A New Kind of Criminal (Troyler AU)

Chapter 1: The Heist

Troye looked around him at the walls full of paintings. He knew in the back of his mind that he should be paying more attention. He knew how much history was housed in this room. He knew his professor would fail him if he turned in a blank piece of paper like last time. But, honestly, he couldn’t care less about “Lucile Léon at the Piano” or that it was painted by Berthe Morisot in 1892. All he really cared about right now was whether or not he would be caught if he sat down on the comfortable looking bench on the wall and dozed off. 

He looked around again, scanning the room for classmates, verifying every face in the room was a stranger, before meandering over to the bench and plopping down. He closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the wall. He was positive he would only rest his eyes for a moment before moving on to the next room. 

Seven hours later he began to open his eyes, rubbing the sleep out of them with the palms of his hands. “Ughhh,” he groaned, stretching his hands above his head and arching his back like a cat. It was dark outside, which was peculiar. Troye checked his phone and jumped when he read the time. “ELEVEN PM!” Troye screamed in shock. How the hell had no one woken him up? Troye wasn’t very surprised that his classmates had neglected him, but why hadn’t a guard seen him when they were closing the place? Frustrated, and worried about spending the whole night in the museum, he got up, picked up his messenger bag, phone still in hand, and started looking for an exit. 

Wandering around in the dark, Troye didn’t even make it out of the European Art Wing before he heard a noise behind him. It sounded like someone else was in the building. “Hello?” He called out turning towards the noise. Without warning, everything went black. 

—

“Luca you little shit!” Alfie stage whispered as he passed by him. “Hurry your ass up and locate the painting!” 

Luca made a tsk sound with his mouth while flipping the older man off. “Already done.” He said smugly. He pressed a finger to his black earpiece. “Isabella?” He asked for confirmation.

“European Art Wing, upper floor ,south side.” She responded through the headset from her position back at base.

He repeated the directions to Alfie, giving a nod to Tyler that the operation was under way. Tyler returned the nod before disappearing further into the complicated maze that was the museum.  They each had a specific job to do and they all worked together like a well oiled machine. There was no room for mistakes.

A mistake meant consequences. 

They split into their well practiced formation, Tyler leading, the others flanking out behind him. Luca stayed slightly behind the rest of the operation as he covered the rear. He would have gone fully ahead with them if not for Isabella’s familiar yet urgent voice hissing a warning into his ear.

“Luca. Stop”

“What?” Luca asked as he snapped out of his robotic trance.

“There’s someone here.”

“What?” he hissed into the device. “Why didn’t you warn us before?”

“He wasn’t supposed to be here, you idiot!” she hissed back.

His voice turned cold. “Where?’ he said simply.

“European Art Wing, upper floor, west side.”

“On it.”

Luca changed his route, moving towards his new destination. He didn’t alert the others. For once, he was going to do something himself, prove to them that he was just as capable as any of them were.