Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing, and am making no money off of this fic.

AN: Written for the August 17th Cocktail Party prompt found here: gwcocktailfriday . tumblr .com (/)post/176877655505/paenguol. (Without the spaces and parentheses.)

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All's Fair by luvsanime02

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"It's too early to be drinking," Hilde teases. Until the tray is set down in front of them and she sees the delicious-looking chocolates and cookie pieces that are also available. Then she just feels starstruck. "Never mind," she says. "It's never too early for chocolate."

Relena agrees, and grabs one of the chocolate bars and one of the drinks. "These better be at least half filled with kahlua," she says, taking a moderate sip from the glass and then humming happily.

Wufei calmly grabs his own glass, uses one of the stirrer sticks that neither Relena or Hilde have paid any attention to, and then takes the entire plate of little cookies. Relena opens her mouth to protest, but he only scoops a few of them into his glass and then sets the plate back down.

"Something wrong?" he asks, knowing perfectly well what Relena was thinking.

She huffs, and then snags the plate herself. "Not at all," she answers loftily, deliberately setting the plate down out of Wufei's immediate reach.

Hilde only grabs a chocolate bar. Let them fight over the cookies. This is clearly the good stuff right here. "So," she says conversationally, "what do you think Une wants to see us about?"

Relena shrugs. "I'm sort of hesitant to ask," she admits. "These are really good drinks."

Wufei's glass is half-empty already. "It's not even ten in the morning, and she's plying us with alcohol," he says. "Whatever she wants, we're all busy."

"Or sick," Hilde chimes in. "Possibly with something highly contagious."

"You're both terrible," Relena mutters, but she doesn't disagree with them. There's only one candy bar left now, and she and Hilde have both had one. Hilde eyes the last one longingly, sees Relena doing the same, and then both of them turn to look imploringly at Wufei.

Who only rolls his eyes and reaches for the candy bar, tears it in half, and then gives them each a piece. Relena graciously slides the plate of cookies back over to where he can reach for them in silent gratitude.

Une takes her time, letting the three of them settle in before she appears. "How are you?" she asks, sitting down in a chair across from the couch they're on.

Relena smiles. "Lovely," she says. "Thank you for asking."

"What's this all about?" Wufei asks, being much more blunt. Hilde chuckles into her drink, not bothering to hide her amusement.

Une sighs, but then she straightens in her chair. "I have a favor to ask."

"What do you need?" Hilde asks, while Wufei sits his glass down and braces his hands on his knees, clearly getting ready to refuse the request already. In contrast, Relena calmly takes another sip from her drink, looking for all the world like she's in the middle of a tea party.

"I have…" Une trails off, and then clears her throat. Hilde blinks, not having expected Une to be so nervous about whatever it is that she wants. She's making Hilde nervous in return, and a glance at Relena shows her eyes narrowing. Wufei only waits with a surprised look on his face.

Another sigh, and then Une forges ahead. "I need a babysitter," she says quickly.

There's a pause. Hilde looks at Wufei, who looks back blankly. Relena sets down her glass at last. "Mariemaia is sixteen," she points out. "Why does she need a babysitter?"

Une chews on her lip. "Because I'm going to be out of town for two weeks," she replies.

Wufei cocks his head. "And you're not taking her with you?" he asks with a frown.

Hilde has to agree that it's kind of weird that Une would be going somewhere for a couple of weeks without her daughter.

Une clears her throat again, still looking uncomfortable. "I don't think that she'll want to tag along," she says after a minute.

Hilde's still lost, but Relena suddenly makes a quiet noise of understanding. Hilde turns to look at her, askance. "Of course we'll watch Mariemaia," Relena says.

"We will?" Wufei asks.

Relena nods. "Sure. You like her, right?" she asks him.

Wufei shrugs. "She's an intelligent person, and I've never had any problems with her," Wufei admits, "but why are we the ones who are being asked to do this?"

"I figure that it will be easiest to leave her with three adults she gets along with, rather than just Sally," Une explains. "Or Trowa."

Okay, Hilde can sort of see the reasoning in that. She nods. "Alright, we'll do it," she confirms. She still doesn't know why Une's going somewhere without her daughter, though.

"I imagine it would be difficult for Trowa to watch her, anyway," Relena says mildly, but with a look of amusement in her eyes, "considering that he'll also be out of town during the same time."

Oh. Oh. Now, Hilde gets it. She has to cough into her hand to hide a laugh.

Wufei only says, "I see," with a smirk on his face.

Une looks like she's both regretting this conversation and is very pleased with the outcome. "Thank you," she says, her cheeks a little pink.

Hilde drains the rest of her drink. "We'll make sure she has a good time," she reassures the other woman. It's got to be tough, being a single mother. Hilde can't exactly blame her or Trowa for wanting to get away together.

"Does Mariemaia know you're going away?" Wufei asks, looking more than a little concerned at the idea that Mariemaia might not know anything about all of this. Right. A teenager being dumped off suddenly might not exactly be fun to hang out with for two weeks.

Before Hilde can worry about that too much, though, Une nods. "I asked her if it was okay before we finalized our plans," she says.

Crisis averted. Wufei looks very relieved as well. Relena laughs at them both, like she wasn't just as concerned. "You really didn't need to bribe us," she says eventually, gesturing at the drinks.

"Don't listen to her," Hilde says, "bribing was the right way to go."

"Agreed," Wufei says. He's eating the last of the cookies with quiet satisfaction.

"Well," Relena concedes, "the bribe didn't hurt, no."

Une smiles at them. "They never do," she says, and that's that. Hilde, Relena, and Wufei are getting a kid for two weeks. Well, at least the teenager in question has excellent tastes in music and movies. Hilde would know. She's introduced Mariemaia to all of the best stuff already.

"Having Mariemaia over for a couple of weeks will be no trouble at all," she says.

Wufei groans. "Oh great, now you've jinxed it," he says, trying and failing to look properly worried.

"I'm sure you'll all survive," Une says dryly.

Relena finishes her drink, and laughs. "I'm sure we will," she says brightly. And that's enough for Hilde.

"You're making it worse," Wufei informs Relena, voice wry. His drink is gone now, too, and all three of them get ready to leave. Une follows them to the front door of the apartment, thanking them again. Hilde's just glad that she didn't want something too tedious from them.

As far as favors go, this one could have been way worse. "So," she says, once they're all in the elevator, "how long are we waiting before we start teasing her and Trowa about this?"

"We're waiting?" Wufei asks. "I've already texted Trowa."

"I figure we should wait until after Une gets back from their vacation before we start in on her," Relena says. Good point. They should see how well the babysitting goes first.

Hilde grins. "Sounds like a plan," she says. And then she gets out her phone to text Trowa, too. It's only fair, after all.