Ok guys, forget about Karezi and Nepquius and Tavris and even Norm-ler because I swear to god, this pair will be the end of me.

Liesel I SWEAR TO GOD. Why don't you just kiss Rudy? Why wait until he's dead asdfghjkl;oiuytrewertyu
Seriously, you love him, he obviously loves you, why not make out? What about when you tell him about Max? You want to kiss him, so what were you waiting for, you fucking stupid bitch?!!?!?!?!? What about when he gets the book out of the river for you? Or the time with the shoes? Omfg why don't you kiss him, he's a total babe.

Ok, now I'm going to put some quotes from the book that legit make my heart hurt:

From "Way of words", page 545.
"Hands were clamped upon her from behind and the boy next door brought her to the ground, knees-first. He collected her punches as if they were presents. Her bony hands and elbows werre accepted with nothing but a few short moans. He accumulated the loud, clumsy specks of saliva and tears as if they were lovely to his face."


From "Confessions" page 550
"Liesel pulled The World Shaker from her bag and showed Rudy one of the pages. On it was a boy with three medals hanging around his throat.
'Hair the colour of leoms' Rudy read. His fingers touched the words. 'You told him about me?'
At first, Liesel could not talk. Perhaps it was the sudden bumpiness of love she felt for him. Or had she always loved him? It's likely. Restricted as she was from speaking, she wanted him to kiss her. She wanted him to drag
her hand across and pull her over. It didn't matter where. Her mouth, her neck, her cheek. Her skin was empty
for it, waiting.
Years ago, when they'd raced on a muddy field, Rudy was a hastily assembled set of bones, with a jagged,
rocky smile. In the trees this afternoon, he was a giver of bread and teddy bears. He was a triple Hitler Youth
athletics champion. He was her best friend. And he was a month from his death.
"Of course I told him about you," Liesel said.
She was saying goodbye and she didn't even know it."

From "The End Of The World Part II" Page 565

"Then Rudy.
Oh, crucified Christ, Rudy . . .
He lay in bed with one of his sisters. She must have kicked him or muscled her way into the majority of the bed
space because he was on the very edge with his arm around her. The boy slept. His candlelit hair ignited the
bed, and I picked both him and Bettina up with their souls still in the blanket. If nothing else, they died fast and
they were warm. The boy from the plane, I thought. The one with the teddy bear. Where was Rudy's comfort?
Where was someone to alleviate this robbery of his life? Who was there to soothe him as life's rug was snatched
from under his sleeping feet?
No one.
There was only me.
And I'm not too great at that sort of comforting thing, especially when my hands are cold and the bed is warm. I
carried him softly through the broken street, with one salty eye and a heavy, deathly heart. With him, I tried a
little harder. I watched the contents of his soul for a moment and saw a black-painted boy calling the name Jesse
Owens as he ran through an imaginary tape. I saw him hip-deep in some icy water, chasing a book, and I saw a
boy lying in bed, imagining how a kiss would taste from his glorious next-door neighbor. He does something to
me, that boy. Every time. It's his only detriment. He steps on my heart. He makes me cry."

From "The End Of The World Part II" Pages 569 - 570

"There were shocked pajamas and torn faces. It was the boy's hair she saw first.
Rudy?
She did more than mouth the word now. "Rudy?"
He lay with yellow hair and closed eyes, and the book thief ran toward him and fell down. She dropped the
black book. "Rudy," she sobbed, "wake up. . . ." She grabbed him by his shirt and gave him just the slightest
disbelieving shake. "Wake up, Rudy," and now, as the sky went on heating and showering ash, Liesel was
holding Rudy Steiner's shirt by the front. "Rudy, please." The tears grappled with her face. "Rudy, please, wake
up, Goddamn it, wake up, I love you. Come on, Rudy, come on, Jesse Owens, don't you know I love you, wake
up, wake up, wake up. . . ."
But nothing cared.
The rubble just climbed higher. Concrete hills with caps of red. A beautiful, tear-stomped girl, shaking the dead.
"Come on, Jesse Owens—"
But the boy did not wake.
In disbelief, Liesel buried her head into Rudy's chest. She held his limp body, trying to keep him from lolling
back, until she needed to return him to the butchered ground. She did it gently.
Slow. Slow.
"God, Rudy . . ."
She leaned down and looked at his lifeless face and Liesel kissed her best friend, Rudy Steiner, soft and true on
his lips. He tasted dusty and sweet. He tasted like regret in the shadows of trees and in the glow of the
anarchist's suit collection. She kissed him long and soft, and when she pulled herself away, she touched his
mouth with her fingers. Her hands were trembling, her lips were fleshy, and she leaned in once more, this time
losing control and misjudging it. Their teeth collided on the demolished world of Himmel Street.
She did not say goodbye. She was incapable, and after a few more minutes at his side, she was able to tear
herself from the ground. It amazes me what humans can do, even when streams are flowing down their faces
and they stagger on, coughing and searching, and finding."