Upside Down [Marius Yo Fanfiction]

Bratwursts and Boys

Everything's written in German--I can't read a single thing. I sigh and stare at the row of bottles beside the bathtub blankly. There's an endless variety of expensive-looking glass bottles full of all sorts of colorful substances.

Which one's shampoo and which one's conditioner?! What're all these bottles for?!

I pick up a half-empty bottle of thick, translucent orange liquid that looks something like shampoo. I open the cap and sniff it. Mmm, smells like shampoo... Maybe it is, since it's the most used bottle here.

I turn the bottle around to see a small sticker on it, with the name "Marilena" written on it in neat, curvy handwriting. I look up and turn another bottle around to see it with a tag "Dad" written on it. Ah, so that's why there're so many! They label them by whose they belong to.

I pour out a dollop of Marilena's shampoo into my palm and begin to gently work it into my scalp with my fingertips. The shampoo smells very fine and expensive, like mandarin with a hint of lavender to balance out the tart scent.

A stroke of curiosity makes me turn one of the more masculine-looking bottles around. The label says "Max" on it. I wonder which one is Marius'... I begin turning more and more around, until I get to a simple bottle with a label that says "Marius" on it. The liquid inside looks like shampoo--clear but with a hint of minty green--and it's nearly full. I glance around the bathroom nervously, as if someone were going to catch me with his shampoo. Then I slowly open the cap and lift the bottle up to my nose. It's a very fresh scent, musky and woodsy but with a hint of citrus to make it crisp. So this is the kind of scent that Marius likes...

"Erika, you better not be sleeping in there! It's been over an hour and we're all dying to take baths over here!" Fuma's voice from the other side of the door makes me squeal and nearly drop the delicate bottle.

"I'm not, Fuma! I'm just trying to figure out what all these bottles say! I can't find the conditioner!" I holler back.

"Do you want me to get Marius to come in and show you?!" he teases.

My face heats up in an instant. "NO! GO AWAY FUMA!!"

I can hear muffled laughter from outside the bathroom and the soft shuffling of footsteps walking away.

"Ugh. I better find out which one's the conditioner now." I start turning through the bottles in search of Marilena's name tag once again.

...

I shuffle down the hallway in my pajamas and give out a great yawn. Jetlag is starting to get to me. 

From across the house I can still hear the splashes, thumps, and loud laughs of the five boys. They all decided to take a bath together, since the bathroom is so huge. Suddenly there is an especially loud thud, a squeal that can only be Sou's, and Marius' upset wail following. I smile a little bit to myself. I suppose there aren't many times when the boys are able to have fun together like this.

Ah, that's right. This is where Marius' room is. I turn towards the door below one of the staircases and twist the knob open.

The sight of the room gives me a pang of affection. Aside from our luggages tossed in one of the corners, everything is nearly untouched from the day Marius left Germany. I walk over to the small child's desk at the far end of the room, facing the window, and sit in the chair. This is where Marius sat every day to study... I pick up one of the notebooks and flip through the pages. Everything is in scribbled, messy German that could only have been written by a child. I giggle a little bit. Some pages have simple math problems on them, some are paragraphs of German, and some have bored little doodles on the sides. I can almost imagine a young Marius sitting boredly in class, drawing whatever came to his mind.