“It's not a huge deal," Aurora shrugged as they hurried down Guilford Street towards the tall, open wrought iron gates of the institute. They were running late for their nine am lecture on Greek funerary pottery.

"So you bottled it at the last moment, but at least you put yourself out there." Aurora was saying encouragingly, reaching over to pat Ren on the shoulder.

"Yeah but what's the point?" Ren huffed before jamming the rest of his breakfast bar in his mouth and throwing the wrapper into a nearby bin. "If I can't follow stuff through then what's the point of even putting myself out there?”

“Oh Ren, you're looking at this so wrong," Aurora chided before swearing profusely at a cyclist who had jumped up onto the pavement beside them, clipping her laptop bag.

"Wasn't that our professor?" Ren frowned, staring the disappearing back of the woman furiously peddling away.

"Well if she's late, then I'm not going to rush," Aurora shrugged, pulling Ren back with her to slow them down to a more comfortable pace. "Anyway, my point is this, firstly you can follow though, you just don't feel comfortable doing it yet and secondly of course there's a point - there's always a point in experimenting and seeing what you like or don't like."

Ren shook his head, "but Jabari, Klio I mean, wants us to go to her next show at the Uccello, what if that same guy is there?"

Aurora sighed before narrowing her eyes, there was some sort of commotion going on in the courtyard up ahead. Tourists and pedestrians were peering through the Institute's gate to try to see what was happening.

"Look," Ren gestured toward a group of men standing by the entrance talking to a security guard.

"Well damn me on a Monday morning," Aurora muttered with a slight smirk, "it's the Polizia."

“British police I’m afraid bella, you’re going to be disappointed,” Ren grinned as Aurora stuck out her tongue.

He knew that the police Aurora was used to in Italy were different to many parts of the world. Their uniforms looked similar to anything you might find in one of the Milanese fashion magazines with tightly fitted blue shirts with short sleeves revealing tanned forearms. Aviator sunglasses seemed to be a standardized addition along with a gun holster and heavy black boots. The London equivalent looked a lot more practical perhaps, but also a hell of a lot more boring.

Aurora and Ren pushed through a growing crowd into the main courtyard. Sure enough, there were MET officers everywhere, along with the bright blue and white of tape cordoning off an area near the fountain.

"Maybe a break in?" Aurora frowned, "Didn't we have one of those last semester?"

"Seemed like less of a big deal than this," Ren replied, "I'll bet the Institute's museum's been burgled."

"That's happened before too right?” Aurora frowned, "didn't they steal some bust?"

"Yeah," Ren nodded, "one of Aphrodite along with some Egyptian ushabtis, a couple of alabaster figurines and some medical box from Alexandria."

"Good memory," Aurora laughed. Ren rolled his eyes, side stepping so as to avoid another group of students rushing towards the action. "Not really, I was doing part time work cataloguing for the coins department at the time," Ren explained, "I had to write up everything that had been taken in detail for police evidence."

Ren and Aurora finally managed to squeeze through a group of rubber-necking freshmen, finding themselves right next the tape with “Do Not Cross, Police,” emblazoned aggressively across it. There was a similar sign underneath with the Italian translation give the bilingual nature of the campus, ‘Non oltrepassare – Polizia di Stato.‘

“There’s so many people here,” Ren commented, stretching up on his tiptoes to try and see what was going on. He noticed some plain clothes figures within the cordoned off area, their notebooks out and badges attached to their hips. He squinted to make out their faces when he recognised one of them with sinking dread.

“Hey, Ren isn’t that…” Aurora began, clutching Ren’s arm so hard he knew it would leave bruises and boy, people really did like to manhandle him.

“No,” Ren shook his head violently enough to make his vision blurred, as if that would somehow make what he was seeing all part of some terrible nightmare.

Aurora swore loudly in Italian distracting those around them from the police tape for a moment. “It is him Ren, it’s the guy you were with Saturday night. That’s the ridiculously handsome one that you ran away from!”

“I didn’t run away,” Ren muttered, his chest felt tight and his heart was beating about a million times a minute. “Are you sure he’s polizia?” Ren asked weakly.

“Oh baby boy I think it’s worse than that,” Aurora pointed unsubtly, “Look at his insignia. That, my sweet, innocent gay flower is an Ispettore.”

An inspector.

Ren couldn’t believe it, and it looked like Gabriel was the lead detective on whatever case what happening.

“We need to leave, now,” Ren stated, grabbing Aurora’s arm and beginning to push through the sea of people.

“Yeah, well it could be worse,” Aurora laughed, “you know who else could be here right?”

“Don’t even joke about it,” Ren snarled as they ducked and weaved in between the milling students and professors, all craning their necks to try and see what was going on. He whispered a silent prayer as Gabriel took off his sunglasses and began to squint out into the crowd.

They almost made it, bowing their heads to emerge from the masses on the far side of the courtyard. They were physically closer to Gabriel but as they were behind him he was thankfully oblivious.

“Renzo?”

The voice came loud and clear making Ren freeze in his tracks and tighten his grip on Aurora’s arm, causing her to hiss in surprise. Ren swallowed hard, he could feel his throat constricting as he turned slowly around. It wasn’t Gabriel’s voice, it was far too deep and more mature.

Behind them stood a tall, domineering man with thick silver hair and a face that had spent many years in the sun. Martin Harper wore his Commander’s uniform with polished pride. He had joined the force later than most, which made him older than a lot of his peers but he still commanded respect.

“Hi Dad,” Ren replied resignedly, flicking his eyes to the left and wanting to crumble like a pillar of salt as he noticed Gabriel had finally spotted them and was staring at him with a strange expression.