Thanks to PJO-Is-Amazing1234 and jnicweb for beta reading!
...When he introduced himself as Sebastian, I understood that I needed a name like that – long, with a German accent, but in an English way. Then I became Adelheid. He just smiled.
Yes, the name didn't fit me; it was too massive for such a delicate little woman. As if with a wave of scissors, he renamed me Adele, and we didn't return to that again.
He and I travelled over the whole world, as the best snipers got various tasks. And in any place, Sebastian stood out for his appearance, but felt like home after a couple of phrases. His pronunciation always was the same, his low hoarse voice didn't want to change the habitual accent, but it was always fine, and I started admiring too fast.
He could explain himself to anybody – with words, or gestures, or fists. When the case stayed within words, I wondered how many languages he knew. In fact, the listener hardly got to the point through the mix of English, German, Hindi, and, for some reason, Spanish. But we always obtained the needed information.
We came round to Gypsies for a couple of times, and it was the hour of Sebastian's triumph. He simply melted into the crowd, losing his tallness, and thinness, and even fair hair. He was one fourth Gypsy and joked that he knew the Gypsy language for one fourth, too.
He was just brilliant in German. He said a simple thing to cover us (as an example, "Tanz mit mir, Adelheide" for "let's dance"). I never understood a word but felt like dancing inside. He never danced though, he just didn't consider it to be a worthy affair for himself, and I don't know why but it still seems wrong to me.
Of course, he didn't spend all his time on me. He did spend it on his "girl" (that actually was his rifle), on his boss, on his escapes from the police, and we weren't often combined for tasks. But it seemed to me that I knew him perfectly.
It could seem so to him, too.
...When he introduced himself as Charles, I felt immediately how very repulsive his cold blue eyes were. I needed to build a bulletproof screen, or... I called myself Genevieve, thinking that he wouldn't catch me after it. I had never varied my initials before. My name had always started with A...
"Really?"
He smiled, politely and coldly, without any emotion.
I kept silence too long for somebody going to say the truth.
"Adele."
"Really? Or I do not express myself clear enough, Miss A.G.R.A.? Please let me call you Amanda, abbreviations are too tiring."
It was the first complete failure in my life. I had left Amanda behind long ago. She never took a rifle, washed gunpowder off her hands or even crossed the borders of her native region. She had died when I was nineteen, and I hadn't remembered her since then.
He knew too much, he knew me almost as well as I did, and never forgot slightest details. I don't know about love, but I can swear that hate at first sight exists.
...When he introduced himself as John, I introduced myself as Mary without thinking. Then I had to invent a surname. I never had neither such a happy name nor such a happy acquaintance. In that time my life with arms at the ready had just ended, and all I needed was to disappear. To change the passport name, finally in legal way, to find a job and to... marry? My ex-"friends" would never believe I was able to do all that.
It was a real shame but I used some old contacts and learnt John's biography carefully. He wasn't an angel but the complete purity is never believable, so it was the first time I let myself think that the worst was behind me. He was a simple, usual man, not like me with all my cupboards overflowing with skeletons. However, he knew nothing about me but things I was telling him, and everything was good.
...In an autumn evening John invited me to a beautiful restaurant and, as it seemed, was going to make me an offer. But I saw the waiter a bit earlier and understood that the game was lost.