AN: Wow. I never planned on adding another chapter, but thanks to the encouragement of Emily Meminger; here's another chapter :)
Liesel Meminger chewed on a stale piece of bread and quietly ate her pea soup. You could almost hear the house breathing because it was so quiet.
The absence of Hans Huberman made Himmel street feel like Hölle. The piano accordian sat next to Liesel's Mamas bedside, covered in tears, longing and anger.
Liesel missed her Papa dearly, there was no livelyness in the Huberman house any longer. No music. No laughing. No talking.
Just silence.
There was a night when Liesel had heard the sound of sobs from Mama and Papas room with also functioned as the sitting room. She had wanted to hug her Mama, who aways appeared to be a tough woman with a iron fist and a mouth like a Seemann. But sleep betrayed her, and took over her like as if she was being submerged in water.
"Danke, schön. May I see Rudy, Mama? Bitte?" Liesel asked a unresponsive woma who just noddee her head.
"Go on then, Saumensch."
Liesel pulled on a coat before rushing out the door, into the cool December air.
HIMMEL STREET.
HEAVEN STREET.
Except it wasn't heaven. Without Hans Hubermann and Alex Steiner, how could ths street have such a name?
Tommy Müller, Kristina Müller and the infamous Rudy Steiner were racing around the street, passing the old soccer ball back and forth. Back and forth. Rudy spotted Liesel and waved, but at the same time Tommy had tried to take a kick at the ball from under Rudy's feet. Poor Rudy was knocked off balance, into the soft snow.
Liesel rushed over to her best friend and helped him out of the cold blanket of snow.
"Danke, Saumensch." Rudy said to Liesel, nodding before grabbing her hand and towing her away from Tommy Müller and soccer balls. Away from Himmel street. Away from Hölle. Away from the woman who had replaced the woman with the iron fist.
Neither of them spoke as Rudy continued to lead them towards the Amper. Towards 8 Grande Strauss street. Liesel didn't feel like stealing today. Or tomorrow. Or the day after that. She felt like nothing, if she was honest.
Why was Rudy encouraging this? Maybe, he wanted to go onto the Bürgermisters house himself, and steal food from the massive kitchen which had enough food to feed both the Steiner's, the Hubermanns and the Müller's food years. And more years after that.
But Liesel felt a longing deep inside of her to feel the leather, card and paper covers of books. She missed the smell of books that were rusting away with adventure, love, sadness and suspenese. She had forgotten what it felt like to be submerged by words. She forgot what it was like to live.
There once was a girl who had a friend in the shadows...
The pair stopped. Rudy pointed. The library window. It was wide open. "Its open. I think that she left it open on purpose."
Liesel nodded and they approached the window carefully, as if they were on a top secret mission.
But I suppose they were.
Several minutes later, after fumbling, mutters and snark comments about looking up Liesel's skirt as Rudy boosted her up into the window, Liesel's hand wrapped around the ledge and she was face to face with a dozen cookies. She hoisted herself up into the window and whispered to the boy who acted as a guard below.
As she passed them down to him, he stuck some n his pockets. "Just take the plate!" Liesel whispered loudly.
"Anything else? Milk?"
She glared at him. Did she hear him right. "What?" Offense was dripping from her tone the rain did from the sky.
"Milk," He repeated, louder. He could tell that Liesel was offended but asked anyway.
"Are you stupid? Can I steal the book?"
"Of course. All I'm saying is..."
Liesel had disappeaed inside the room and picked a book before anyone came into the room.
She examined it. Die Letze Menschliche Fremde- The Last Human Stranger. The pale contrast of the book matched the soft tone of her skin. Some dust was gathered on it, but she brushed it off and slipped out of the room like a phantom girl. Like a thief.
An imapatient boy stood with his arms holding a platevof stale cookies. His candelight hair stuck out like a match, in the background of white snow. Crumbs were gathered at the edges of his mouth as he smirked, it became obvious that he had eaten some cookies.
"You didn't eat any cookies without me, did you Saukerl?" Liesel asked, tucking the book into her coat and walking beside him.
"Nein, why would you ask such a question?"
She smirked. She wiped the corners of her mouth, even though she had nothing there. Rudy took this as an indication that he indeed had been caught out.
And he indeed, had been.
"Next time, you should really be more discret, dummkopf."
Snow fell like leaves did in autumn. Liesel gazed out the window at the house next door. Number thirty five. The Steiner's.
From the window of Liesel's bedroom, she could see straight into the room of her best friend, Rudy Steiner's. As creepy as that would sound normally, to Liesel, it wasn't.
Rudy. Rudy Steiner.
She touched her lips with her fingers, gently. She often thought about what happened on Christmas eve. He had never brought it up, apart from the ocassional teasing of pig names.
She closed her eyes and remembered what his lips felt like. Soft like cotton. No. They were as soft as the soles of running shoes. And he tasted of mixed candy, sweat and victory. There was also a hint of citrus. Like his hair. Liesel's eyes shot open and she searched frantically for a piece of parchment. Luckily, there happened to be a notebook from school that was completely blank. And with that, she started to write.
The boy with lemon hair, a spirit that burned as bright as candle light and safe blue eyes kept to the back of her mind as she wrote her short story.
Rudy Steiner: The Aryan Saukerl.
When she finished, it was half-past-two in the early morning of a December day. Liesel sighed and got dressed for bed.
That night, no nightmares came.
Liesel Meminger was a few weeks short of fourteen.
Still no papa.
She'd completed three more reading sessions with a devestated woman. On many nights, she'd watched Rosa sit with the accordian and pray with her chin on top of her elbows.
Liesel was sad that papa wasn't back. Rosa was sad. And Rudy was sad that his papa wasn't back for his birthday, which had been a short six months ago, either. Liesel pulled on a coat. But it was very hot today, she didn't need a big heavy woolen one.
Moving swiftly out of the door, she jogged over to thirty five Himmel street, knocking gentley on the door. Kurt, Rudy's oldest brother stared back at her. It was quite weird, he looked like Rudy a lot. She stepped inside and walked quitely upstairs, greeting Frau Steiner as she walked past her in the kitchen. The older woman smiled polietly at her.
Up a short flight of stairs, down a narrow hallway, layed three bedrooms. Kurt and Rudy's was at the end of the hallway.
Liesel walked silently towards the door, tapping her knuckles against the solid oak door. She was cautious when it came to Rudy's room. Who knew what he could have been doing?
****ONE FACT ABOUT RUDY
STEINER****
On the day he had turned fourteen,
he had made a secret oath to himself that,
he would study insteed of play soccer out on the
streets of Molching. Liesel missed him. The old him.
"Hallo?" The voice was deep and so very German.
"Ich bin's. Liesel." She replied, almost shyly, opening the door before shutting it again.
The room was about the same size as Liesel's own room. Except for the fact that there were two people in this room and they were boys. Boys were messy.
Rudy set his Wissenschaft book down and patted the spot next to him. "Kommen."
She sat down next to him, slipping her shoes off and tucking her feet under herself. "Hey."
He looked down at her. "Hey."
In these moments, she wanted to kiss him. She wanted him to his her. To kiss her cheek, forehead, neck, lips, wherever she didn't care. She just wanted to feel his soft lips. But before he could his her, she pulled out her notebook and placed it on Rudy's lap. At first, Rudy eyed her skeptically before looking down at it again, reading it.
Liesel sat in silence as he read each word, savouring them. After about three-quarters of an hour later, Rudy was speechless.
-The lemon haired boy burns in my mind like a candle light, he protects me with his safe blue eyes and he loves me. And I love him for that.
He is my light in the darkness.-
"Y-you love me, Saumensch?" Rudy questioned after the silence breaked. She had written a story for hm. She had written a story about him.
Yes. Yes, yes, yes. I love you Jesse Owens. I love you. You are my light in the darkness of all this Scheisse.
"Yes. I do. I love you, Jesse Owens." Liesel said, a tear escaping her eye. He smiled and dumped his school textbooks on the floor, before pulling her onto his lap.
In Rudy Steiner's bedroom, their lips collided for the second time. Liesel smiled against his mouth and he bit her bottom lip, grating access to her mouth with his tounge. She tasted of something different this time. She tasted of her. Of books, love and victory.
Her head felt light and her heart was hammering in her chest.
Because in a way, she had always wanted a kiss from her Saukerl ever since he first asked her for a kiss.
Liesel Meminger was the thief of books.
And.
Rudy Steiner was the thief of her heart.
They both tasted like thiefs this time.
AN: This is going so slow! Im so sorry! But I have to build up their relationship more, too.
RnR! :)