This is my first Fanfic! I was really sad at the end of The Book Thief and I want to have Rudy live, so I am writing a few alternate endings!

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

A girl sits, broken and covered in ashes, in a police station. On the other side of town, a boy with lemon hair is pulled form the rubble. His body is transported to a place with many bodies being packed into boxes before burial. Just before he is packed away for ever, he jurks alive, as the girl across town is picked up by a friend. The boy is taken to the orphanage. The girl is taken to a the mayor's home. They both thought the other was dead.

The mayor's wife was at the police station, holding Leisel. They got into the car and drove back to the house. Leisel wouldn't bathe. She just sat on the floor of the library, looking out the open window, remembering. Eventually, the Mayor's wife figured she needed new clothes, so they went to a market in town.

Across town, in the orphanage, Rudy sat in a corner, watching boys outside play soccer. A girl stood in the goal, laughing at a boy with orange hair slip and fall in the mud. He remembered when the same thing happened to him and Leisel. "How about a Kiss to make it better" the boy called, and as the echo drifted in the window, the boy with Lemon hair hung his head and cried. The owner of the orphanage sighed as she left for the market

At the market, Leisel and the Mayor's wife bought dresses and sweaters, even some pants and blouses. Leisel knew she had to find something to wear to Himmel's funeral, so she looked at fancy black dresses. "I'm just going to talk to Frau Rommel, okay?" The Mayor's wife asked. Liesel nodded. "How are you?" the Mayor's wife said. Frau Rommel sighed. "Good. I've got a new child, from Himmel, see. He's heart broken" the Mayor's Wife's brow furrowed her brow "but..Liesel is from Himmel...she supposed to be the only one...who is the child?"she said. Frau Rommel replied "Rudy Steiner." The Mayor's wife smiled. "He's her best friend. I'd like to take him in as well, as a surprise for them both" Frau Rommel smiled."You can pick him up tomorrow"

On the way home, The Mayor's Wife concocted a lie. "Frau Rommel runs the orphanage. There is another kid, a boy, your age who survived a bombing. I'm going to take him in, to keep you company. He's coming 't that be nice?" Liesel nodded."Why don't you wear your new yellow dress?" The dress was the color of lemons. Of Rudy. She nodded again.

When Frau Rommel got back to the Orphanage, she too concocted a lie. "Rudy! Someone is adopting you! The mayor and his wife! They have another orphan your age. It'll be nice to have company won't it?" Rudy nodded. "Yeah" he sighed. He thought of Liesel as he fell asleep crying.

The next day, both Rudy and Liesel bathed. Liesel donned her yellow dress. She sat by the window again, looking at the only things she saved from the bombing- her books. She flipped to the page describing Rudy in her life's story. She sighed. Whoever this new boys was - how he could replace Rudy?

Rudy was ready to leave. He sighed in his crisp shirt and pants. The nicest clothes he'd ever had. He climbed into the car. He had no possessions. It was a short ride to the Mayor's house. When they arrived, he got out of the car and climbed up the steps. Rudy took a big breath and opened the door.

The first thing he saw was a girl sitting at the window. She had a pile of books near her and was surrounded by the library. Liesel's Library. She was reading a tattered, ripped and burned edition. She was breathing heavily and crying. "My best friend and I used to come here and steal things" he whispered. The girl crumpled in tears. "I'm sorry" she said, and left the room.

Liesel didn't once look at the boy in the library. But she heard him "My best friend and I used to come here and steal things" it reminded her of Rudy, and it broke her heart to think that someone else was doing the same thing as them - as if it wasn't as special. She stood in the kitchen, looking at the wooden spoons. Thinking of Mama and Papa, of Himmel. This boy's home was bombed too. He must have lost his best friend. Liesel wondered if it had been a girl. If he had asked her for kisses. If he had loved her, and she him, but she never told him. She decided to greet the boy with empathy.

The girl was gone, leaving Rudy to look at her books. One, the one she had been reading, lay open by the window. The pages flipped and turned, filthy and charred. Rudy picked it up, closing it. He heard a sound behind him. "I wrote that, if you want to read it. It's my life's story. At least my life here" the girl said. Rudy nodded and sat on the floor, back to the girl.

Liesel waited for the boy to start reading, but he just sat, holding it in his hands, feeling it. She stood and ran her hands over the shelves, and watched him. His hair was dirty, but could be almost the exact likeness to Rudy's. She sighed and sat up against the shelves. Just waiting.

Rudy just sat, unsure about opening the book. What would he find inside? He hadn't even looked at the girl's face, and she hadn't seen his. He flipped through the pages, not reading anything. A few words caught his eye. Running, Soccer, Basement, Jew, and Lemons. "Go on then. You can read it" the girl said softly. Rudy flipped to the front page.

The Book Thief

By Liesel Meminger

"The book thief. Liesel." Rudy gasped. He whipped his head around to look the girl right in the face. "Liesel?" He gasped out. He began to cry. Liesel raised her head with concern, and what she saw made her cry too. "Rudy?" she whispered. He could only nod. The two smashed together in an embrace. Both were crying almost uncontrollably. "You're okay. You're alive." Rudy said, looking into Liesel's eyes. "You - you were dead, lying on the ground. I asked you too wake up, I begged you, but nothing happened and-" "I don't know how" Rudy interrupted, "but I woke up surrounded by dead bodies in a truck. I tried to find you but I couldn't" "It doesn't matter how. Only that we've found each other" Liesel said. She and Rudy were still in their tight embrace. "How about a kiss Saumensch?"
Rudy laughed. But of course, Liesel had already kisses his dying lips. She looked into his eyes and brought her lips to his. She closed her eyes as he kissed her back. Their tears mingled. When they pulled away, Rudy was smiling "I told you you'd want me someday Liesel" he said, laughing. She smiled and hugged him again. "I'm so glad you're alive. I love you, Rudy"

When the Mayor's wife saw them holding hands and standing no more then a foot away from each other at all times, she knew her plan had worked. She'd never seen Liesel so happy, even when entering the library for the first time. "Surprise" She said at supper, smiling.

The little make-shift family lived together, happily, until Rudy's father showed up. He had come home from the war, to go to the funeral of Himmel. He expected to see Rudy and Liesel's graves. Side by side he'd hoped. Even he'd seen their love for each other, even if they hadn't. He wanted them to be neighbor and best friends in Heaven to, just as they were on Himmel. He showed up to the funeral, dressed black. He saw the Mayor and his wife standing by two young teens, standing close, holding each others hands. He reconised the hair first, then the face of the girl. The boy leaned down to kiss the girl's head. "Rudy! Liesel!" he called out. Both of them looked up. Liesel's mouth hung open, and Rudy smiled. He ran to his father and embraced him. "You're home!" he said. "And you're alive and so is-" "Liesel!" Rudy finished. "Where are you living?" his father asked "With the mayor and his wife - she's Liesel's friend. She 's there too." Rudy explained everything about the last few weeks. His father went to talk to the mayor and thank them. Rudy and Liesel stood together.

"Where are you going to go? Where will you and your father live? Please don't leave Rudy, I don't know what I'd do if you left!" Leisel exclaimed. Rudy looked at her and pulled her into a hug. "I'd never leave. My father's shop is okay - he went and looked. There is an apartment above it, but we use it for storage. I think we'll go there"

Rudy and his father moved into the apartment above the suit shop. Surprisingly, people still wanted suits. Liesel and Rudy worked in the shop together. The war ended, and Hitler was dead. Everything was looking up. Liesel had long since accepted that her friends and family were dead. That Max, although not in the bombing, was dead. One day, she was unpacking boxes of new suits, when a man with feathered hair came into the shop "Does a Liesel Meminger work here?" he asked Rudy's father. "Why, yes. May I ask who is calling?" he answered. Max was about to answer when Liesel and Rudy came out of the back room together.

"Max!" Liesel shrieked. They hugged and laughed and cried. Rudy and his father stood and watched. "They hid him in their basement for years. He's Jewish." Rudy explained. "They're close friends." he smiled. Liesel was right. He did have hair like feathers. "You must be Rudy" Max said. "Yes, that's me." Rudy answered. Max turned to Liesel. "His hair is the color of lemons"

Rudy and Liesel lived for a long time together. They got married, had children. Rosa, Max, Werner and I picked them up together, having died in each others arms, I was glad I had broken the rules and gave Rudy his soul back. I was glad I'd let him live. I was glad I'd given Liesel back her friend. I might be Death, but I know lot's about love.