know not to underestimate the heat. Back in the days of my grandparents, before air conditioning was a common household appliance, people would stop what they were doing and take a nap during the warmest hours. Even stores shut down from noon to roughly 2pm. Children had to stay inside, much to their chagrin.

That day, the thermometer on the wall must have displayed at least 38°C/100F, and there was no convincing my aunt, a kind but inflexible woman, to let us go play outside. Even though naps were a thing of the past, she still took them out of habit. She couldn't keep an eye on us while she slept, so she coaxed us into doing the same, allowing us to turn the AC on (they only used it at night to save on the electricity bill). We went into my older cousin's bedroom. Even though Rafa and his brother had their own bedrooms, only his brother's had an AC unit, a window one with motors louder than a space rocket. The room also had a giant wooden bed that the two brothers shared in summer. She turned the lights off and left, although plenty of light still came in through the large door blinds that opened onto a balcony.

We lay in bed shirtless and wearing just soccer shorts and underwear, waiting for the room to cool down. The icy blast coming from the AC unit felt nice. We chit-chatted for a while until I decided I was not sleeping and brought it up.

"So... let's play tie ups?" It always started like this, an innocent excuse to kill time. And I never had to ask Rafa twice.

He stood up, locked the door, and went to his brother's closet. After some rummaging —although in retrospect I think he had planned this— he pulled out two rolls of bandages and threw them on the bed. His brother used them for Taekwondo or some combat sport, because they were of pure strong cotton, not the elastic kind, and they were visibly used. He also fetched black shoelaces and sat back down on the bed in front of me.

"Wanna go first?" We usually took turns.

"Sure," I said and turned around, putting my arms behind my back. I tried looking over my shoulder as he wrapped the shoelaces horizontally around my hands, palm-to-palm, and then in between them.

"Lie down," he said, and I plopped on the mattress face-down, my head on a pillow.

Rafa then started tying my ankles together in a similar fashion with one bandage roll. He smiled throughout and taunted that I wouldn't be able to get out. What kid wouldn't be thrilled to have the upper hand on his older cousin who always beat him in wrestling matches? My initial confidence didn't last. A slender white boy, I usually counted on being able to slip my thin wrists out of most cords. This time I wasn't so sure. I twisted my arms up and down, but the several turns of shoelaces formed an inescapable black web. Did he use them on my hands on purpose?

While I evaluated my escape options, he tried something we'd never done before. He bent my legs, bringing my bound ankles near my wrists. I craned my neck and watched in surprise as he used the second bandage to link my hands to my feet. I felt butterflies in my stomach being hogtied for the first time. The bandage was long, allowing him to go from my ankles to my wrists at least three times, pulling tight until my fingertips brushed my heels. He used the remaining length to reinforce my hands and ankles, knotting off many times without any apparent plan or purpose. Untying all this would take long.

Once he was satisfied, he sat crosslegged next to me and watched my valiant but futile struggling. We were both amazed at the effectiveness of the hogtie, an "invention" my cousin was proud of. I easily worked up a sweat. I couldn't pick the tightly knotted shoelaces for the life of me, and each bandage knot I managed to undo, after much contortion, turned out to be dead-ends. The real knot uniting my hands and feet was out of reach. Several minutes went by with me getting nowhere closer to freedom. He got a kick out of my frustration.

"C'mon, Nick! Get out!" He laughed and pinched the skin under my toes, causing me to yelp. He'd never done that before either!

"Hey! Cut it out!" I was pissed at the little punk. I growled and tried to pull my exposed soles away from him, but he went to sit near the footboard, where he could keep torturing my feet, tickling included.

"Rafa, stop! Stooohahaha!"

I squirmed and twisted on the bed, making a mess of the sheet and cover. Rafa was delighted with his newfound power. He was probably wondering how else to torture me when we heard a knock on the door.

"Boys? Why is the door locked?" It was my aunt.

We both froze on our tracks. His eyes opened wide, and his brown skin turned two shades lighter.

"Get me out!" I hissed, exasperated. We were doing nothing wrong, but for some reason I didn't want her to find me like this. Rafa scanned the mess of ropes and shoelaces and instantly discarded my request. Not enough time.

The door handle turning and a knock sparked a bold idea.

"Turn around, quick!" He pushed me on my side facing the wall and threw the cover over my bound body up to my neck.

"What are you doing?!"

"Open up!" She demanded from outside.

"Pretend you're asleep! I gotta get the door," he whispered and sprung from the bed, knowing he couldn't prevent her mom from entering the room. Stalling until he managed to untie me could spark her wrath and potentially get him grounded.

I had no choice, so I went along. My eyes were already closed when my aunt entered the room, complaining that we weren't taking a nap like she told us to.

"Nick is! Shh, don't wake him up," he said with a straight face. I heard her coming closer, probably unconvinced, and sat down on the edge of the bed. The cover was thick and thankfully conceived my hogtied form well. My heart was beating fast and I felt hot under the cover, but I stood very still. My bonds were rather comfortable; the shoelaces didn't dig into my skin, and the bandages allowed for good circulation in my arms and legs. My aunt, having no reason to suspect a well-behaved boy like me would disobey and feign sleep, fell for it—hook, line, and sinker. When she even scolded Rafa for not taking a nap like me, I struggled not to burst out laughing. She talked with him in a low voice for a few minutes before tucking him in bed and leaving again.

My cousin laughed out loud after she closed to door on her way out. I was relieved we didn't get caught, the adrenaline still flowing through my veins. He pulled the cover off to reveal my sweaty, still hogtied body. It took him a long time to completely untie me. We stashed all the material away for a next time my aunt wasn't around and finally took that nap, longing for the soccer match afterwards.

That episode would trigger an online search for tie-up positions once I got back home. I found out my cousin didn't invent the hogtie and that such a thing as bondage existed, ultimately setting me on a path towards @Canuck100's board of TUG stories.

[Toten]

Thanks 4 the story, its a cute memory ^^

[copperfox]

Thanks for sharing…this was quite a fun read!

You mentioned that your tie-ups initially started out as you and Raphael were playing games that involved a prisoner. While it’s not at all uncommon for TUGs to start out like this (even if it is just a pretense for tying of being tied up)—I think the TUGs that you and he played are incredibly unique in that you guys got comfortable enough to just ask each other, “Want to be tied up?” That’s amazing that you both were able to have so much like-minded fun as kids!

Are you still in touch with your cousin, and do you know if your TUGs “awakened” something in him as well? I mentioned something similar in a response to another post—but, after reading a story like this, it’s always interesting to me to think of what’s happened to others that were involved since the actions took place. Was this just something fun to do at the time, a passing phase in a particular interest, or something more that’s still a part of their lives?

Your aunt didn’t discover you being tied up…this time. However, since you described that these games took place at least a few times, were there any instances in which you or Raphael were “caught” while playing?

Again, appreciate you sharing this time of your life with us…and I look forward to reading more from you!

[Killua]

Thanks for sharing. That's a nice story. You were lucky that you were able to trick her like that. Back when I was I think 15, I played a tie up game with a friend and got caught by my dad. Surely not the best thing to happen.

[nchlsh]

Thanks 4 the story, its a cute memory ^^

Glad you liked it! True stories hold a special place in my heart, and it was fun finally sharing one of my own.

[nchlsh]

Thanks for sharing…this was quite a fun read!

You mentioned that your tie-ups initially started out as you and Raphael were playing games that involved a prisoner. While it’s not at all uncommon for TUGs to start out like this (even if it is just a pretense for tying of being tied up)—I think the TUGs that you and he played are incredibly unique in that you guys got comfortable enough to just ask each other, “Want to be tied up?” That’s amazing that you both were able to have so much like-minded fun as kids!

Are you still in touch with your cousin, and do you know if your TUGs “awakened” something in him as well? I mentioned something similar in a response to another post—but, after reading a story like this, it’s always interesting to me to think of what’s happened to others that were involved since the actions took place. Was this just something fun to do at the time, a passing phase in a particular interest, or something more that’s still a part of their lives?

Your aunt didn’t discover you being tied up…this time. However, since you described that these games took place at least a few times, were there any instances in which you or Raphael were “caught” while playing?

Again, appreciate you sharing this time of your life with us…and I look forward to reading more from you!

Thanks for your comment and questions. Writing this brought back more memories, other tie-ups that I had forgotten (I should write them down before they vanish again).

My cousin and I played TUGs only for a year or two on sporadic occasions. When I started tying myself up at home, I realized I got turned on by it, so I didn't want to risk him finding out. Also, I discovered I was gay and started looking at boys differently, while my cousin went on to have girlfriends. We never touched on the subject again, but he definitely enjoyed it back then. Who knows, maybe he plays with his wife nowadays

I don't recall my aunt catching us playing TUGs, and I think she would have just laughed it off, but a neighborhood kid did! One time my cousin even got tied up in a public event with lots of people. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, but maybe I'll tell those stories one day.

[nchlsh]

Thanks for sharing. That's a nice story. You were lucky that you were able to trick her like that. Back when I was I think 15, I played a tie up game with a friend and got caught by my dad. Surely not the best thing to happen.

Yeah, I was surprised and relieved we pulled it off, but maybe she just pretended not to notice? In any case, I don't think she would've disapproved, provided that we played inside.

I'm sorry to hear that you had a bad experience with TUGs because of adults. It's a bummer when they interfere and look down on these games (unless for valid reasons, like safety). I remember one ridiculous episode when one of my uncles told me and my other cousin to stop playing cops and robbers with fake metal handcuffs because he didn't like we were treating each other like "criminals." Things like that can leave a scar, even if they don't intend to.

[Xtc]

A fun vignette. Thanks for posting.

[FelixSH]

That was a fun read. I hope you will share more of your past experiences with us.

[blackbound]

Both fun and relatable, thank you.

[IMP_II]

It's fascinating learning about all the different origins of the same experiences. Thanks for sharing this one.

[Gino]

i like it

[nchlsh]

i like it

Thanks for reading and commenting!

It's fascinating learning about all the different origins of the same experiences. Thanks for sharing this one.

Although this wasn't my first TUG, it was one of my most memorable. There were a few other episodes I could share but I don't remember all the details, so the line between truth and fiction might end up blurried...