Choosing Love

Chapter Nine

"Hello?" Akiho asked as he answered his phone.

"Your highness. My apologies for the delay, I've only just finished combing through the footage you requested."

"Michael, there's no need to apologize. I know there was a lot of footage that needed to be looked at. But I take it from your call that you found something?"

"Yes your highness. Please keep in mind that we only have footage in the cloud system going back the past year but we still have the tapes as backups. I wanted to get you the most recent footage first."

"Of course," Akiho nodded. His father had upgraded the docks' security system to make it more digital rather than the old way that they had before. As long as there was footage for them to see, Akiho was sure Ben wouldn't care whether it was from the tapes or from the cloud.

"I was able to find one clip every month that fit your criteria, including one from the previous week."

Akiho froze, hoping that he had misheard the head of security. This...this surely wasn't still going on. Was it?

"I'm sorry Michael, I must have misheard you. Did you just say that it was this past week?"

"Yes your highness."

Akiho sighed and shook his head. Gods, Ben was not going to be happy to hear that.

"Go ahead and send me those recordings Michael. And thank you for getting back to me so quickly. I know it's not fun to come back from your vacation and have a request like this."

"Prince Akiho, it is my job to help both the King of Auradon and the Prince of Arendelle. I only wish I could do more."

"If we need more, I know I will gladly call and ask you," Akiho promised. "Thank you again."

"Of course sire. Those recordings should be in your inbox within a half hour or so."

"I'll be on the look out for them. Please let me know if you need anything."

"I will. Please send my best wishes to the King and to your parents."

Akiho couldn't help but smile at that. No matter what was happening, Michael always made sure to send his regards to Akiho's parents.

"I will be sure to pass along your wishes," Akiho said and quickly said goodbye before hanging up. Making a mental note to ask his dad to give Michael a raise, he turned back to his essay. If it was going to be half an hour before the footage was available, Akiho would need something to pass the time.

And besides...the essay needed to get done anyway. He could just picture Ben's look of expectant disappointment if Akiho walked into his office without at least starting the essay.

Pulling the paper closer to him, Akiho began to write. Thankfully, the essay was for Advanced Chivalry and it was a five paged essay on what not to do as a prince. Let's just say Akiho drew inspiration from a certain red haired former suitor of his mother's for most of the essay. He worked to keep his handwriting neat, knowing he would have to type up his rough draft at some point.

It was a joke amongst the Tourney team that the only reason why Akiho hadn't been made captain was because of his messy handwriting. He would always joke back that he wasn't the 'captain' type. While he was born to rule Arendelle, Ben was born to rule everyone else.

It was funny though, Ben never acted like he was looking forward to the day where he would take the crown. Of course, when they were kids, they all thought Ben would be an adult and Beast would be well...dead. No one predicted Beast abdicating and Ben getting the crown at sixteen.