Liesel heard footsteps coming from the bedroom. She had the day off today from the tailor's and was preparing breakfast for herself and Max. He staggered sleepily out of the doorway and squinted at Liesel through the daylight.

"Good morning," she said to him, barely looking up from her cooking. She was already dressed in her dark blue day dress and had her hair pinned up.

"Morning," he replied. He looked her up and down, slightly blushing. He was in his same trousers and no shirt. He had brought nothing with him when he came a few weeks prior. Then again, he had nothing when he left, so this was hardly a shock. At least he had found a job at the baker's and worked enough so she could wash his clothes while he was gone. He worked more in the early morning and her in the evening. They both had Sundays off.

He had been sleeping beside her since the first night. They tried to sleep alone, but finally gave in, knowing that they would end up together in the first hours of morning after the nightmares took over.

Liesel sat a bowl of porridge down on the table for Max and motioned him to sit down. He sat and began eating.

"Sleep well?" she asked. Her face felt warm as she remembered the events of the night.

"I suppose so," he replied.

Liesel wanted to hold him. She wanted to touch his skin and kiss his lips. But she knew that she could never. She remembered Rudy's last breath. Her heart stung at the thought.

Liesel caught herself staring at him. She broke her gaze and prepared her bowl, then sat across from him. She sat silently, staring at the table, but his eyes still rested on her. She looked up.

"You always look at me like that," she said.

"Like what?" He was just playing games with her, she could tell. He was smiling.

"Like I'm something to look at," she said smugly.

"You are," he replied. "You're right in front of me."

"That's not what I meant," Liesel sighed.

"Then what did you mean? I cannot read your mind."

"Like I'm...beautiful."

Max smiled at her. "You are."

Her hair stood on end. "What makes you believe that?"

Max sighed. "I have seen many women in my days. Many of them with pleasant faces. But, Liesel," he said, standing, "none have struck me like you have. You are strong. You have faced so much in your life and yet you move on fondly. You remember, you do not dwell. And that is beautiful. You love when you do not even realise you are loving. That is beautiful," he was slowly stepping toward her. "Your face, it's that of a dream. You are beautiful. And I love you too."

She stood and by that time, Max had taken her face in his hands and he moved in to kiss her. This time, after his many midnight attempts that she had rejected, she let him.

His lips were soft and gentle, yet forceful as he pressed them against hers. She placed her hands on his chest and took in every moment of his love that filled her. Warmth exploded from her chest, dancing all through her body as he held her and kissed her. Their lips danced in rhythm with each other, the way that can only be demonstrated by those that are truly in love, truly meant for each other.

When he pulled back, both of them were craving more. The years they had been apart didn't seem to matter anymore and were like nightmares that plagued both of them every night. Anything without one another was a nightmare to them.

They had no room for words. They returned to the bedroom to lie down together and keep warm despite the bitter March transition. Liesel found herself exhausted from the insomnia that had stolen her sleep for so long and fell asleep to the rhythm of his heart beat. She heard it in her dreams like a song.

Soon, she felt Max flinching. She woke slowly, but found that he was tossing and murmuring something in his sleep. Liesel took his hand gently, but he seemed incapable of pulling himself out of his state.

"Max," she whispered. "Max, wake up."

She lightly shook his shoulders and he surfaced from his sleep. He opened his eyes and jerked up, nearly heading Liesel in the face. He calmed at the sight of her.

"I'm sorry," he said, stroking her cheek. "It was just a nightmare."

"What was it?" she asked.

"Times without you."

They sat in silence for a moment, her body hanging above his. She softly touched the dark, bold numbering on his forearm and he winced. She retreated, then tried again.

"What's this?"

He sighed and his face turned dark. "The camps. They numbered us."

"Camps?" Liesel was legitimately confused.

"They found me. I went on the run, you know. I left, trying to get to Switzerland or somewhere safe. I was hiding in house after house trying to escape. Then one night, I was unfortunate enough to stay with a family on an unfortunate street that was searched that night. They took me and the family. We didn't know where we were going, but we knew it was going to be terrible."

Liesel absorbed every word. She almost didn't want to hear what he was saying.

"Then," he continued, "we wound up in a horrible place. They barely fed us, they put us to hard work every day. When you couldn't work anymore, they took you. I never found out what they did, but the smell of burning flesh was all I could smell for however long I was there. I lost count of time. They didn't feed us enough to count by meals. I didn't sleep enough to count by nights.

"When the war was over, the world didn't know about us. We didn't know the war had ended. But one day, we heard guns and people were being carried out of the barracks and we knew we had been liberated."

Both Max and Liesel were tearing up by this point.

"I was taken to the hospital in some place I don't remember. I was sleep deprived and malnourished. They medicated me, fed me, kept me alive."

Max sat up and placed his hand on Liesel's waist.

"Liesel, every night since I left, all I could think of was you. Every day, my motivation was that someday I'd get to see you again. I imagined what a beautiful girl you had been and were surely becoming. I have loved you since you described the day to me. The way your words sounded, the way your face lit up, I knew I loved you."

She remembered that so well. Every day after coming home, she would tell him what the day looked like. He intently listened to her as if he were trying to feel her words.

Liesel leaned in and kissed him softly as if to say she felt the same. She wasn't lying, she loved him then, but she could not say that she loved him the same way at that point in her life. She was only twelve, and she was broken. And Rudy...she was sure then that someday she would marry him. Life does not always turn out the way you imagine.

Now, in the sun flooded room with the man that she had waited five years for, she knew that she was not only capable of being loved, but also capable of loving deeper than she ever dreamed possible.

It was that moment when Liesel fell completely in love with Max Vaundenburg.