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

AN: Written for the March 1st Cocktail Party prompt found here: gwcocktailfriday . tumblr .com(/)post/183002312496/cocktail-friday-post-responses-on-friday-march. (Without the spaces and parentheses.)

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Budget Matters by luvsanime02

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Noin gave Sally's drink a raised eyebrow. "You're staying sober?" she asked, clearly surprised. Sally couldn't really blame her. No one wanted to remain sober during these mandatory Preventers luncheons. Mandatory for the regional managers, anyway. Which Sally was unfortunately one of. Noin, too, so at least Sally didn't suffer alone.

Sally shook her head. "Long Island," she explained, gesturing at her drink. Far from being sober while listening to Governor Matrul, their appointed official to schmooze this meeting, as he waffled on about his new townhouse, Sally was well on her way to being drunk. This was her third Long Island Iced Tea, and she wasn't planning on stopping anytime soon. Not unless Governor Matrul shut his trap.

"Oh, good," Noin said, saluting Sally with her own drink. Gin and tonic, knowing her. "For a moment there, I thought you were sick, or something."

Sally chuckled quietly. "Do you think faking food poisoning would get me out of here?" she asked.

Noin sighed. "Doubtful," she replied. "I'm pretty sure that if Une has to stay here and endure this, she'll make sure that everyone else does, too."

That sounded about right, not that Sally could blame the other woman. She hated these luncheons as much as the rest of them, but Une also had to sit next to the governor and smile, and pretend to find his stories interesting. Sally didn't envy Une. Of course the other woman wanted to spread the misery around.

Still. "Tell me this lunch is almost over," she moaned, downing the rest of her drink and contemplating getting another one.

Noin gave Sally an amused look. "It's only one o'clock," she pointed out gently.

Meaning that the meeting was only half-over. Sally was ordering that next drink, after all.

"Why doesn't Zechs have to attend these things?" Sally grumbled, flagging down a waiter. The man didn't even bother to pretend to be surprised when she asked for another iced tea, and walked swiftly away to get it for her. Sally was giving him a large tip later.

"Because he scares the investors," Noin said dryly. "The point is to make them give us more money, not tighten our budget even more."

Sally folded her arms across her chest, and was not pouting, thank you very much. "Lucky bastard," she muttered, mostly under her breath.

Noin snorted, but politely pretended that she didn't hear anything. Sally looked around, saw nothing else interesting going on, and tuned out Governor Matrul's latest joke. It was either that or punch the man, who honestly seemed to find his racist jokes amusing. Sally saw Une gritting her teeth, and wasn't surprised.

Her next drink arrived within a minute, and Sally sipped it thankfully. Sometimes, she mused, winning a war didn't mean that the politics became any less annoying. The only bright spot she could think of was that Wufei was getting promoted to regional manager sometime in the next few months, according to office gossip, and Sally couldn't wait to see how he handled one of these lunches.

She was looking forward to the chaos, honestly.