Locked Out in Lockdown

My name is Abhishek. Within a year of starting my career as a software engineer in India I landed at Frankfurt, Germany for a 3 year onsite stint. Some solid programming skills, keeping management aware of my hard work, good rapport with onsite lead and some good luck helped me quickly earn that onsite ticket ahead of my colleagues. Even though all my efforts had been focussed towards this goal, I still couldn't believe my fortune at how quickly my dream got realised. At 23 years age, my life was on a roll.

The first year in Germany couldn't have been better. I was enjoying work, getting experience to work closely with client and the international atmosphere. Our onsite team was a close-knit group. There were lunch/dinner outings, house parties, day trips. There was a trip almost every month to a neighbouring country destination such as Paris, Amsterdam, Switzerland, Prague, Vienna, Rome,.. you name it. You see, Frankfurt lies in middle of Europe and none of the destinations take more than 6-8 hours by train or flight. As the project had recently started, most of the team didn't have their families in Germany. So we normally used to hang out with each other.

All of this changed in March 2020 as the covid pandemic broke out. Everything came to an absolute standstill. Offices were closed and we were instructed to work from home. There was a curfew on road and only the most basic services like police and hospitals were working. Only trips to supermarkets were allowed. The world had turned upside down and had changed in a manner so drastic we had never thought. And for me.. well, calling it a change will be such an understatement. It was not a change, it was a new birth. You will know soon what I mean......

- - -

We all were getting used to the new ways of life. As trapped in our apartments, my only human contact was my teammate Rachna, who lived in the same building two floors above me. She was a year senior to me in our team and also a year elder (we both joined the project as freshers). She was the one who helped me find my current apartment. We used to hang out together in office parties and trips but there was not much between us. You could call it a functioning transactional relationship, where we got along well but our plans were never without the group. But since lockdown began, we automatically started working like a team. We started ordering groceries together, which we left untouched for a day to ensure any viruses may die. We started cooking dinner together, mostly in my apartment, as ordering food from outside felt scary. All of this set us into a decently comfortable routine. Still our relationship was nothing special to write about. I will admit that sexual fantasies about us did cross my mind as we started spending more and more time together, but it had more to do with hormones of a 23 year old male than the chemistry between us. Somehow she didn't come out as a desirable young girl that should be. Was it because she always seemed to be helding herself back? Or maybe we weren't meant to click in those ways.

Into the second week of lockdown, we knew it will be sometime before things will return to normal. We prepared a long list of needed groceries and I ordered it from an Indian store in the city. Delivery came on Thursday evening and the guy delivered it to my doorsteps. I was bringing the items one by one inside my apartment when suddenly my foot tripped slightly on the door and it got closed. In India, it would have meant nothing but here in Germany the doors need keys only while entering but not when closing. What it meant was that I locked out of the apartment. And there was now no way I could get inside. I called my landlord company but there was no response as probably they also had stopped coming to the office. The only way now to contact them would be to write them an email or send them a post, which made no sense for an emergency like this.

I went upstairs and rang Rachna's bell, explained her my situation and moved rest of the groceries into her apartment. I searched for keymakers on internet and called all the numbers but couldn't reach out to anyone. The businesses were probably all closed by now as it was already half past six in evening. The timing couldn't have been worse.

I sat there in Rachna's apartment and we were discussing what to do next. She offered me to stay in her apartment. Her apartment was a small one room studio with a double bed, a sofa, a table with chair and a cupboard. There was a small kitchen, a bathroom and a small balcony. For one person it was perfect but for the two of us it wouldn't be possible to avoid bumping into each other all the time. So I had to decline her offer.

But what was the alternative? I couldn't possibly ask a guy colleague to take me in as no one wanted to meet anyone for the fear of infection. I finally agreed though when she mentioned that I should stay near my apartment in case I find a keymaker to come Friday early morning. We both then decided not to tell anyone in office about my situation as making it public would definitely mean gossips about the two of us which will unnecessarily complicate our lives. She prepared and served dinner. After watching tv for some time, we went to sleep. I was still in my shorts and t-shirt from the day. She wore pajamas and t-shirt. With her sleeping only 5 feet or so away on the bed, my mind couldn't stop thinking of all the silly adult movie scenes. I had a full hard-on and wanted to masturbate, but obviously couldn't act on it. After a while, my mind drifted into deep slumber as tired took over me.

Panic hit me when I could find any keymaker till 10 am on Friday also. All my stuff was locked in my apartment, including my work laptop. Luckily I had my mobile phone with me. Rachna had a private laptop, which she offered me to work from. I typed the Citrix URL, entered token from my mobile, which was office provided and could login for work. As there was nothing I could do regarding the keys, I got fully involved with my software development tasks. Office work went on as usual. Our team had no clue we both were now living in and working from the same apartment. As no keymakers could be reached by late afternoon, we both knew that I was going to be spend the whole weekend in her apartment.

Friday passed by quickly as we both were busy with office work. We were having zoom calls for our team meetings. As the whole team was not switching on their cameras, it was easy to hide our situation from our team members. We were conscious though that only one of us speaks at a time, to avoid any suspicions.

As evening arrived, I prepared dinner for both of us. I also opened a red wine bottle, which I had ordered from the Indian grocery store. We started watching a Netflix movie on her laptop during dinner but it turned out to be boring. So we started chatting instead on trivial topics. During the conversation, Rachna asked if I would need to change my clothes as I had been wearing the same clothes since yesterday and there were still some 3 days to go until I will be able to enter my apartment on Monday.

"Do you want to change your clothes?" Rachna asked.

"Do you have anything that I can wear?" I asked in reply.

"You mean a man's clothes?"

"Yes."

"No. Where will i get them from? I can check for some pajama and tee though." she answered with an understanding smile. She understood I was feeling uncomfortable with wearing female clothes. She said with a soft smile:

"Don't worry too much. It's fine! You won't become a girl just by wearing my clothes. Let me find something and you can try first in the bathroom for tonight. You can wash your own clothes and leave them for drying. Then you can change back to them tomorrow."

Without waiting for a reply, she went to her cupboard, took out clothes in a bundle and kept it on the bed. It looked like an old black pajama and and a light yellow tshirt. She had chosen the least feminine clothes from her wardrobe. I took it and went inside the bathroom.

I undressed completely and picked up the pajama first. Now there should be only yellow tshirt left in the pile but there was something black over it too. I picked up to see that it was a panty, no laces, nothing fancy but still.. a panty?

Did Rachna just gave me a panty to wear? really? Or did the panty just got into the bundle by mistake? It made sense on her part.. to think.. that we all do wear underwear. And this was the only available underwear in this situation so she did it right after all.

But I wasn't going to wear it. I decided to wear the pajama without underwear.. err.. panty and put my legs one by one into it. But I couldn't bring it up. The waist was too narrow and it got stuck near my upper thighs. You see, Rachna is only 5'2" and I am 5'7". She is slim but gifted at top. I decided to check the tshirt too, it fit but of course it looked different. Surprisingly not bad though, but different.

I called Rachna and told her that the pajama won't fit as the waist is too narrow for me. The tshirt was fine though. She said this was the largest pajama she had as it was old and stretched. She will check if there's something else and went away. I heard her opening the cupboard and was waiting quietly. My eyes again went to the panty and I took it in my hand and started inspecting closely. The cotton fabric at the crotch had faded somewhat due to washings, else it was relatively new. I brought it to my nose and sniffed it. It smelled like any other piece of washed garment but by now my mind had switched to a different topic and it resulted in strong blood flow somewhere else. First time in this apartment, i found myself with a raging erection.

Rachna knocked on the door. I opened it slightly and extended my arm out. She handed me a pile of clothes. It was a pair of salwar-kameez (an ethnic indian dress). The salwar was white, baggy and had a string at waist. I felt it will fit me. The kameez was blue and had some glittery lace at the chest area. Having no other option I decided to wear them but my erection was not going away. I was in panic how to go out with an erection. I thought of masturbating but it will take quite some time, which will look odd. My eyes went again to the panty. I picked it up and put it on. It didn't hide my erection and I was still having a tent at the front but I placed my penis in vertical position facing upwards and the thin elastic waist did just enough to keep it in place. I put on salwar and kameez and looked into the bathroom mirrow. As it was small, all I could see was myself chest up and again it didn't look very bad. Different yes, but not bad. I was surprised.

I was shy looking in the direction of Rachna but it was also not possible to ignore each other in this small room. She laughed very mildly, more to make the environment light, and said:

"Come here, let me look closely. You look good in them. Maybe a few changes and you can beat more than half the girls. As of now, you can only beat them in number of hairs in their moustache.. lol."

Not to do with what she said but the way she said it and how relaxed she seemed, it got me out of my shyness and i too started laughing.

"So what will I order if I was in a beauty parlour?" I asked.

"You don't need a beauty parlour, you only need to shave. Go do it and come back. Anyways tomorrow you will be back into your own clothes, why not make it look better now. This sounds like good fun."

By now, we had poured and finished our second glass of wine and both of us were feeling much less inhibited. I could still feel the slight sensation of panty which I was wearing, which was making me aroused although in a bit different way. I thought why not do as she says and started enjoying the dressing game.

"But I don't have my razor here." I said. It also meant, I was now game to dressing properly in female dress.

"Come, let me give you my razor. It's meant for legs but it should work."

She took me to the bathroom and took out a female razor. I washed my face with water and applied a layer of face wash. I shaved using the face wash foam instead of shaving cream. I was now looking much better in the salwar kameez dress and there was no ugly, manly beard. Instead it was a clean face with short hairs, not very girly but yet much better.

As I came out, Rachna began to inspect me from all angles. Then she opened her cupboard and took out a headband, which was similar to what tennis players wear but only half the width. She put it on my forehead. I could see a small smile of satisfaction on her face.

I went and stood in front of the full size mirror in the apartment. I couldn't believe how passable I looked as a woman. If I was to walk on the street and someone just passed by, he won't notice I was not a girl but a guy. The small headband accessory had completely transformed my hairstyle from a men's cut to a women's short boy cut. I started paying analysing my every body part one by one. I had no breasts but the kameez had slight padding which made it look like I had very small A-cup breasts. The kameez narrowed at my abdomen and again flared at buttocks, which were filled as I was larger than Rachna. It gave me a very hourglass figure look.

Hardly 2-3 minutes had passed when Rachna started opening her makeup box. I understood she wants to put makeup on me. Suddenly it made me very uncomfortable and I asked her to stop. She was laughing and kept searching for items in the box. I suddenly felt anger gripping over me. Why is she not stopping when I asked her to? I couldn't control my anger and started scolding her.

"Why can't you understand I am saying I don't want any makeup? Are you deaf? Can't you understand a simple thing?" I said quite loudly and angrily.

She stopped completely as if she hadn't expected that I will suddenly change from being playful to being angry at her. Maybe I shouldn't have been so harsh and I clearly overreacted. The room was completely silent now with both of us avoiding eye contact.

She slowly closed the makeup box and went inside the bathroom. After brushing her teeth and getting fresh, she came out and went straight to bed.

"Switch off the lights when you are sleeping." She said and turned her face away from me.

.. To be continued.