notes: Because why wouldn't I write something for one of my favorite books of all time? Even if the fandom is surprisingly small.
summary: She wears her heart on her sleeve.
need to know: Slight au, Liesel and Rudy are older and the latter has been drafted.
disclaimer: I own nothing.
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and now all your love is wasted
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"Don't go."
Liesel reaches out and grabs the sleeve of his new Nazi uniform.
"You can't go."
Rudy looks at her. She is all beautiful sunshine hair and big brown eyes and usually she is smiling, but not today. Never today. He wants to see her smile, he wants to hear her laugh. He never wants to see her like this – pleading, crying, sad.
But he cannot deny, Liesel Meminger looks beautiful when she is sad, and he hates himself for thinking that.
"You can't, Rudy. You can't." Liesel goes on, like a broken record.
Another thing, she hardly ever calls him by his name. She much prefers 'Saukerl', and likewise his name for her is 'Saumensch.' And in the way they use them, it is something like a term of endearment rather than an insult.
Because how could he ever insult the book thief?
With what could only be called a smirk on his face, Rudy Steiner takes hold of Liesel Meminger's shoulders. "Come on, Liesel, have a little faith in me, will you? Honestly, if this is what you've really thought of me all these years…"
She shakes her head.
He tucks a stray lock of sunshine behind her ear.
"But Rudy –," she begins to protest, but he cuts her off by putting a finger to her lips.
The lemon-haired boy smiles. "I'll be fine, Liesel. I'll come back, you'll see. Right?"
She swears he looks ten years older than he really is.
The book thief nods, her beautiful russet eyes burn. "Okay."
He is suddenly overcome with memories – of stealing apples, accompanying her on her wash errands, playing soccer on Himmel Street, stealing books from the mayor's library, saving a book from the freezing water of the Amper River, of everything Liesel. Of everything he and the book thief had shared since her arrival on Himmel Street years before. Before the bad times, before the war.
She's not a little girl anymore – she's a young woman.
Rudy wants to laugh at himself.
Instead, he says, "Take care of Tommy while I'm away. Got that, Saumensch?"
Remember, terms of endearment.
Liesel – the book thief – nods again. "Take care of yourself, Saukerl."
Hans Hubermann put his hand on Rudy's shoulder. "Watch yourself out there, boy."
Rosa Hubermann watches him from behind her husband. "Don't die out there, Saukerl."
That's where Liesel got it.
It's a loving sort of statement, he knows. They all know.
Kurt exhales from beside his younger brother and glances at the clock. It's ticking away their time on Himmel Street – possibly their last – and it's going all too fast. Soon they'll be off to war, off to Russia and on a march to their deaths.
Because, in war, not everyone survives, and everybody knows that.
The young Steiner sisters hug and kiss their older brothers, and Rudy's mother has tears in her eyes. Her husband is already gone off to war, and now the army is taking her sons too. All in the name of some unholy cause that no one in the room believes in.
"It's time to go." Kurt finally announces, hating himself for dragging his brother away from everyone he loves and to his very possible death. Even though it's not his fault. It's never been his fault.
Rudy gives Karin one last hug, and then he turns to follow Kurt out the door. Normally, families would accompany their loved ones to the train station – that was the way it had been with Liesel and Rosa when Hans had been called to duty – but not this time.
For the lemon-haired boy had wanted to spend his last few hours on Himmel Street.
Liesel pats a crying Barbara on the head before moving after Rudy. She catches him at the gate of their house. Kurt is already on his way down the street, so it is just the two of them, and the cold winter wind.
"Need something, Saumensch?" Rudy asks in amusement, as he watches her.
The book thief doesn't answer.
How about a kiss, Saumensch?
Do it, Liesel. Do it. She tells herself, don't be a coward.
But she can't. There's something stopping her.
I love you, she wants to say, I've loved you since I first came here.
She doesn't say it. Rduy watches her inner struggle, amusement shining in his blue blue eyes. "Well, out with it. I don't have all day. I'm a soldier now."
She hates that word, soldier.
She hates the Furher too, but that's not something she can ever say out loud.
"I don't want to say goodbye." Liesel finally says, meeting his eyes.
He gets it. He does.
"Then this is just a parting of ways for us now." Rudy offers.
He smiles, she returns it with the mother of all ghost smiles.
Kiss him, Liesel. Kiss him.
"See you around, Jesse Owens."
Rudy nods. "See you," he leans in – and whispers ever so quietly, "book thief."
They part ways. Snow begins to fall, cloaking the street named after heaven in white. One might believe, that when covered in snow, that Himmel Street was really an unearthly place.
A few weeks later, the bombs come, and it is all over.
There are no survivors.
Rudy Steiner returns from the warfront a month or so later, only to find his home reduced to a pile of rubble. Frau Diller's patriotic store is in shambles, Tommy's home is just gone, and Liesel's…is nothing more than an empty and cold mess of concrete and wood.
He doesn't know. Maybe there's someone left.
Maybe Liesel's still alive.
She isn't.
How about a kiss, Saukerl?
Something taunts him as he stands over her grave. She is buried next to her beloved Papa and her Mama. They're together, like they should be. But they are not alive, and he is.
I love you, Saumensch.
I know.
The world is so very wrong.