#age appropriate sex ed

[overheardschoolbus]

11yo: FINALLY the bus, the day is OVER

Next 11yo: Bus Driver, it was aWfUL

Another 11yo: It was… *gulp* health day

Horrified 11yo: We learned about puberty

Poor poor 11yo: *traumatized expression*

Wide-eyed 11yo: I saw a picture of a vAgInA

Huddle of 11yo girls: *run past, shading eyes*

Even wider-eyed 11yo: Bus Driver, is it true?? do women have three holes???

#lmaooo #I shut them up so quick #I was like there are LITTLE KIDS on the bus #and I of course congratulated them #and told them to ask their moms their questions #I work under recording cameras #and am not trained in age appropriate health ed #so I didn’t answer #they looked so horrified #I do think they were playing it up for me tho loll #but I’m so sorry #I laughed SO HARD #five minutes later ​I had to go to the back of the bus and get them to sTOP scREAMING #health class #puberty #age appropriate sex ed #I am going to guess that the *picture* was not a photograph probably a drawing #FRUV #bus quote #bus conversation

[dress-a-difference]

Youth Empowerment: Key Components of Sex Education

Sex education is a vital aspect of our overall well-being, providing individuals with knowledge and understanding to make informed decisions about their sexual health and relationships. As you have already read in my previous article (https://dressadifference.wordpress.com/2023/11/05/empowering-tomorrow-importance-of-sex-education-its-global-landscape/) why Sex Education is so important, here are…

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#adulthood #Age appropriate information #Anxiety #body image #boundaries #Comprehensive Sex Ed #consent education #Consent Matters #contraception #contraceptive education #Digital Age #Digital Connect #emotional changes #emotional wellbeing #empowerment through education #family planning #gender inclusivity #Healthy Choices #Healthy Relationships #Inclusive Sex Ed #Mental Health #Online safety #psychological changes #Puberty Education #Reproductive health choices #reproductive rights #respect #Right to say no #Safe online behavior #Self care

[jaeger-babe]

Love that my eldest brother tried to help me out by fostering a love of anime and nerd shit in me but that hoe introduced me to some animes that I was definitely to young to see

#I’m 🍃 as fuck and just realized this #and my mom WATCHED too!!! #and she thought yeah this looks age appropriate for my 11 year old kid who’s had NO sex ed

[inkskinned]

it is totally okay to be hurt and tired and fed up with the american schooling system but i need you to understand that we need to be better about loudly and routinely defending public education.

yes, many teachers suck, many schools utterly suck. i also got bullied and was absolutely not given the right support for my needs. i am not defending public education because it was kind to me. i am defending it because it needs to exist.

right-wing republicans do not want an educated population. they want kids to be homeschooled or in private school. there is a huge religious undertone to this.

the most common argument is that despite high costs, the "result" is not "good" enough. they point to failing schools as proof that public education is just never going to work out. there will be arguments made here that you actually agree with: that teachers can be bullies, that we taught online for 2 years and still charged the same amount of tuition, that we have no recourse for students to actually have agency or a voice, and that schools are now unsafe for kids due to risk of illness and gun violence.

these are all placing the blame in a fraudulent way, one intended to get your parents to homeschool you. the less kids in a school, the less federally-awarded funding for that school, the less any school succeeds. they will not mention the fact it is their legislation that takes away important funding opportunities, that teachers are living at or below the poverty line, that buildings are not kept up to code, that administration is overpaid and forces specific curriculums, that corporations like (my personal enemy) Pearson Education control certain classroom goals because teachers can't afford other options. they pretend to be ignorant of the gun violence and say "oh just get a gun" - but these are the same people who will be sending their child to a private school with a bulletproof backpack. they don't care if your kid dies, though. they "don't believe" in covid, but they did get their kid vaccinated, because of course they did.

it is a closed loop. conservative parents hear the fearmongering and remove children from the system. frequently these parents are also deeply religious. the kids are raised without access to other media & learn to parrot their parents. you have now created a new generation of conservatives. additionally, one of the parents/caregivers must stay home and homeschool the children, usually for free. i will give you 1 guess which parent tends to stay home to homeschool the children. these parents are encouraged to have many, many children. those children are most likely not getting access to safe sex ed.

we might laugh at fox news suggesting teachers are forcing children to use kitty litter but: first of all, there is kitty litter in the classroom. it's part of an emergency kit in case children are locked in due to a shooter. so that's fucking dystopian, and the fact they've completely reimagined the scenario to somehow make the teachers look bad when it's instead a fucking huge symbol of our failure as a country to protect our children.... it feels a little intentional.

secondly: don't just dismiss the situation. because, yeah, obviously, no teacher is encouraging kids to be a catboy. but the actual undertone that fox news is trying to sew is an outright distrust of teachers and of public education. they rely on the dehumanization of trans people as a common touchstone to hide the fact they're pushing two agendas at once. (which is ironic. because the thing they accuse teachers of. is pushing. an agenda.)

whenever someone tells you they want you to read less, you should be suspicious of that. when someone tries to separate you and your education, you should be suspicious of that. i don't even like incel rhetoric nor would i want my kids exposed to it - but i would not take away my child's (age-appropriate) access to the internet. i would just provide more educational materials, not less. the difference here is that i believe we can resolve ignorance with knowledge; whereas conservatives believe that ignorance is bliss.

they misappropriate funding and demonize teachers. they pull the same trick each time - the same thing we are seeing with anti-trans rhetoric. they do not want you to have access to safe sex ed, so they act horrified, claim sex ed teaches you how to thrust deep, claim that we have no idea what "age-appropriate" means. since the mid-nineties, the united states has spent at least 2 billion dollars on abstinence-only education, even though to quote the above link: "a preponderance of studies has found no effect of abstinence education at reducing adolescent pregnancy". conservatives want you to think less of any person struggling with addiction so they can continue their racist "war on drugs", so they spend up to $750 million dollars a year on the DARE program which has absolutely no effect. acting like teachers "must" be "grooming" children is just the same thing - so they can demand that funding either goes to their causes or the funding doesn't "exist" ("i'm not paying for our kids to learn that thing!")

and they want you to feel uncaring about this. they are aware that you will hate some parts of your school experience. pretty much everyone does. they want to lean into the parts that you hate so that you don't put up a fight about it when they take it away for not being "good enough."

i know i maybe sound like a conspiracy theorist. but truly. truly. it is beneficial for conservatives to reduce your faith in the american public schooling system.

one of the explicitly stated campaign promises of the conservative party: to axe the Department of Education in 2024.

i know we are all tired and burnt out and there is so much else wrong with their entire platform. but maybe just - pay attention to this one.

#i can't believe i have to say this #the conservative party is legit like ''is it anything good? okay we hate it.'' #''lets kill lgbt people and ummmmm school children shouldnt be able to read they should be at home watching jordan peterson :)" #the fact that it's like all related is. wild. #like it's wild bc if u start being like. actually making it impossible to afford housing is part of how they keep the nuclear family..... #it's just like lines connecting to lines. EXCEPT ITS OBVIOUS? #what's wild to me about most conspiracy theorists is that they're like . ohhhh the govt is hiding shit!!!!!!! they don't want u to know!!! #and im like. this old man literally got up on stage and said he hates public education and will let our kids die before taking away ak-47s #and ppl are like: lol thats just bob's sense of humor he didn't mean it literally uwu

[etherealspacejelly]

Some of my opinions, in no particular order

golf courses should be abolished. mini golf can stay. actual golf? no. golf courses take up so much water to maintain their grass, grass which, btw, is a monoculture and bad for wildlife. the area that golf courses take up could be used for affordable housing, or natural areas left to grow with wild native plants that are better for the insect populations. but nooo, we gotta use all this land so that stuck up rich people can play the most boring game ever invented. bullshit.

the police should be abolished. i would settle for defunding but really they just need to go.

children are people, treat them as such. kids have thoughts and feelings that are just as real and valid as yours.

on a similar vein, you are allowed to not want children, but that doesn't give you a free pass to hate kids or be mean to kids. they didnt ask to be here, be kind.

there should be a maximum wage. after a certain point, there is no amount of labour you could possibly do to Earn that much money. your workers earned that money, and you are stealing it from them.

there is a difference between millionaires and billionaires. when i say eat the rich im not talking about actors and musicians, im talking about people who are directly responsible for poverty, hunger, suffering, and homelessness around the world. people who hoard obscene amounts of wealth that No One could ever hope to spend in an entire lifetime and simply watch while minimum wage workers struggle to put food on the table and the elderly freeze in their homes.

sex ed should start in primary school, at an age-appropriate level. if kids are old enough to ask questions about sex, they are old enough to learn about it in a safe environment. they should be taught correct anatomical names for body parts (penis, vulva, vagina, etc.).

there should be more research into autism and ADHD in adults, this shit doesn't just go away when you grow up.

diagnostic criteria for disabilities, disorders, and mental health conditions should be written by people who have or have had these conditions. how is someone supposed to know if they have autism, for example, if the symptoms are written from the perspective of someone who has never experienced it?? doesn't make any fucking sense.

hostile architecture should be illegal. unhoused people deserve a place to sleep. or better yet, give them houses. there are literal studies done that prove that housing people saves the government money in the long run, so why aren't we doing that? make it make sense

edit: updated to add more clarity to the golf thing. didn't explain that one well enough and left some people confused

#autism #lgbt #neurodivergent #activism #communist

[aroallo-corvid]

Aroallo is not an "adult" sexuality

[plain text: Aroallo is not an "adult" sexuality]

I am aromantic and allosexual. I am also (as of writing this) a minor. TLDR at the end because I rambled on a bit.

There's a view in society that sexuality and sex are topics that are entirely irrelevant to children and should not be discussed around/with children because it is inappropriate/predatory. And to an extent, there is a point to that, and any discussions of sex and sexuality should be age-appropriate (e.g. an eleven year old would not receive the same sex ed as a sixteen year old because there is a vast difference in experience)

However, thinking like this leads to teenagers not being given proper sex education because they are "too young", which is wildly ignorant of the fact that a decent proportion of teenagers older than sixteen are sexually active. I live in the UK where the age of consent is 16, and I know plenty of people who were in relationships aged 14/15 were having sex. (Whether they weer mature enough to is another matter, but it's important to acknowledge that it does happen so there is no point ignoring this).

This rhetoric also leads to the belief that teens (and younger kids) shouldn't be coming out as gay/lesbian/bisexual/asexual/aromantic/etc. because they are too young to be thinking about sexuality and sexual attractiveness, which just.... isn't true. Many young people have crushes, and as the majority of people are allosexual, this does often involve sexual attraction as people mature through puberty.

Within the queer community, people have said that it is perfectly fine and normal and common for teenagers to come out as gay, lesbian, bisexual, asexual - Because if a teen can be straight, they can also be queer. These arguments are all set out beautifully and the points well made.

Yet.

Some people exclude aroallo people from that. They say that teens can be asexual, because they can know they aren't experience sexual attraction like their peers, and teens can be aromantic as well as asexual because they can realise they also aren't experiencing romantic attraction. But when a teenager says they are on the aromantic spectrum but still allosexual, often the same people who defend teens' rights to be (for example) bisexual turn around and say "you're too young for that".

Why?

Honestly, it comes down to sex-negative views that sex is inherently impure/disgusting, and of course children are the perfect example of purity and innocence, so they shouldn't be thinking about such "dirty" topics.

Of course a teenager can be asexual, that distances them from icky gross sex & means they would likely to be only engaging in chaste, pure, wonderful romance. Of course a teenager can be aroace, that makes them little cinnamon infantile babies, safe from all sexuality. (/sarcasm) (Also completely ignores the existence of sex-favourable aces and aroaces)

It comes off as very hypocritical though, because a teenager identifying as bisexual but not aromantic (so biromantic, but that distinction isn't typically made) is seen as acceptable, when they are expressing the same sexual desires as a teenager who is bisexual and aromantic. The only difference is that the first teenagers' sexuality is seen to be "balanced out" by the presence of nice wholesome romance.

tldr: if teenagers can identify as bisexual/gay/lesbian/pansexual/etc. whilst being alloromantic, it is hypocritical to say a teenager cannot identify as one of the above sexualities whilst being aromantic, because romance is not inherently more pure than sex and sex is not inherently impure.

#aroallo #alloaro #aromantic #aro #alloarophobia #aroallophobia #lmk if any other tags need to be put on here?? #also apologies if the wording comes off strange i'm not used to writing big official posts like this and im autistic #i think the message still comes across pretty clearly?? #crow cawing

[animasola86]

NSFW Hogwarts in the 1890s Headcanons

Convenient Plot Devices (to make my smut more believable)

(aka Nurse Blainey is a very supportive and progressive witch doctor!)

Every girl over the age of 15 (sometimes earlier) is required to take contraceptive potions as per request by Nurse Blainey who had to deal with horny teenagers and their lack of mind for consequences for too long.

Boys don't have to take them, but can if they are so inclined.

Very reluctantly, the recipe for that potion is taught by Professor Sharp in the Sixth-years' Potions class.

There are potions for every ailment (usually provided by Nurse Blainey), including aftermath soreness or the "potion after" if a witch/wizard forgot to take their contraceptive potion.

There were indeed condoms*, but not every wizard carried them, so the potions and/or a quick disappearing spell had to be used to prevent pregnancies.

*Condoms were usually distributed in barbershops in the late 19th/early 20th century (according to Wikipedia) so I imagine Madam Snelling selling them under the counter in her hair salon.

There is no sex-ed class in Hogwarts, but again, Nurse Blainey is the first to hand out informative literature* or reading recommendations.

The Restricted Section of the library has an entire room filled with erotic fiction, anatomical books and various guides to help out the eager witch or wizard.

*Informative literature included tips and guides for the uterus-bearing population on how to deal with bleeding. As early as 1890, probably even earlier, there was the "invention" of pad-belts/sanitary belts in Victorian England, those were re-usable and I can imagine even easier to use for witches because instead of cleaning them the old-fashioned way, they could just clean them with a swish of their wand. (Read more on the history of menstrual pads here if you're interested.)

Ignatia Wildsmith has seen more horny teenagers making out in front of her Floo flames than people actually using that way of travel.

Ghosts see a lot of things and mostly they don't care about it, unless they are Richard Jackdaw* who likes to stalk those horny teenagers more often than is appropriate.

*Shameless plug: I wrote a smut piece about our favorite horny ghost called The Horny Ghost (how creative).

"Silencio" is the most used spell in the dormitories, boys' and girls' alike.

Hufflepuffs are the only ones who don't have curtains around their beds! But I bet they can think of other devices to get some privacy. Maybe they're masters of the Disillusionment charm!

On that note: only Ravenclaws have their own in-house bathrooms - with actual bathtubs! Slytherins have to leave their common room, and Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs have to walk quite a while to find the nearest bathroom. [Correction: there are bathrooms, one with stalls, one with stalls and bathtubs, in the Gryffindor common room, but only on the girls' side! (Thanks to @mianeryh for pointing that out!)]

But this is a post about HCs, not actual fact/pointing out lazy game design, so I'd like to imagine that all houses have at least one communal bath/bathroom area very close to their dormitories.

*By the way: In the Slytherin, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff common rooms, the girls' dormitories are upstairs, so they have the stairs turning into slides whenever a boy tries to access them, whereas in the Ravenclaw common room, the girls have to go down the stairs and are "only" protected by two suits of armor guarding the way, which in turn makes it easier to sneak past!

Popular make-out places are: the boat-house, the underground harbor, the loft above the Great Hall, the kitchens (poor house-elves), the Prefects' bathroom, the Restricted Section of the library, any dark empty hallway, any empty classroom/storage room, the Undercroft and the Room of Requirement (if they know of them), ...

*Honestly: anywhere is possible in the large castle that is Hogwarts!

Let's talk fashion: we've all seen the HL undergarments of girls and boys, right? Here is an amazing guide by @tamayula-hl about period accurate clothing and their uses in smut writing, very informative!

So based on that I also believe that horny teenagers got tired of all those buttons and layers very quickly and learned spells to make the undressing easier, and/or used "Evanesco" to get rid of clothes entirely (and conjured them back afterwards) - though tbh, I, as a smut writer, don't care too much about how they get naked. They're wizards/witches, they have their ways!

My most used clothing device apart from simple spells: the convenient flap at the front of boys' breeches.

FANFICTION MASTERLIST - KINKTOBER - AO3

#hogwarts legacy #hogwarts legacy headcanons #hogwarts legacy smut #smut headcanons #headcanons #historical facts #hogwarts in the 1890s

[sherifftillman]

False Idols

alternate ao3 link

Pairing: Eddie Munson x f!Reader

Genre: smut

Tags: 18+ (minors DNI or I'm shattering throats n slicing kneecaps), unprotected sex (also pls do not do), oral (f receiving + m receiving), deepthroating, handjob, fingering, light degradation, p in v, cumming inside, eddie's got a god complex

Summary: One revelation leads to another, and another...

Word count: 3582

A/N: Sorry it's been so quiet on the writing front! I'm getting back into the swing of things :)

“Phoenix, this is Hellhound, do you copy? Over.” 

You love that Eddie’s got more friends now, you really do. And him being friends with those freshmen who loved their AV club sure has come in useful for you to be able to communicate with him uninterrupted, pretty much wherever you may be. But maybe he got a little too into making codenames for the two of you.

Reaching over to pick up your walkie-talkie, you hold it up to your mouth and squeeze the button. “Yeah, I’m here, Eds. What’s up?”

“Would it kill you to use the lingo just once?” Although his voice is warbled from the radio, you can hear the disappointment in his tone.

Rolling your eyes, you reply, “Uhh, ten-four, reading you loud and clear, Cap’n Hellhound, what’s your coordinates? Over.”

“Funny. Someone get this kid on stage,” Eddie deadpans. “Are you free to come hang out at the trailer, if I pick you up? Like, now?”

“Uh, sure! I’ll need to get ready first, how far away are you?”

“Uhh…”

“You’re outside, aren’t you.” Silence. Tells you everything. “Read you loud and clear, Hellhound. Phoenix over and out.”

You slip on the first shoes you find and head straight out the front door to your front yard. You probably should have picked up a jacket, considering how you’re dressed, but you’re not thinking about that right now. What’s important is being there for your best friend. The way you always have been, and always will be. 

Being Eddie Munson's best friend meant playing the most epic of fantasy games growing up. Being Eddie Munson's best friend meant having to stand back while he got bullied, because having a girl defend him only made it worse. Being Eddie Munson's best friend meant always having a front row seat to Corroded Coffin gigs, even though there was never a massive crowd, you knew there would be someday. Being Eddie Munson's best friend meant always having someone in your corner, and always being there in his, too.

You knew exactly why he wanted you out here. Now that he’s all up and graduated, the endless void of The Future beckons, and it scares him. All his other, more age-appropriate friends have plans and that scares him because he doesn’t. His plan was to graduate with you the year prior. You’d joked that he was always destined to be held back a year so you could leave that place together. But you managed to get through senior year unscathed. Eddie still didn’t quite make it until the following year. But he met his little baby nerds this past school year, so perhaps it was all part of his divine plan after all.

Everyone around you always had an opinion about your choice not to go into college right after school. You’re smart enough. It’s the usual way. What else are you going to do with your life? You always tell them that you’ve got your whole life to figure out what you want to dedicate it to working as, what’s the rush? But deep down, you know there’s another reason you haven’t left Hawkins.

You and Eddie had driven in silence for the most part. Whenever Eddie suggested these drives, it’s usually because he wanted to be alone, except for the pair of you, that state is only safe when it’s the two of you, even if it’s to sit in total silence. You felt the cold, remnant-of-spring breeze hit your skin and quickly pulled Eddie’s spare jacket from where he usually “stored” it beneath your feet and threaded your arms into it, suddenly very self-conscious about the choices you’d made - or rather, not made - before you left the house.

 He finally breaks the silence after he’s parked up outside his uncle’s trailer, though he shows no sign of getting out.  “I can’t believe you’re still here.”

You frown, "Why wouldn't I be? You drove me."

He chuckles softly, stroking his chin. "You know what I mean, smartass. You were made for college. You could be anywhere in the whole United States right now, kicking ass and taking names. Your whole world shouldn't start and end at Hawkins."

You want nothing more than to shake him by the shoulders and tell him that your whole world is right here next to you, but of course you can't do that. "Well, that's why I'm gonna be the Coffin's number one roadie, right? So I can see the world."

Eddie scoffs as he gets out of the car, "Please, give yourself some credit. You'd be our tour manager, at least."

"See?! Fuck college, I've got my life planned out already, seeing the world with my best friend in tow," you grin, hopping out the other side.

Eddie looks at his trailer, shakes his head softly and gestures for you to walk around some more with him. You follow in tow, feeling the cold air hit your chest, and cross your arms around it, desperately hoping you can continue to hide what the air exposes. 

Eventually, Eddie smiles softly, "Alright, in reality, I am pretty glad you didn't go to college."

"Me too," you nod back, walking into his arm to nudge it lightly.

After a few beats of walking in comfortable silence, Eddie chuckles again. "Speaking of life plans, you still gonna marry me when we're 35?"

You collapse into laughter, remembering the pact you made when you were kids. "Oh my god, stop! And I swear it was when we were 40! It definitely ended in a 0."

"Fine, then when we're 30," he muses. "Still down?"

"What's the rush?" you ask. "C'mon, don't you wanna find your soulmate first?"

He snorts with laughter, "Again with all the ‘fate’ stuff. You're so corny."

You stop walking and gasp in half-mocked offence. "What do you mean?!" You continue your pace deliberately back towards his trailer, having almost come full circle, and he follows, "Do you not believe that one of these days, when you're out on tour or whatever, you're gonna meet someone who you're gonna spend the rest of your life with?"

Eddie shakes his head and laughs in disbelief, muttering, "Oh, sweetheart, if you only knew."

Your heart sinks. "What's that mean?" you ask, but Eddie stays silent. "Come on, you can tell me!" He remains quiet. Trying to remain light-hearted, you tut, shaking your head. "Well damn, some future husband you'll be if you're already keeping secrets from me…"

He finally breaks, clearing his throat. "Um. Well, uh, maybe that… Person, is… Not somewhere out in the big wide world to go looking for after all." His gaze quickly turns to you to gauge your reaction before he turns away again. You wonder if, after all this time, or maybe just for now, he feels the same things you do.

You decide to test the waters, stepping closer to him and letting one arm fall, brushing your knuckles against his. "That's true, the world is a big ol' place. Maybe they're closer than that. Maybe they're still in America."

You see the corners of his mouth turn up as he takes your hand and squeezes it. "Maybe - maybe they're still in Indiana."

You've both stopped walking now, once again back at the van. You're looking into his eyes, his deep, dark, warm, rich eyes. He's looking at you with mixed eager anticipation and sheer awe that this conversation is even happening. "You think they might be in Hawkins?" You ask, an obvious sense of smugness present in your tone.

He leans into you, with just as prideful a grin as he admits, "I think we both know you're right here."

Your hand cradles his jaw into the first kiss you two have ever shared. Silent years of pining, of being afraid to lose him over this, of jealousy over everyone he ever showed an interest in, of guilt that you could never get over him. All of that melts between your lips. But there's more than just that. Not only is he matching your energy entirely here, he's one-upping it.

His hands start to slide down your back slowly. Tantalisingly. They stop at the small of your back, fingers drumming impatiently. You hum a sound of consent against his lips, and Eddie wastes no time in taking your ass into both of his hands and squeezing. As he pulls you close, your hips instinctively start to grind against his. Your moans harmonise in each others' mouths, though yours falters into a shiver. Eddie breathes out a laugh, rubbing your arms over his jacket. “Wanna head inside and warm up?” he purrs, pressing his forehead against yours and then leaning his head up to kiss your forehead softly.

You nod and step away from him, once again keeping your arms tightly wound across your body to keep yourself warm as he fumbles through his pockets to find the key to the trailer. You follow behind him up the steps, practically feeling the physical anticipation between the two of you like static electricity.  He wrenches the door open, holding it out for you and lingering as he watches you walk in. He quickly follows though, not even allowing enough time for the door to close behind him before snaking his arms beneath yours and pulling you close to resume kissing you.

He blindly guides you towards the couch until you both fall into it, grabbing your thighs to wrap them around his hips before sliding his hands up beneath your skirt to this time grip your bare ass. The metal of his rings press contrastingly cool and smooth to his warm, wide, worn hands. You squeeze your knees into his hips now that you’re straddling him, your hips desperately seeking friction which he happily provides, bucking up to meet you.

He makes quick work of throwing his jacket off of your shoulders, and you break the kiss to lean back and shake it off your arms. His eyes trail down to your chest and he sucks a long breath in. "Holy fuck, angel, I thought you had your arms crossed because you were mad at me for something, but…" He slowly drags his knuckles up and down against the sensitive nubs practically bursting through the thin cover of your dress. You breath hitches once, twice, three times as you gasp at the contact. "Now I see why."

"Yeah, well… I just threw this on because - it was easy and I - was just having a lazy day," you whine through his touches.

Eddie pauses for a moment to bring your jaw down to look him in the eyes as he raises his eyebrows. "You just "threw on" the one dress that makes your tits look like works of fucking art? Please." He tugs at the front of your dress to expose your breasts, and you slip the straps down to give him full access to take one out and start suckling on your nipple. He continues to rub the other between his finger and his thumb, and you rake your fingers into his hair as you cry out with pleasure.

Eddie looks back up at you as if he's high off the taste of your skin, smiling dreamily. "Would I be right in assuming, based on what I felt earlier, that your bra isn't the only underwear you forgot?"

You bite your lip and jump up, pulling your dress up over your head and throwing it at him. "Come see for yourself," you smirk, pushing your chin into your shoulder before running into his bedroom.

He chases you there, throwing his shirt off in the process. You sit perched on the edge of the bed and he looks at you in awe, slowly sinking his knees lower as he approaches you until he's on the floor at your feet, throwing your legs over his shoulders before burying his face between them and sliding his tongue deep beneath your folds.

Your hands once again take residence in his hair, scooping it all to one side so you can watch his tongue fuck you before pulling out to lap your clit rapidly. One hand is rested on your inner thigh, ready to plunge his fingers inside of you whenever his tongue is focused on your clit, and the other rests on top of your other thigh, ready to rub at your clit in circles whenever his tongue is inside you. He manages to find the one spot that causes you to feel a euphoria you've never known before, with his tongue and with his fingers, and holy shit, does he know how to work it with them.

"Oh, my - Eddie," you groan, and you feel his chuckle vibrate against your core.

"You know, sweetheart, I believe the phrase people use is oh my god."

Groaning at the sensation, you cry, "Fuck, when you make me feel this good, what's the difference?"

Eddie's entire demeanour changes. He looks at you in a way that excites you from the inside out. Yearning becomes possessiveness, along with a confidence you've never seen to him. He ducks back down to ravish you with the fervour of a man on death row eating his last meal, still massaging your clit just as gently as before. All of it is enough for you to climax over your best friend's tongue, screaming a string of mixed encouragements and profanities in the process.

You barely have time to appreciate the look of his ecstatic face absolutely smothered in your juices before he stands up, licking all around his mouth and pulling his belt undone. "Get on your knees, on the floor," he commands, and you instantly comply, though your legs feel weak when you bear your weight onto them.

Eddie's jeans and boxers fly to the floor with an almighty thud, which almost distracts you from the sight of his hungry eyes on you as he lazily strokes his cock. Thick, but not painful-looking. Long, but enough to not let any go to waste. Pink at the tip, veins all around. Adorned with a bushy mess of hair. Just perfect. "Say it again," Eddie commands, his tone deeper, darker.

You look up at him with a genuinely innocent curiosity. "Say what?"

"Fuck, you - you calling me a - a god really fucked me up, just, please say it again."

Biting your lip in anticipation, knowing you could make him feel things he's never felt before with one sentence, you look up at him and grin, "Eddie Munson, you are a total sex god."

However, it's you who's enamoured as he groans, his hand moving faster than ever, twisting around his member as his free hand beckons you to kneel up higher. You do so and he commands, "Spit on it." You comply and sink back down to sit on your knees, knowing you now want nothing more than to follow Eddie's every word to a T. Maybe he is a sex god. Eddie holds his palm out flat beneath his cock to also spit on it himself, lubing himself up and moaning the whole time. You watch the way it moves and you feel your mouth start to fall open. He smirks when he notices, "Go on, see what happens."

You let your jaw drop and your tongue loll out wide and flat as you keep watching intently. Your whimper almost comes out as a full-on cry as he flicks his spit-drenched erection all across your face - except for on your tongue, where you craved for him to be inside of your mouth. In a desperate plea, you cry out, "Oh, p-please, fuck, I'll do anything!"

Eddie worries his lower lip beneath his teeth in contemplation for a beat. A fistful of your hair flies into one hand, pushing it back until you're looking up at him, your neck taut. He holds his cock just below your lower lip with the other hand. He looks down at you, his eyes so blown out that they look black, and with the most confident tone you've ever heard from him, he asks, "You gonna pray to me while you're on your knees? Devote every waking moment to worshipping me?"

"Y-yes, god." You expect to do a lot more convincing than that, but something about looking Eddie dead in the eye and calling him that has him sliding his head just over your lip gently before roughly pushing your head down and thrusting up until your nose is nestled amongst the wiry hair spread beneath. You quickly try to remember all the tricks you'd read in the magazines: squeezing your left thumb in your fist, focusing on breathing through your nose. You manage to stay long enough for Eddie to let out the most pornographic of moans before tapping out, to which he hurriedly takes himself out and looks at you with great concern.

You meet his gaze with an appreciative smile and a nod, completely ignoring the trail of drool still connecting you to him. Before he can say anything more, your hand is wrapped around him, pumping his cock with ease, "Gonna -" you pause for a second as you realise how gravelly your voice is after that, but continue - "gonna wake up, every day, n' worship your cock, however you want me." Eddie again grabs your hair, affectionately pushing your head around in all directions. Feeling a spike deep within your core at the sensation of your hair being pulled around too, you whine as you add, "'m gonna be there… Whenever, wherever you need me, an' - I'll only fall asleep while you're deep inside me, holding all your cum." Needing him in your mouth again, you suckle on his balls while playing your fingertips around them, too.

"Fuck," Eddie yells, "Alright, get back up, onto the bed, on your back." You don't need to be told twice. You practically launch yourself onto the mattress, the creaks of the springs foreshadowing the symphony you're about to create. He throws your legs upwards and outwards, and you silently comply with holding the backs of your knees as close to your shoulders as you can. You feel him trailing the tip of his head along your folds, so close. Your hips start to wriggle instinctively, but you hold back, seeing in Eddie's expression just how much he gets off to being in control. He notices and smirks, "Oh I know, aren't I being terrible… Is my sinful little slut resisting temptation for me?" You nod, and honestly, the way his toothy grin ever so slowly creeps along his face is the truly sinful act here. "Words, please."

"Y-yes, god, want you to fuck me, please," you beg. "Am I worthy now?"

"Always have been," he breathes before finally sliding into you. He feels so full, but effortlessly so. Like a key that finally presses all the lock mechanisms just right. And fuck, was he pressing all of you just right. "Yeah, I know, baby, I know," he soothes as you writhe against him, leaning over you to kiss down your jaw to your neck.

"Fuck, Eddie, wanted this for - so long," you mewl as your hips buck down onto him every time he pulls back.

"Yeah?" he smirks, knowing what you're craving and pulling out further every time before pushing in just as deeper. "My little pervert's been thinking about this, has she?" You look away bashfully, but he moves your face to look back at him. "Hey, hey," he soothes, "you know how hot that is, now I know? Because fuck knows how many wet dreams you've starred in."

He doesn’t give you the time to imagine him masturbating over the thought of you, all alone in this very bed. Angling himself to lean back just a little, he aims himself just at that part he was hitting with his tongue and his fingers earlier, that drove you wild. Your eyes roll back as your grip falters from your legs. You dig your fingertips into the mattress as you feel yourself starting to come apart once again. "Hnnn, fuck, I'm gonna - please, can I -?"

"Shit, I'm close, too. Ah fuck, look at you, look at me! Getting to fuck the most beautiful girl in the world, and she's my best friend? Fucking jackpot." He leans over you, fists pushing into the mattress either side of you, his nose barely touching yours, as he looks you deep in the eyes, his still blown into dark voids of total corruption. "Now c'mon, baby, tell me again. Who's your fucking god?"

You groan, "It's you, god, Eddie, god!" You clench around him just as you feel him filling you up, warm spurts of cum lining your insides. He stays inside of you, thrusting more and more gently until he eventually comes to a complete standstill. 

He still remains inside you, hovering over you, but his tired expression is far softer. "Holy fucking shit," he breathes, "that was intense."

"Yeah," you admit, "but in a good way, right?"

"Oh, absolutely," Eddie leans down to kiss you sweetly, gently. He caresses your face with a genuine adoration. "So, uh… If that's just a taste of what sex with you is like… Wanna bump that whole marriage thing up to next week?"

You reach up and cup his jaw, cocking your head. "Oh, sweetie. Go get us cleaned up, then find a suit. We're going to the courthouse first thing tomorrow morning."

#eddie munson x reader #eddie munson imagine #eddie munson x you #stranger things x reader #stranger things imagine #eddie stranger things #eddie munson fic #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson smut

[millenniumfae]

Age-appropriate sex ed for kindergartners introduces topics like consent, identifying who is in your family and the correct names for body parts.

"When we're talking about consent with kindergartners, that means getting permission before you touch someone else; asking if it's OK if you borrow somebody's toy or pencil or game, so that kids start to learn about personal boundaries and consent in really age- and developmentally appropriate ways," says Gelperin, who was part of a team that released the first national sex education standards in 2012.

#sex ed #sex education

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

hi, I hope this isn't too heavy for an anon ask, but I truly don't know where else to ask this

when i saw your thread about child sex ed, I just wondered... did i accidentally assault my brother???

so for some context I was raped/CSA'd sometime before the age of 11 and it's fucked up my perception of what's considered appropriate. when we were little, my brother who is very close in age to me and I used to have a game of "going to the doctor" where we would go in the bathroom and just look at each other's bodies (in a nonsexual way, normal behavior for curious kids). the part that gets me is that I remember trying to get him to stick his fingers in my holes -- to his credit he always refused and I never physically forced him to do anything, but in retrospect the thought just makes me ill

and before you ask, yes, our sex ed as children was very spotty and pretty much ended at how babies are made

hi anon,

this is a heavy one, and I'm sorry you've been feeling gross about this.

for what it's worth, I don't think anything you're describing is inappropriate or particularly unusual. as you said, it's very normal for young children to examine each other's bodies. this is a very developmentally normal curiosity to have, especially between children who have noticed that their body parts look different. that can include exploring bodily cavities, and there's nothing inherently harmful or abusive about that. some years ago Lena Dunham got BLASTED as a child abuser for talking about looking at her baby sibling's vulva in her memoir, and that made me incredibly mad. Lena Dunham wasn't molesting her sibling; she was a curious child and people using completely ordinary childhood activities to call her a pedophile just because she's annoying fucking sucks.

listen. caveat: not all instances of children taking an interest in each other's bodies is harmless. molestation can very much occur between siblings, and cause lasting trauma. okay? that's a real thing. your fears are not baseless.

but it sounds like you and your brother were both engaging in consensual play and you didn't force the issue when he didn't want to digitally penetrate you. unless you feel like dredging the issue up with your brother, or he wants to bring it up and/or is exhibiting any signs of lasting sexual trauma, I think you are probably safe to assume that you didn't do any lasting harm.

it's understandable to have the ick about it now as an adult, with greater context. and it's very normal to be cautious and worried that you may have hurt your brother unintentionally. but please try not to be too hard on yourself about this. you were a kid doing things kids do. your intentions were not malicious, and being a kid unknowingly doing something that *might* hurt someone is not the same as being an abuser.

#tw csa #sex edventures 2024

[corroded-hellfire]

You Belong With Me - Eddie Munson x Reader

Summary: modern!au. Eddie is dating Chrissy, but she’s making him miserable. What would it take for him to notice that he’d be better off with you? Based on the Taylor Swift song.

Note: Oh, so many thoughts about this one. I’ve never been a big fan of song fics, but this song just screamed this dynamic at me and wouldn’t let me rest until I wrote it. And it physically hurt me to write Chrissy as the “bad guy” because I just adore her and Grace so much. But for the fic, it had to be done. Lastly, I literally stayed up all night to write this so I apologize if my sleeplessness caused any more errors than usual.

Warnings: modern!au, language, sex jokes, mention of gun, I think that’s it?

Words: 8.7k

“But that’s not what I meant. No, no, I- Babe, it was a joke. It wasn’t about you! You know I don’t like basketball game- Yes, I’m coming. Of course. I’m sorry, okay? Like I said, it was a joke- Okay. Yeah, okay. I’ll see you there. Okay. Bye.”

Eddie tosses his phone down on your bed and rubs his hands over his face. You sit up near your pillows, wincing through the whole phone call. Eddie getting frustrated like this was becoming far too common for your liking.

“You okay, Eds?” He isn’t, but you’re not sure if he’ll want to talk about it or not.

“Fine,” he says. He has to know you don’t believe him, but he also knows you won’t push him. He climbs on your bed, leaning against your footboard.

“I made a stupid joke,” he says. “I said something about watching a basketball game being like watching a goldfish swim around in its bowl. You’re just looking back and forth at the same thing the whole time!”

It’s not the appropriate time, but you can’t help but laugh. “It’s true, though.”

“Thank you!” he says. “It was a dumb joke but somehow Chrissy took that as me saying I hated going to see her cheer. Is it my favorite thing to do? No. But I do it because she’s my girlfriend.”

You nod your head at him, not sure what you could say. There are a million things you want to say. Break up with her. She’s not good enough for you. I’ve been in love with you for years, you doofus. But none of that would help him. It’d only stress him out even more, which was the last thing you wanted to do.

“I swear, the only saving grace at those God-awful games is that you’re there with me. If I didn’t have you to make snide comments with, I don’t think I’d be able to stomach it,” he says.

It should make you feel better, you think. But in reality, it just makes you want to smack him on the back of the head and say, “then what does that tell you, dumbass? Spending time with me is better!”

“We’re going to the game tonight, I’m assuming,” you say. It’s a Tuesday so there wasn’t a Hellfire meeting, which was the only acceptable reason, according to Chrissy, that Eddie could miss a game. Even those, she wasn’t thrilled he skipped games for.

“Don’t have much of a choice,” Eddie mumbles, picking at his rings. He looks up and meets your eyes. “I mean, you do, though. You don’t have to come with me.”

And make him do this alone? You couldn’t. Even if you had to sit there and pretend not to see Eddie watching Chrissy, or just pretend to not see Chrissy in general. It was never a choice for you if there was an opportunity to spend it with Eddie. You’d stand blindly by his side, supporting him however you could.

“You can’t get rid of me that easy,” you tell him.

He smiles and tosses one of your stuffed bears at you. “Like I’d ever want to get rid of you.”

Looking into his eyes suddenly makes you feel like you could cry, so you jump off your bed and head over to your Bluetooth speaker.

“What do you say? Some Ozzy?” you ask.

Eddie groans and drops his head forward. “God, I wish I could stay and listen. I’ve got two deals before the game tonight, though. I’ve gotta head out.”

You pout and press play on the machine anyway. Ozzy Osborne was not what was queued up next, however. The acoustics of a Taylor Swift song start to play into the space of your bedroom.

Eddie groans again, louder this time. You stop the music and start to skip through the shuffled playlist.

“I am so tired of pop songs. It seems like that’s all that’s playing in my car lately and it’s driving me up the wall. I can listen to it sometimes, but God forbid we listen to any of my music as I’m driving around with her.”

Your pout grows as you keep your back to Eddie. You never know what to say to him when he complains about Chrissy. He wanted to date her so badly that you didn’t think anything could hurt you worse. But seeing the way she treats him? That beat all.

“I thought you didn’t even like Taylor Swift,” Eddie says. It just shows how much Chrissy must be making him listen to pop if he recognized the song by the opening chords.

“I like some of her songs,” you say, turning to face him. “Sometimes it feels like she took a page out of my diary and wrote a song about it. I love Metallica and Black Sabbath dearly, but that is something they just don’t do.”

Eddie stands up off your bed and grabs his leather jacket. He smirks at you as he slips it on. “So, what you’re saying is, Taylor Swift understands you?”

You roll your eyes at him and plop back down on your bed. “Yes, Eddie. That’s exactly what I’m saying. The pretty, millionaire singer, that’s dated all of the hottest guys in Hollywood totally gets me.”

“You sing,” Eddie says with a shrug. “In fact, I wish you did it more. How many times have I begged you to come sing with the band again?”

“It was once, I was drunk, and I’m still grateful that I don’t remember all of it,” you say.

“You were good. I’m not just saying that as your best friend, I’m saying it as a musician. You never sing around me. Why are you embarrassed to?”

The teddy bear in your lap is easier to look at than Eddie. “M’not embarrassed.”

“Oh yeah? Then why not in front of me at least? You’ve seen me puking my guts out and have taken care of me after a hangover, but you’re too shy to sing in front of me?”

“To be fair,” you say, eyes now finding Eddie’s, “you have also seen me puke and taken care of me when I had a hangover.”

“Yet I still sing in front of you.” When you don’t say anything, Eddie starts to get annoyed. “You know, I told Dustin that I wished you’d sing more, and he seemed confused because apparently you sing all the time around him.”

“That’s different!”

“How?” Now he sounds like he’s starting to get mad and it’s the last thing you want. Chrissy had already worked him up and you didn’t want to make it worse.

“You know, Dustin is always singing songs from movies and stuff. You’ve seen him and I singing Suddenly, Seymour from Little Shop of Horrors together. See? I’m not embarrassed in front of you.”

“Yeah, but you were also putting on that squeaky voice the woman has in the movie.” He sighs and takes a few steps towards your bed. “I’m sorry. I’m not trying to make you uncomfortable. I just like it when you sing.”

You look up at him and give him a small smile. “I like when you sing, too.”

“We’ll go to a karaoke club soon then,” he says with a smirk, and you’re not sure if he’s teasing or not. He presses a kiss to the top of your head. “I’ll come by in a few hours to pick you up?”

“Mhmm.” He heads out of your room, but you call out for him before he can fully leave. “Eddie! Can you hit play for me? I think I got the right song up now.”

Eddie clicks the button on your Bluetooth speaker and Crazy Train starts playing, Ozzy’s maniacal laugh haunting your bedroom.

“Much better,” Eddie says over his shoulder as he walks out of your room.

After dinner with your parents, you head back up to your room. Your mom and dad assume it’s to finish your homework, but you’d finished that a little after Eddie left. Instead, you pull up your metal-only playlist and let it run on shuffle. The synthetic voice comes over your Bluetooth speaker.

“I am iron man.”

This song instantly has you reaching to turn the volume up. Black Sabbath’s iconic sound rings through your room and you jump on top of your bed. You head-bang to the opening notes, feeling more pumped up by the second. You spin around, scooping up your hairbrush from your nightstand to use as a makeshift microphone.

“Has he lost his mind? Can he see or is he blind? Can he walk at all? Or if he moves, will he fall?”

You fall to your knees on the mattress, openly air-guitaring as you sing along.

“Is he alive or dead? Has he thoughts within his head? We'll just pass him there, why should we even care?”

There’s a new voice joining in with yours this time. You slowly turn around and move the hair out of the way that’s covering your face from all your whipping it about. Eddie leans against your doorframe, arms crossed against his chest, and the biggest smile on his face that you think you’ve ever seen. You hadn’t realized how long it’s been since you’ve seen him smile like that. Months? At least.

“Enjoy the show?” you ask as you hop down from your bed.

“Very much,” he says. “Don’t stop on my account.”

You give him a playful glare as you walk over to your mirror. You use your hairbrush/pseudo microphone to get your hair out of your face and looking somewhat presentable.

“How’d the deals go?” you ask as you grab your sneakers.

“Fine. Two usuals so it was quick and painless,” he tells you as you lace up your converse.

Unlike this basketball game will be, you think to yourself.

“Save any for us to use tomorrow?”

“Well, duh. But we’ll have to go somewhere to smoke it. Wayne’s got an old army buddy coming over for dinner,” Eddie says.

“The park?” You take a look at yourself in the mirror and adjust your Iron Maiden shirt. Steve once told you that you should wear school colors to a game. You told him to find you a band t-shirt that had the God-awful orange and green of the basketball uniforms and you would.

“Park sounds good to me,” Eddie says. He pulls on your arm to yank you away from the mirror. “You look perfect, let’s go.”

Your face flushes as you follow Eddie out of your room. Both of you wave to your parents in the living room before heading outside. Climbing into Eddie’s van is second nature at this point, and you make yourself comfortable by putting your sneakered feet up on the dashboard.

Eddie starts the car and Metallica begins blaring through the air. You drum on your knees as Eddie makes the short drive to Hawkins High. Hopefully, Lucas will play tonight. Since he’s been getting better, the coach has been putting him in more. It was great to see his confidence grow.

The parking lot in front of the school is almost as crowded as it would be if school was in session. Eddie slips the van into one of the few empty spots and you both get out. The murmuring from the gym could be heard out in the parking lot. Was this an important game? Was our team doing well this year? You had no idea. You came to most, if not all, of the games, but you hardly paid attention to any of it.

The sounds of the crowd talking loudly to one another, the squeaking of sneakers on the shiny floor, and the cacophony of instruments tuning up in the band section of the bleachers smack you in the face as Eddie opens the gym door for you. You nod to him in thanks before slipping inside. He follows behind you and you wave to Nancy who is on the sidelines with other students from the school paper.

Robin waves and gives you a big smile when you walk past the school band. You blow her a kiss, and she pretends to catch it. In the middle of the bleachers there’s a small gap where you and Eddie could fit. When you get closer to it, you can see it’s empty because Max, Dustin, and Mike have their feet there; their attempt at saving the seat for you guys.

“Finally,” Dustin says. “Thought someone was gonna sit on my feet any second.”

“You better move them quick then,” Eddie says. He moves to sit on the boy’s feet and all three of them bring their legs back to themselves.

From where you’re sitting, the cheerleaders are straight ahead. They’re in your direct line of vision and you get the feeling that your neck is going to be sore tomorrow because you’ll probably spend most of the game looking and talking to Max behind you.

Eddie raises his hand to wave, and you leave your eyes in your lap. You don’t need to see her pretty smile or her bright eyes. Her hair that was never out of place. You reach up to smooth over your own hair self-consciously.

“Stop,” Max says. She’s leaned in towards you so she can whisper in your ear. “Your hair is fine. You look great. And you know he’s going to spend more time talking to you than paying attention to her during the game anyway.”

With a sigh, you turn your head to give her a small smile. She reaches forward and squeezes your shoulder. Your girls knew how you felt about Eddie. With Nancy and Max, they said they had known before you even told them. The pair of them thought it was incredibly obvious to anyone who was paying attention, while Robin was shocked when you told her.

A whistle blows, signaling the start of the game. Your eyes scan the white jerseys moving around the court and on the sidelines. Number eight is standing on the side, hands on his hips and swaying from side to side. From the back, Lucas looks tense and nervous. Maybe this was a big game.

The cheerleaders began with their cheers, the sounds of pompoms crashing against each other catching on the air. Eddie watched the first few cheers before he turned to you.

“I’m already over it,” he says.

“Let me know when Lucas gets out on the court and I’ll care,” you answer him.

“Hey,” Dustin says, popping his head in between yours and Eddie’s. “You hear about the contest down at the bar?”

“What contest?” Eddie asks.

“What bar?” you ask.

Mike breaks his eyes away from the court to join the conversation. “The karaoke bar over by the grocery store.”

“They’re having like, a talent show - karaoke version - or something. I think you win $500,” Dustin says.

“When is it?” Eddie asks. He loved singing in front of people, and if he could win some money in the process, why not?

“Friday, you losers,” Max says, looking at Dustin and Mike. “You seriously didn’t notice that it’s the same night as Hellfire? The end of your campaign?”

“Shit,” Dustin says.

“Damn, that would’ve been fun,” Eddie says. “That’s a pretty big place, too. Nice sized audience.”

“Get up during halftime and sing to this crowd then,” you joke to Eddie.

“Oh God, don’t put that in his head. He’ll do it,” Mike says.

“These people wouldn’t know good music if I blared it in their ears,” Eddie says as he looks around the bleachers. “Ah, look. Harrington with another date. Who’s that one?”

Both you and Max crane your necks to try and see who Steve is with. He’s a few rows higher than you and closer to the band.

“Heidi?” Max asks.

“I don’t think so. Steve said he wouldn’t go on another date with her. Plus, Heidi’s hair is lighter than that,” you say.

Steve catches you and Max looking at him and mimes putting a gun to his head and pulling the trigger. Max rolls her eyes while you let out a laugh.

“Poor Steve,” you say. “All these girls just aren’t right for him.”

“I keep telling him that he’s gotta figure out what he wants but he never listens to me,” Dustin says.

“Does he listen to anyone?” Max asks.

“Robin, maybe,” you add.

“Has he ever asked you on a date?” Eddie asks you. You furrow your brow in confusion. Why was he asking this? Just curiosity?

“No,” you say. “We’re friends.”

Eddie shrugs. “Sometimes that’s the best thing to be before becoming something more.”

You take a deep breath and feel your stomach clenching.

“I’ve got to use the bathroom,” you say. You stand up and Max stands behind you.

“I’ll come with you,” she says.

The two of you walk out of the gymnasium and into the quiet school hallway. Max stays quiet until she confirms there aren’t any other girls in the bathroom.

“You’re entering that contest,” Max says.

“What?”

“Find a song that expresses what you’re feeling and let it out on stage. You’re good. Good enough to win. And you know the guys won’t see because they’ll be playing DND.”

“I don’t know, Max.” You lean against the sinks and Max leans next to you.

“Oh, come on. You’re telling me a song about wanting someone who you can’t have comes on the radio while you’re driving, and you don’t angry belt it out?” Max asks.

“Yeah, alone in my car,” you say.

“And it’s cathartic, right?”

“I guess.” You shrug and avoid Max’s eyes because you know what’s coming next.

“If that feels good, imagine getting all those emotions and feelings out on stage,” Max says. “I already signed you up.”

You sigh and rub your hands over your face. It makes sense and you hate it. Music has always been your way of expressing yourself. Maybe doing this would help you release some of your anger and sadness.

“Fine,” you finally concede.

“Yes!” Max says. “We’ll bring Nancy and Robin and it’ll be great.”

“No one tells the guys about this, though,” you say. “I don’t need any of the headache that would come with that.”

“My lips are sealed,” Max says.

 After the game, in which Lucas made the game winning shot, friends and family mingled with the players and cheerleaders. You would’ve gone with the others to talk to Lucas if Eddie hadn’t all but steered you in the direction of Chrissy. His hand was on the small of your back and you’d let him lead you anywhere like that. Even here.

“Eddie!” Chrissy calls. She runs forward and wraps her arms around his neck. He wraps his around her small waist and lifts her up, her short skirt riding up her ass. You divert your eyes from the pair of them, scanning the rest of the crowd for your friends.

“You were great,” Eddie is telling her. “And you looked so hot.”

Your fists clench and your fingernails are digging hard enough into your palms to draw blood.

“Like you even watched me,” Chrissy says with a laugh. “I saw you talking the whole time.”

Eddie frowns and his brows pinch together. “I did watch you.”

“Okay,” she says as she gives him a pat on the arm. It’s the condescending tone that’s dripping from her voice that makes you speak up.

“He pointed out to us in the third period when you did the new cheer. The one you came up with when you became cheer captain,” you say. You bite back from adding, “So, see? He pays attention to you even though you’re horrible to him and he deserves far better than you could ever be.”

Chrissy turns, looking at you as if she just noticed you were there. “Oh, hi.”

“Hi,” you respond, trying to keep the venom in your voice to a minimum.

She turns back to Eddie and wraps her arms around his neck. “I’m hungry. Can we go get pizza?”

Eddie glances at you out of the corner of his eye before looking back at her. “Uh, I hadn’t planned on that. I was going to give y/n a ride home.”

Chrissy pouts and it doesn’t suit her. Her lip goes too far out and her eyes scrunch in a way that looks more painful than sad.

“But I hardly got to see you today. Can’t she get a ride with someone else?” Chrissy asks.

“Don’t talk about her as if she’s not here,” Eddie says, pulling back from her a little. Her pout turns to a glare as she looks at him.

“It’s fine,” you say, taking a few steps back. You didn’t want to make this worse for Eddie and you certainly didn’t want to be stuck in the van with the two of them.

“But…” Eddie trails off.

“It’s okay,” you say, though your heart is telling you the opposite. “Go get pizza.”

He frowns deeper but nods his head. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“I’ll be here.” You give him a small smile before disappearing into the crowd.

Hopefully, Steve didn’t drive his date here and she had her own way home. You look through the mass of bodies for the familiar head of brown hair but come up empty. You don’t see a baseball cap with curls spilling out of it or a redhead either.

With a sigh, you walk to the doors. You head out into the dark evening, the stars and moon shining bright down on Hawkins this night. Most of the parking lot has cleared out and you don’t see a car you recognize other than the big brown van that used to bring you so much comfort.

Home is only six miles away, so you decide to walk. It’s a chilly night and you wrap your arms around yourself, hands rubbing up and down your arms that are bare in your t-shirt. You’ve made the walk before and you estimate it will take you about two hours. Thankful that you wore your most comfortable sneakers, you head up the hill and off school property.

The streets are quiet and dark, which unsettles you. Weird things happen in Hawkins all the time and you’d wager this is how a lot of them started. After walking two miles, a total of three cars have passed you by. You were almost more afraid when you saw the cars coming towards you rather than walking alone in the darkness.

You hear a car coming from behind and you take a step closer to the tree line and out of the road since the driver probably can’t see you.

“Y/n?”

You look back and Robin is hanging out the passenger window of Steve’s car.

“What are you doing?” she asks.

“Walking home,” you say as if it was a normal occurrence. Maybe if you act as if this wasn’t that big of a deal, they’d believe it.

“In the dark? Alone? At night? Are you insane?” Robin says. The driver door opens and Steve steps out. He walks over to you and looks at you in concern.

“Are you okay?” he asks.

“I’m fine.”

“Where’s Eddie?”

“He, um. Well, Chrissy wanted pizza. So, I said I’d get another ride, but I couldn’t find one. And home isn’t too far.” You shrug, not meeting his eyes.

Steve rests his hands on his hips and sighs. His typical mom stance.

“Come on. I’ll drive you home. You’re going to have to pile in though.” He doesn’t give you a chance to argue, wrapping an arm around you and guiding you to the car. “Jesus, you’re freezing. You know, you could’ve called me. Or Robin or Max or Dustin or Mike.”

Steve opens the back door, and the three younger faces look back at you. Max scoots over until she’s sitting on Dustin’s lap.

“I don’t know how I feel about this,” Dustin says. He raises his arms in the air so he isn’t touching Max at all.

You slide in and Steve closes the door behind you. Dustin refuses to look at anyone, cheeks flushing. You can’t help the small smile on your face as you tug Max over to sit on your lap instead. She settles easily enough and rests her head against the window.

The car smells like fried food and you find out why when Mike holds a bag out in front of you.

“Burger? Fries?” he offers. “Or…” he rummages around in bags between his feet. “Onion rings.”

“Toss one,” you tell him. He smiles as you open your mouth and tries to throw the fried onion inside. Surprisingly, he makes it, which makes the four of you in the back cheer.

Robin gets dropped off first, her living the closest to school. She grabs her band hat and trumpet out of the trunk and waves before she disappears inside her house. Dustin takes the opportunity to jump into the front seat. Technically, Max should’ve been the next one dropped off, but Steve kept driving straight past the trailer park. Max didn’t say a word, knowing why Steve was avoiding the neighborhood for now.

“Why didn’t Nancy drive you home?” you ask Mike as Steve pulls into the Wheeler driveway.

“Because she’s a priss and has to stay late to work on the stupid paper,” he says.

“Hey!” Both you and Steve yell at the same time as he scrambles out of the car.

“You try living with her,” he says before waving his hand in a goodbye.

Your house is next, and you sag in relief when it comes into view. You hadn’t been expecting to see it for at least another hour at the rate you were walking before.

“Thanks for the ride, Steve,” you say. “I really appreciate it.”

“Anytime that idiot leaves you high and dry just call me,” Steve says, looking at you in the rear-view mirror. You smile to yourself, thinking this must be what it’s like to have a big brother. You now understand why the kids all gravitated towards him.

“Thanks,” you repeat as you get out of the car. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” you say to Max and Dustin. They wave as you head up to your door.

 School the next day is weird. People are excited because the basketball team won; so, the halls were buzzing with that energy. But most people were tired as well, having stayed up later than usual to come to the game. It all gives you a nice cover for how you’re feeling. You feel sluggish and irritated. Though you can’t put your finger on the exact reason why, you knew the people it could be blamed on.

Eddie leans up against the locker next to yours between second and third period as you’re exchanging your books out.

“You didn’t text me last night,” he says.

“What?” you ask, not looking at him.

“When you got home. You didn’t text me to let me know you got home okay.”

“You didn’t ask me to,” you point out.

He frowns. “I didn’t think I had to. It’s just kind of something we do.”

“Well, sorry, I guess.” You close your locker and turn to him. “Was there something else?”

“Are you mad at me?” he asks. His big puppy dog eyes are shining and it’s truly your damn kryptonite.

You take a deep breath. “No.” You don’t know if that’s really true or not, though.

“You’re sure?” Eddie raises his eyebrows at you.

“I’m sure,” you lie.

“Are we still on for the park later?” he asks, hope glimmering in his eyes.

“Of course,” you say, eager to see him relax.

“Perfect. I’ve got everything in my backpack already to go.” The weed, he means. You can’t think of a better day to get high than today.  

 School simultaneously drags on and ends too quickly. Chrissy has cheer practice, so you don’t have to deal with her while you walk to Eddie’s van. Once inside, he cranks Sweet Child O’ Mine because he knows it’s one of your favorites. When you don’t hum along or even tap your foot along to the beat, he knows something is up.

He parks the van across the street from the park and grabs his backpack.

“Ready?” he asks.

You nod in affirmation and hop out. The two of you walk down the street to the crosswalk. Normally you’d just jay-walk to cross the street, but this intersection was notorious for pedestrian injuries. When you get your signal that it’s okay to cross, Eddie trips and you hear the ripping of material. You look down and see he’s ripped his own jeans by stepping on the hem of them while walking. The tear that was at his knee has now tripled in size and he could easily stick his whole leg through it. You giggle to yourself, and Eddie breathes a sigh of relief at the sound.

The two of you find your usual bench at the park and claim it. It’s hidden by a copse of trees so it’s easier to hide your illicit activities, but still allows you a good view of the park.

Eddie pulls out the two joints he’d rolled and lights one before handing it to you. Though you were used to the sickeningly bitter odor, it didn’t mean you liked it. You wrinkle your nose before raising the bud to your lips. You inhale, letting the burn curl down your throat and into your lungs. You were pretty good at not coughing by now. The first few times you’d ended up in total tears because of the intense hacking.

Eddie takes a hit of his own joint and rests his head against the back of the bench, blowing smoke straight up towards the sky. He closes his eyes and you take the time to admire him. He’d forgone the denim vest today and just settled on his leather jacket over his hellfire shirt. Hints of stubble were starting to appear on his chin and his lips were a little chapped. His long, dark eyelashes kiss his cheeks as his eyes move under his closed lids. He’s so beautiful it physically aches you.

He opens his eyes and turns his head to smile at you. It’s a real Eddie smile and it warms your heart. It’s so rare these days but it’s so bright it could rival the moon at night.

“What’re you thinking about?” he asks.

“The moon,” you say.

Eddie chuckles and takes another hit. “Oh yeah?” He releases the smoke. “What about it?”

“It’s so bright. But you only notice the brightness at night.” You came up with it off the top of your head, but it sounded good to you. You raise your joint to your mouth for another puff.

“Like some people I guess,” Eddie says. He doesn’t sound like he’s finished talking so you wait. “Sometimes you don’t see how amazing some people are until everything else around you dims, but they don’t. They’re still there bright and shining.”

It could be that he’s having a profound thought about his life, or the pot is kicking in, so you can’t be sure.

“I want to go to the moon,” you say. Eddie laughs and you can tell both of you are feeling the effects now.

His laugh is infectious and causes you to start laughing as well. You curl in on yourself, abdominal muscles starting to cramp, and you slide to the side to lay across Eddie’s lap.

“Eds?” you ask, eyes staring up at the clouds above.

“Mm?”

“I miss you.”

He frowns down at you and pokes your forehead with his ringed index finger.

“I’m right here, silly head.”

“I know,” you say.

“I like when we talk,” Eddie says. His head is moving all around, taking in all the sights in the park around you. There are a few squirrels scampering up the tree closest to you. Birds sing in the distance and the laughter of kids comes from the playground a few hundred feet away.

“I like it too,” you say. “It’s so easy to talk to you.”

“Always has been. Since we met.”

“You’re my favorite person,” you tell him.

He grins and drops his head down to look at you. “More than Timothée Chalamet?”

“Mhmm,” you hum in confirmation.

“Wow,” Eddie says with a laugh. “That’s saying something.”

The two of you decide to lay in the grass as you let the pot work through your system. Eddie won’t be able to drive for a while anyway, so you take advantage of the nice day.

“I had a weird dream last night,” Eddie says.

“Yeah? Tell me.”

“I was playing at The Hideout. But when I looked down, I was playing the wrong guitar. It was a nice guitar. It was gold and smooth and sounded beautiful. But it wasn’t my guitar. I put the gold guitar down and tried to find mine. I started freaking out because I thought I lost it. I looked everywhere and couldn’t find it.”

“Did you find it?” you ask.

“I did. But some guy was playing it and it made me so mad.”

“What guy?” You let your heavy eyes droop closed.

“M’not sure. He didn’t look familiar. Could’ve been anyone, I guess. But he was playing my guitar and I wanted it back. But he said I was too late. And it made me really really sad.”

You frown and reach over to take Eddie’s hand in yours. “It’s okay, Eddie. No one is going to take your guitar away. Why would it want to leave you?”

 The high lasted a few hours and by the time Eddie got you home for dinner, the munchie effect was still going strong. You devoured the lasagna your mom put down in front of you. The bloodshot look had faded from your eyes, so you were just hoping your parents thought you were extra hungry today for some reason.

 You should’ve gone to sleep hours ago. It would’ve been easy; you always slept better on days when you got high with Eddie. But you still hadn’t picked a song to sing at the karaoke competition. Your head was in the middle of your bed, and you rested your legs up against the wall over your headboard. You scroll and scroll through playlists, trying to find a song that expresses what you’ve been feeling.

The sound of brakes squeaking makes you move your legs down and sit up on your bed. Your phone tells you that it’s 3:17am. You walk over to your window and see Eddie walking around the side of your house. You frown at him, and he notices you up in your window. You point towards the back door and Eddie nods.

Eddie would sometimes come by in the middle of the night, but he’d usually text first. You creep down the stairs as quietly as you can, avoiding any creaks. Your cat picks his head up from where he’s sleeping on the top of the couch to see what you’re up to. He decides he doesn’t care though and adjusts himself into a new comfortable position to fall back asleep.

Luckily, your dad had fixed it so the back door didn’t stick anymore when you tried to open it. It glides open silently and Eddie steps inside.

“What’s wrong? Are you okay?” you whisper to him.

He nods but he won’t meet your eyes. You frown and take his hand in yours. As you walk back past your cat, he picks his head up again and deems Eddie worthy of his affection. Eddie scratches his head two times before following you up the stairs.

You pull him into your room and quietly close the door behind you.

“What’s up?” you ask him.

He shrugs and sits on the edge of your bed. “Didn’t want to be alone.”

The sheets are messy, and you crawl on top of them, making yourself comfortable against the mountain of pillows against your headboard. Eddie glances back before leaning backwards so his head ends up in your lap. You start to play with his hair. You haven’t done this in a while, and it warms your heart. His eyes drift closed, and you think he’s fallen asleep until he quietly kicks his boots off so he can pull his legs up on the bed as well.

“Do you want to talk about it?” you ask.

He opens his eyes and stares at your ceiling. “I feel confused.”

“About what?”

“That’s the thing. Everything.”

You frown and trace your pinky finger along one of his curls. “Elaborate?”

“I don’t know how,” he says. “Feel like everything is upside down. I feel like I want things to go back to normal, but I don’t know what’s changed to make me think things aren’t normal. Am I making sense?”

“Sort of,” you say.

His eyes begin to water, and it breaks your heart. You’d give anything to be able to fix what’s wrong, but he doesn’t seem to know.

“Where do I belong?” he asks.

“Here,” you say without hesitation. “Here with me and your uncle and Dustin and all your friends. Here with your favorite guitar and your band and your loud as all hell van.”

That makes him chuckle and your heart feels ten pounds lighter. He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes again.

“Did you miss something on that list? Or someone?” he asks.

“I don’t know,” you say carefully. “Did I?”

He licks over his lips before answering. “I don’t believe you did. I think that was a pretty complete list. Doesn’t need anyone else.”

“No?” you ask.

He opens his eyes and shakes his head. “She reamed me out for an hour before because I hadn’t bought prom tickets yet.”

“I didn’t even know they were on sale,” you say. You’re trying to keep your voice calm for him, but it’s proving difficult.

“Neither did I,” he says. “But she goes on and on about how she already bought her dress and the, and I’m quoting here, ‘the prettiest high heels in the world.’”

“Shouldn’t she have waited until, you know…at least until you asked?”

“Right?” he huffs out. He runs his hands over his face, and you start to play with the small curls along his forehead. “I’ve got to end it.”

“I think so,” you say in a small voice.

He tilts his head up so he can look at you. “Friday, yeah? Tomorrow I’ve got a test, so I don’t want the stress added to that. I need to pass this class.”

“Biology again?” you ask. “I thought you were doing better.”

“I am, but I won’t if I bomb this test.”

“You should probably get some sleep then.” You almost said “go home and get some sleep” but that’s not what you really want. He nods and goes to sit up, but you catch his arm.

“Here?” he asks.

You shrug and slide yourself under the covers. “Why not? I don’t have cooties. I got the shot.”

He smiles and shrugs out of his leather jacket before sliding in the bed next to you. Your heart races as his head lays on the pillow next to yours, noses almost touching.

“Goodnight,” he whispers.

“Goodnight.”

 On Friday, you only get to see Eddie between second and third period at your locker. His plan is to have lunch with Chrissy outside and break up with her then. Your paths don’t cross after lunch, and he has Hellfire and you’re meeting with the girls to get ready for the karaoke contest right after school. Your stomach will be in knots until you find out how it went.

Nancy dusts your eyelids with silver eyeshadow as you sit on your bed. Max and Robin go through your closet, deciding what you should wear tonight.

“No, that might be see-through under the lights.”

“What about this?”

“It clashes with the silver eyeshadow.”

“Any texts from Eddie?” Nancy asks quietly as she cleans up the edges.

“No,” you breathe out with a sigh. “But he’s never on his phone during Hellfire. I think that would be blasphemous in there.”

Nancy hums her agreement.

“We’ve got one!” Robin announces.

You open your eyes to see Max holding a royal blue dress that accentuates your curves and feels silky smooth against your skin. You wrinkle your nose at them.

“It doesn’t go,” you say.

“With what?” Max asks.

“My song!”

“Oh, you’re right,” Robin says.

“Fine, fine,” Max says. She puts the dress back in the closet and starts to dig through your drawers.

“I hope there are no sex toys in here,” Robin says as she joins Max.

You roll your eyes as Nancy touches up your eyeliner.

“Jeans,” Nancy says as she works. “She should wear jeans and a t-shirt.”

“That’s what she wears every day,” Robin says.

“Exactly,” you and Nancy say at the same time.

“Okay, fine,” Robin acquiesces. “But what one?”

“Iron Maiden?” Max asks as she picks one out of the drawer. “There’s also Guns ‘n Roses, Black Sabbath, Metallica. Geez, any from this century?”

“Corroded Coffin,” you say. Max looks at you and grins.

“Where is it?” she asks.

“Top drawer.”

Robin and Max pick out the best jeans to go with your favorite tee. Nancy tells you to get dressed before she fixes your hair. She doesn’t do much, just spray a little product in it and tussle it up.

“Perfect,” she says.

 You pace back and forth backstage. You’re not exactly nervous. Not about the singing, anyway. About letting your feelings channel through you in this way. It was a vulnerability you’d never shared before. Even if the audience just thought you’d picked this song because you liked it, you and your friends knew the truth.

The girl on stage now is singing Madonna and you take deep breaths to settle yourself.

 “Hey.”

Nancy jumps at the voice in her ear. She turns her head to see Eddie sliding into the seat next to her. Her eyes widen comically, and Eddie raises an eyebrow at her.

“I didn’t think I’d see you here either, but do I look like a ghost or something?”

“What are you doing here?” Robin demands from the other side of Nancy. Someone in the crowd shushes her, but she doesn’t care. “You’re supposed to be at Hellfire.”

Eddie shrugs with a devious smile and Dustin plops down in the seat on the other side of him.

“His stupid campaign wiped us out in the first half hour,” Dustin says. “We remembered this was happening, so we figured we’d catch the last half.”

Max’s leg bounces nervously on Robin’s other side and Eddie notices the motion.

“What’s wrong, Red?” She raises her eyebrows and shakes her head at him. “Wait, where’s y/n?” he asks.

Robin leans in to whisper in Max’s ear. “Do we have time to warn her?”

“No,” Max whispers back. “She’s up next.”

“Maybe she won’t see with all the lights,” Nancy leans over to add.

Robin groans and drops her head in her hands.

The girl wraps up singing Papa Don’t Preach and the audience claps politely. The manager steps out on the stage and reads from a clipboard.

“Next up we have y/n y/l/n.”

Eddie’s jaw drops before a huge smile forms on his face. He was going to get to hear you sing again. Finally.

You step onstage and Eddie’s taken aback. He didn’t expect an elaborate outfit or anything of the sort but seeing you in a Corroded Coffin shirt took him by surprise.

The music begins and the notes tickle his brain. He knows this song. He knows that he knows it because of Chrissy, even if he can’t place it. Why would you choose this song?

You grip the mic tightly in your grip and lift it to your mouth.

“You're on the phone with your girlfriend, she's upset. She's going off about something that you said, ‘cause she doesn't get your humor like I do.”

It’s Taylor Swift, Eddie recognizes. This confuses him even further. What was it you said about her music?

“I'm in the room, it's a typical Tuesday night. I'm listening to the kind of music she doesn't like, and she'll never know your story like I do.”

You feel your confidence picking up as you keep going. Looking at the audience doesn’t seem like a good idea, so you keep your eyes vague as they move across the open space in front of you. It feels good to have a microphone in your hand.

“But she wears short skirts, I wear T-shirts. She's Cheer Captain, and I'm on the bleachers. Dreaming about the day when you wake up and find that what you're looking for has been here the whole time.”

Eddie’s stunned to his seat. His jaw hangs open as he recalls what you said. It was like Taylor Swift took a page out of your diary and wrote a song about it. There was no mistaking what and who this song was about. Even for someone who knew how dense he could be at times.

“If you could see that I'm the one who understands you. Been here all along so, why can't you see? You belong with me. You belong with me.”

The grin that spreads across your face is freeing. You never knew being vulnerable could feel this good. You’re sharing your heart with the people in the audience and most of them have no idea.

“Walk in the streets with you in your worn-out jeans, I can't help thinking this is how it ought to be. Laughing on a park bench thinking to myself, ‘Hey, isn't this easy?’ And you've got a smile that can light up this whole town, I haven't seen it in a while since she brought you down. You say you're fine, I know you better than that. Hey, what you doing with a girl like that?”

All three of your friends in the audience are caught between watching you work the stage like you were born for it and looking over at Eddie to gauge his reaction. Nancy notices the way his hands are gripping the armrests and she doesn’t know what that means.

“She wears high heels, I wear sneakers. She's Cheer Captain, and I'm on the bleachers. Dreaming about the day when you wake up and find that what you're looking for has been here the whole time. If you could see that I'm the one who understands you, been here all along so, why can't you see? You belong with me.”

You catch a flash of red hair in the audience, and it widens your smile. So that’s where your friends are out there. You’ll have to get a good look at them when singing the next part.

“Standing by and waiting at your backdoor, all this time how could you not know, baby? You belong with me. You belong with me.”

There’s a small instrumental break and you take the opportunity to lower the mic and look at the row your friends are in. But your eyes catch a very familiar pair of brown ones and your veins ice over and your stomach bottoms out. Eddie’s staring at you with those eyes and they’re enough to make you melt on the spot without all the lights on you adding to the heat. You try not to let it break your stride on stage. Spinning on the sole of your shoe, you face the back of the stage to compose your face and take a deep breath. You continue. The show must go on.

“Oh, I remember you driving to my house in the middle of the night. I'm the one who makes you laugh when you know you're 'bout to cry. And I know your favorite songs, and you tell me 'bout your dreams. Think I know where you belong, think I know it's with me.”

You realize it’s all out in the open now. The Band-Aid has been ripped off and you might as well finish the song off strong. It’s easy to find Eddie’s eyes in the audience, wide as they are, and you keep eye contact as you sing the next part.

“Can't you see that I'm the one who understands you? Been here all along so, why can't you see? You belong with me.”

Eddie isn’t fully sure he’s awake. This has to be a dream, right? He’d pinch himself if he were able to move a muscle. Your eyes boring into his and baring your soul to him. There’s pressure on the back of his eyes and a fist clenching around his heart. How long have you been hurting over this?

“Standing by and waiting at your backdoor all this time how could you not know, baby? You belong with me. You belong with me.”

Adrenaline is coursing through your body and you’re already worried about what’s going to happen when it wears off. You wish the song wouldn’t end so you don’t have to leave the stage and deal with whatever comes after.

“You belong with me. Have you ever thought just maybe, you belong with me? You belong with me.”

The cheers and applause are white noise to you. There’s only one other person in the room and he hasn’t moved a muscle; not even on his shocked face.

You give the crowd the best smile you can before exiting the stage. You drop the mic on a table and find the most isolated corner of the backstage that you can. Resting your head against the wall and taking big, deep breaths is all you can focus on.

Hands land gently on your shoulders, but you still jump. You spin around quickly and come face to face with the one person you no longer knew how to talk to. His big brown eyes are wide and glassy. He’s never resembled a baby cow more than he does in this moment. His mouth keeps opening and closing, as if he wants to speak but doesn’t know what to say. That makes two of you.

“I didn’t know,” he finally says.

You close your eyes and nod. “I know. I didn’t want you to.”

Eddie shakes his head. “That’s not, um. That’s not what I meant.” He squeezes his eyes closed and licks over his lips. “I didn’t know. But she did.”

Your brow pinches in confusion and you shake your head. “I don’t understand.” The last thing you thought would be happening right now is Eddie trying to explain something to you.

“When I broke up with Chrissy.” Eddie sees the wince on your face at her name and it breaks his heart. How had he never noticed before? “She knew I loved you. She said she knew from day one. That’s why I didn’t text you right after I did it. I needed to think. About how true it was.”

“And?” The word barely squeaks out of you. Every nerve in your body was on edge, awaiting his response.

“After that?” Eddie gestures to the stage. “How could I have any doubt?”

His hand cups the back of your head gently and brings your mouth against his. His other hand snakes around your waist and your arms automatically come up to encircle his neck. It’s a gentle kiss, but it gets across all the emotions floating between the two of you. Relief, joy, love, excitement, fear, to name a few.

Eddie’s lips dance across yours again and again. You pull him closer, and he gets the hint, his tongue coming out to glide across your bottom lip. You happily part your lips for him.

“Y/n y/l/n….y/n y/l/n…y/n y/l/n?”

Eddie finally realizes your name is being called and pulls back from your lips. You whine and go to chase them, but Eddie chuckles and points towards the stage.

“Babe, I think you won,” he says.

You grin, never taking your eyes off him. You cup his jaw and lean in to press a soft kiss against his lips.

“Oh, I know I did.”

#eddie munson #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x y/n #eddie munson x you #eddie munson fic #eddie munson fan fiction #eddie munson fanfic

[venerawrites]

Omg I love your writing and am so so here for all the Gaara love! ♥️

Could you pretty please do Gaara finding out his S/O is pregnant?

author's note: thank you so much, you are so sweet! I love this request, it is so cute! Thank you so much for the idea! <3

Gaara never wanted to be a dad.

Not because he didn't love you or because he didn't want to share his life with you...

But rather because he did not believe he was fit to be a parent himself.

Firstly, he was a pretty busy man and knew he would not be able to spend a lot of time with his child. Being the son of the late Kazekage himself, he knew how rare family dinners and walks to the park were.

Secondly, he has never been good with children. Growing up without any friends, he was unsure how to handle anyone below the age of 10.

Like, how are you even supposed to speak to them? Like babies? Like adults? Do they have the capacity to even fully understand words?

Gaara was fully happy with the idea of spending your life together just the two of you, and based on the many conversations you had before, you were too.

But accidents DO happen...

and you DID get pregnant, despite your joint effort to prevent it.

When you saw the two lines on the test, your eyes widened in shock. The idea of becoming a mother hasn't even crossed your mind and here you were, holding the proof that a new life was starting to bloom inside of you.

You didn't know how to break the news to Gaara. So you decided that you are just going to wait for a few days till an appropriate time to share it with him presents itself.

The young Kazekage, however, knew you like the back of his hand and immediately knew something was wrong once he noticed your withdrawn behaviour.

So one morning, before you could even start your day properly, he rolled over on your shared bed, so he was hovering over you and cornered you between his arms.

"Are you going to tell me what's wrong or do I have to keep you hostage in this bed?", he joked, yet there was a note of concern in his voice.

You stared at him long and hard, not cracking even a smile before abruptly saying:

"I am pregnant."

His smile fell and his whole body stiffened. His eyes became double their normal size and his mouth fell open.

When? How?... What?

Both of you always made sure to use protection, how was that possible?

He will start stuttering questions, crashing next to you with his brows furrowed in confusion. You are going to have to give him some basic sex ed talk about how contraception does not always work 100%.

"I want this child", you told him, eyes focused on your fidgeting hands in your lap, "I don't know about you but-"

Your words were interrupted by the soft feeling of his fingers interlacing with yours. When you looked up at him, he had a soft smile on his face.

"Hey", he gently said, "I want this child too! You are carrying the fruit of our love inside of you."

And at this moment you knew a new, better chapter was about to begin for you two.

I feel like Gaara would try to appear calm and collected about the news, just so he doesn't freak YOU out, but internally he would be scared and nervous.

He would borrow books from Suna's library about how to deal with pregnancies and new parenthood, going as far as even taking some written notes of the tips he finds interesting.

The more time passes, the more overprotective he would become.

Like I don't think he would stop you from doing lower-class missions from the very beginning (especially knowing how stubborn can you be about stuff like that), but after the first 3 months, he is definitely banning you from leaving the village.

He would send Kankuro to check on you regularly, making him use lame excuses that he is just "popping in to take something that Gaara has forgotten in the house".

First 5-6 months are pretty smooth sailing, tbh... Other than the fact that he is more worried than usual about your well-being, I don't think there is going to be much change to your relationship.

But THE LAST 3 MONTHS... OH MY!

This is when your mood swings, cravings, and hormones just go through the roof.

You are constantly unhappy with him - if he is with you, why is he suffocating you? If he is away, why is he working so much?

lots of fights about minor stuff :(

Gaara definitely has the patience of a saint, so poor man would just calmly take your insults and 5 seconds later - your kisses.

He is questioning if he wants a second child, tho

Despite being a busy Kage, he would still make time to pamper you after work by giving you foot massages, preparing your favourite snacks, or going for late-night walks, just because you wanted "some damn fresh air".

Overall, pretty caring and gentle with you during your pregnancy, but not TOO overbearing. He respects your personal freedom and at the end of the day, he thinks you know better than him what you are doing.

#gaara of the sand #gaara headcanons #gaara x reader #gaara imagine #naruto headcanons #naruto imagines #sabaku no gaara #naruto requests

[whataboutthefish]

Some angst fix it a/b/o Steddie plus Uncle Wayne

Uncle Wayne is an omega. He was widowed before Eddie came to live with him, his presence was as much a balm on his soul as it was a place for Eddie to feel at home, he raised Eddie as his own.

He was raised by the strongest omega there was, and learnt how smart and resilient omegas were. Wayne gave Eddie age appropriate bio/sex ed books with real terms from a young age, he also taught Eddie to nest and never let him get away with anything because of his secondary gender.

So Eddie grew up a very liberal alpha, something uncommon in the 80s.

One night Eddie comes home really distressed and tells his uncle how his boyfriend Steve doesn’t have a nest. Wayne grabs the keys and Eddie’s arm and drives him down to the store where they pick up a whole cart of soft items.

Wayne drives right over to Steve’s house, when they enter Wayne pushes past Eddie and takes Steve in his arms holding him to his chest. He just strokes a hand through Steve’s hair and tells him he’s sorry.

Steve doesn’t know whats happening he sees Eddie and begins to relax, he scents Eddie on Wayne and the scent of family helps him settle until he starts to listen to what Wayne is saying, he’s repeating he’s sorry over and over, and that’s when Steve breaks apart and starts to sob.

When he stops crying Wayne pulls away and kisses him on the forehead, wipes his tears away. He curses at Eddie to stop standing there and go fetch the bags while he has Steve lead him to his bedroom.

They task Eddie with unwrapping everything as Wayne teaches Steve the basics to building a nest.

#Steddie #stranger things #Steve Harrington #eddie munson #omegaverse #omega steve harrington #omega uncle wayne #alpha eddie munson

[bakedbakermom]

How "The Talk" Went With My 7-Year-Old

I want to preface this by saying that my parents NEVER had The Talk with me as a kid; they just expected my CATHOLIC SCHOOL SEX ED to cover it. Needless to say, there were gaps in my sexual health education, gaps that I worked very hard as an adult to fill in. When I had my daughter, I promised myself that I would do better by her.

My husband and I have been laying the groundwork by teaching her the proper names for body parts (she’s the only 7-year-old I’ve ever met who knows the difference between a vulva and a vagina, which is better than some adults I know) and normalizing bodily functions and asking questions. Whenever she asks about something to do with bodies or private parts, we answer honestly and at a level of detail she can understand and is appropriate for her age. She has seen both me and my husband naked many times and knows what “boy bodies” and “girl bodies” look like and what the differences are. And she knows that babies get half their “seed” from a man and half from a woman, and the baby grows in a thing called the uterus inside the woman’s body.

She just turned 7 in September and can best be described as “too smart for her own good” and possessing a level of curiosity that threatens the feline population of the entire planet. I have been reading her The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett (the first book in the Discworld series) and a few nights ago we got to the part where Hrun the Barbarian is challenged by the Liessa, princess of the dragonlands, to perform three tasks and win her hand in marriage. The last task is to have sex with her. The book describes her disrobing and propositioning him (but obviously doesn’t get graphic).

When I got to that part I sort of stumbled, because she’s never asked about or hinted that she knew anything about sex, and I said, “This next part has to do with sex. Have you heard of that before?” She said no. “Well it’s something people do when they’re naked–”

“Ew, no, just skip this part!” So I told her she can ask about it whenever she wanted, and just moved to the next part of the story.

I could tell she was mulling it over, and last night after I tucked her in she finally asked me, “Okay, Mom, what is sex?”

As much as I have been preparing myself mentally for this, I don’t think there’s any way to avoid the gut-deep yearning for the earth to just open up beneath you and swallow you whole, but I bravely pressed forward. The following is a rough transcript of our conversation (which totalled over 20 minutes).

Me: Well, it’s the thing that makes babies. Remember we talked about how there’s half a seed in the mom, and half the seed in the dad? Sex is how the two halves come together–

Her: Wait, is there a way to make a baby without sex?

Me: [swerving gratefully onto this detour while it lasts] Yeah actually, they can do it with Science now. The can take the mom’s half out of her body - it’s called an egg or ovum, which is just Latin for egg - and they can take the dad’s half out of his body - it’s called sperm, and it looks like a tadpole but suuuuuuuper tiny - and they put them together in a dish so it starts to grow. Then they put it in a woman’s uterus, and it can be the egg mommy or someone else, so it can become a baby.

Her: Why can’t they just grow the whole baby in a dish?

Me: Because it needs food to grow, just like all bodies too. There’s not enough food in the dish for it to get more than a few cells big; it has to go in the uterus, where it grows a cord that connects it to the mother’s body so it can get nutrients from her.

Her: Oh okay that makes sense, then. So what’s sex?

Me: Well, it’s something that people do when they really care about each other and want to show it. It can happen with a man and a woman, two women, or two men, but the kind that makes a baby is between a man and a woman. [draws a deep breath, waits a moment to see if maybe Death will just reap me now, then pushes bravely forward] It’s when a man puts his penis in a woman’s vagina.

Her: [various giggly noises of disgust] People actually do that!? That’s so gross!!!

Me: Yeah when I describe it like that it does seem gross, but when you do it with the right person it can be pretty fun so the gross part doesn’t really matter.

Her: But it goes INSIDE the vagina? How?

Me: Your vagina isn’t just a hole on your body; it’s actually more like a tube, and the penis fits inside.

Her: Doesn’t that hurt?

Me: [remembering the early sexual rummagings of my teens] It can, but it really shouldn’t. Sex is supposed to feel good. If it hurts, that means something isn’t working the way it’s supposed to.

Her: Okay, that makes sense. I wouldn’t want to do that if it hurt. But what if he pees in you???

Me: [struggling with every fiber of my being not to say, “Some people pay good money for that.”] I mean, that’s probably not ideal, and it could maybe happen. But there’s only one hole in the penis and it has two separate tubes that go to it - one from the bladder where pee comes from, and the other one has the sperm, and one tube has to close so the other can open; so there shouldn’t be any pee.

Her: Where does the sperm come from?

Me: Well you know what a penis is. [she does] There are these called testicles, but everyone calls them balls because that’s what they look like, and they sort of hang [unfortunate cupping gesture with my left hand] under and behind the penis [right hand comes up and makes an unfortunate flopping gesture over the left] and the sperm hangs out in there. I could draw you a picture–

Her: NO! Don’t draw a picture. I don’t need a picture. So where does the sperm go when it comes out?

Me: When the guy sticks his penis in the vagina, well he sort of does it a few times, and then the sperm squirts out and goes looking for an egg in the uterus.

Her: But what if he misses!?

Me: [more unfortunate hand gestures] If the penis is inside the vagina it’s pretty hard to miss, but he could squirt it somewhere else if he wanted I guess. [Someone help, I’m teaching the pull out method to a 7-year-old.]

Her: But how does it get to the uterus?

Me: The uterus is connected to the vagina. There’s this thing called the cervix inside the vagina. [I ask her to make a fist, then put my hands underneath in a tube shape.] So your vagina is right here. [I move my hands above her fist, making a bowl in the air.] And the uterus is up here. That’s where the egg would be, and where a baby would grow. [Now I stick my finger into her fist from below and wiggle it a bit to make her laugh.] The sperm are so small that they can fit through the cervix.

Her: [clearly thinking very hard] But what happens if there’s no egg and it doesn’t make a baby? Where does the sperm go?

Me: It dies after a couple days, and then it either gets absorbed or comes out when the woman has her period. We’ve talked about periods, remember? Every month the uterus makes a layer called the endometrium, which acts as food for the growing baby until it grows the cord that connects it directly to the mother. But if there’s no baby, the uterus throws the whole endometrium out. It’s like making a big fancy dinner and then it realizes no one’s going to eat it , so it gets all angry [makes a gesture like I’m chucking something in the garbage] and throws it all away. So all that stuff comes out of the vagina, the endometrium and any sperm that might still be in there. Sometimes it looks like blood, sometimes it’s slimey, and sometimes it’s like a brownish goo.

Her: WHAT IF IT COMES OUT YOUR BUTT!?!?

Me: [trying so hard not to lose my shit] It can’t, babe. The uterus isn’t connected to your butt; the only door out is the vagina.

Her: But doesn’t it get all in your underwear!?

Me: Yeah, it can. But they make stuff to catch it or soak it up so that doesn’t happen. There’s pads, which are absorbent like a diaper and you stick them in your underwear to soak it up. There’s also tampons, which are like big cotton balls that you can stick in your vagina to soak it up. You change those things out for new ones every few hours. And there’s also something called a menstrual cup, which is what I use, and it’s a soft rubber cup that you stick up there to catch the blood, and you take it out and wash it a couple times a day. If you want I could show you–

Her: NO! Don’t show me. Those ones you stick up there sound gross, like they would hurt.

Me: They can be uncomfortable until you get used to them, or if you’re using the wrong size. Most people start off with pads; when you start getting your period we can try different things and see which ones work for you. You just have to remember to change them out every few hours.

Her: But what if it gets in your underwear while you’re changing the thing?

Me: Well normally you’d do that when you’re going potty, so any period stuff would just go in there. I also wash my cup in the shower.

Her: Does a period hurt?

Me: Yeah, it can. Remember how sometimes when I’m on my period I’ll tell you I’m not feeling good, and I need to go rest on the couch? That’s because in order to get all the stuff out, the uterus has to squeeze itself kind of like a tube of toothpaste [more hand gestures] and that can be pretty crappy. You can take Advil like we do when you have an owie, and there’s other medicine you can take that makes your periods easier.

Her: [loading ring spins for a moment] So does sex always make a baby?

Me: Not always, but it can happen any time you have sex, so there’s things people can do to stop it from happening. There’s a pill I take every day that keeps me from getting pregnant, and there’s also something called a condom that’s kind of like a little balloon, and it goes over the penis and catches the sperm before it can get into the vagina. Condoms are great because there are actually diseases you can get from having sex, and the condom stops the germs from passing between people.

Her: Wait, you can get sick from having sex?

Me: Yeah. That’s why it’s important to always use condoms, and to make sure you’re having sex with someone you really care about and trust. There are consequences to having sex, like babies and getting sick, but also, sex is a really intimate thing. Do you know what ‘intimacy’ means? [she does not] It’s feeling really close to someone and trusting them a lot, like smoochy kissing times a thousand. You’re letting someone see you naked and touch you and touch your private parts, and that’s something that takes a lot of trust and care. You only want to have sex with someone you’re really close to.

Her: WAIT SO DID DADDY WEAR CONDOMS?

Me: [wishing desperately to die] Well, yeah.

Her: You and Daddy must have spent so much time together naked. Like years and years and years!

Me: [still wanting to die] Well not all at once, but if you add it up, maybe?

Her: I don’t think I’m ever going to have sex, or have a baby, or maybe I’ll just do it the dish way.

Me: Yep, that’s a choice you can make, and a lot of kids your age feel that way when they learn about this stuff. You might feel that way your whole life, or you might change your mind, probably when you go through puberty. Do you remember what puberty is?

Her: Not really.

Me: It’s when your kid body changes into your grown up body, like when girls start growing boobs. It’s also when your period usually starts. It takes a few years and girls usually start around 10 to 12, boys a little later like 12 or 13. Your body changes and your emotions change, and the way you feel about sex might change too, especially as you figure out whether you like boys or girls or both or neither. It can be a really tough time and maybe even a little scary when you’re going through it, because your body and your brain are doing all these weird things they’ve never done before, but I’m right here if you have questions or need help.

Her: [yawns, looks at the clock, and realizes it’s way past her bedtime] Wow we’ve been talking about this for a long time.

Me: Yeah, we have, but it’s okay to stay up a bit late for important conversations like this. I wanted to make sure I answered all your questions, because we all have bodies and we all need to know how those bodies work, even the stuff that feels weird to talk about sometimes. Do you have any more questions?

Her: No, not right now.

Me: Okay well if you think of any, you just go ahead and ask. We can talk about this any time you want, especially as you get older and start going through some of this stuff.

And that was basically it. I am amazed at the questions she asked, and how carefully she thought about what I told her. And how seriously she took it except for the giggling about the weird parts, which honestly? Same. She is definitely going to be That Kid when she goes back to school after break.

We’re also trying to teach her about consent and having control over what information about yourself you share online, so asked her if it was okay that I share this here without mentioning her name or anything personal and she said yes. I hope you got a kick out of it, and maybe this will even help you feel more comfortable when your day for The Talk shows up. I was not expecting it so soon, and I was not expecting it on a night when my husband was out getting the family from the airport for the holiday, but I believe that when the question is asked, it’s ready to be answered.

#parenting #sex education

[error-core-animations]

I'm in a very interesting position of "got comprehensive and age appropriate sex ed at a young age" but I was also molested as a kid. I am walking evidence that seeing diagrams of penises and vaginas isn't harmful and the real thing that gets kids hurt and sexually abused is not knowing shit. Cuz like, I did get told what genitals were and how zygotes implant into the uterus walls and stuff, but nobody told me about sexual abuse and assault for a while.

This also illustrates something ✨extremely fun✨: CSA is treated like it is Too Yucky to tell kids about, even in technical terms, even if the kid is aware of what sex is, they simply cannot know that if their friend pressures them into touching their genitals, that's a bad thing and that friend is probably being hurt! It's so weird, there's literally a whole saying about how knowledge is power, but kids are intentionally denied knowledge that could save them so much pain.

#tw csa #like after i licked a penis at fuckin. six or whatever. i was wondering if that counted as sex or not. #i never told my parents! i didn't think it was weird cuz i was SIX!!!! #i distinctly remember being like. really uncomfortable. and afterwards i wondered if perchance i had had sex technically? #it was weirddddd and! if my mom had sat me down and said 'hey anyone touching your genitals or making you touch their genitals is bad.' #that would have gotten me to tell her! #and my friend (who was ALSO SIX-ISH) probably wouldve GOTTEN HELP!!! #if my parents knew about cocsa. which they might not. #tw cocsa

[just-antithings]

I cannot stress how much KIDS HAVE SEXUAL THOUGHTS. Like why are we even having this conversation in the first place???? It's literally all part of puberty. You hit twelve, you start to wonder about romance and sex, and if you're lucky you may get a responsible adult to appropriately explain it for you, or you're gonna just go learn about it all by yourself out of curiosity.

Now I'm not saying kids should go search for information on sex all by themselves, it's incredibly dangerous, they could mistake pornography for how irl safe sex works, and that's how I got myself groomed at the age of 12. BUT that is why sex ed is important!!! That is why acknowledging that 13yos have sexual thoughts is important!!! So that they will know thinking about sex asa kid is NORMAL, and won't be too ashamed to ask an adult about that and get safe guidance, instead of searching for hentai on youtube.

Like seriously I thought we all agreed the sex positive movement is good????? Antis are literally closer to bigots than they would like to think they are.

.

#mod erin #ask #just anti things #grooming mention #posted without comment #caps warning