When I'm With Them, I'm Free

Chapter Twenty-Three: Is This Love?

Soon, sticky notes were passed to everyone in the class and three ink pens—they were courtesy from Iida, who suggested he should be useful and let his classmates borrow them if he wasn't going to participate in the secret telling because secrets were secrets for a reason; Bakugou told him to pull the stick out of his ass before it was too late—circled around the room as the square, yellow papers were folded several times before being placed in the bowl.

At some point, all the paper was all accounted for. Uraraka put a hand inside of the bowl and began to mix them gently.

Now, you all sat along the couches and chairs that faced the Tv Ashido, Sero, and Uraraka sat in front of. Urakaka held the metal bowl full of folded paper in her crossed-legged lap, the white stick from a round lollipop sticking from her pinched lips. She was looking aimlessly around the room as Ashido, who sat between the brunette and Sero, leaned over and grabbed a piece of paper from the small mountain inside the bowl.

Everyone watched as the pink female unfolded one with her fingers, squinting at the message instead before turning it to the side. "This one says," she began, a small laugh making air shoot from her nose, "'I wet my bed until I was five. I don't know why I couldn't hold it in, but maybe it was all the juice I would drink without my parents knowing before bed.'"

You laughed, furrowing your eyebrows and shaking your head in confusion. Kaminari had closed-mouth giggles from behind you on the green couch, throwing his arms up in surprise as Kirishima on the couch nearly behind you silently laughed, lightly smacking his shins. Yaoyorozu, who sat right next to you on the floor, snorted once before covering her mouth and nose with her fingers. Your eyes raked the room as you looked at your other classmates' reactions—you were almost positive Shoji didn't laugh as hard as Sero, even though they both had half of their faces covered; Bakugou shook his head, not even a ghost of a smile on his face; Jirou just blankly blinked as her reaction, the start of a smile prying itself onto her mouth every few seconds.

Your eyes found their way to Shoto quickly, and you watched as he looked at you at nearly the same time. He had a small smile on his face as he sat on the far end of the couch on your right, your back pressed against the same large cushion he sat on. His hands were pressed flat against his legs, his eyes only flicked down in your direction. You looked back in front of you as Sero pressed a fist against his pretzel-filled mouth.

The next was about a least favorite candy that most of your class adored, the following about how hot they thought Mount Lady was. Everyone consecutively agreed that the secret was Mineta's, and suddenly pretzels and gummy worms were thrown in his direction.

That moment was just enough to put an idea into Uraraka's head, and she sat up straighter, placing the bowl off of her lap before standing up. She excitedly proposed the idea of guessing whose secrets they were, her eyes bright and her hands in exhilarated fists by her chin.

"The person in question should have to confirm if it's theirs or not," Asui added from one of the green couches.

Yaoyorozu nodded from beside you. "That would only make sense, wouldn't it?"

It only took a few more moments of nodding and agreeing on those new conditions until Ashido pulled a few more sticky notes from the bowl. Sero held the metal dish in his lap, while both of his legs were stretched out in front of him. Uraraka was missing from the room, grabbing the fluffy blanket Yaoyorozu gifted her for Christmas from her dorm.

"'I used to kiss the heads of all my pro-hero figurines goodnight when I was eight years old,'" Ashido read from the sticky note she held between her thumb and pointer finger. Her eyes popped up from behind the paper, and she looked across the room accusingly. She sat up after a short moment, pressing the sticky part of the note onto the ground as she folded her arms dramatically. "My money's on Midoriya."