A/N: What would a cliched romantic comedy look like in the Star Wars galaxy? Eight years after ROTJ, the Rebellion victory has (miraculously) spawned a stable galactic government, and Leia Organa is a very single and very talented government official who is about to get a very unwelcome surprise.

If you take the EU seriously, then this is AU.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Star Wars, in its entirety, is property of Lucasfilm, etc. I'm not making any money whatsoever.

Just Another Day

"Anything for height, huh?'

Luke Skywalker stood in the middle of her living room holding her shoe, and she knew her brother was going to make her late.

"I don't have time for this, Luke."

"Fine, fine, here," he handed her the black platform pump with the very high and very thin heel, "You could kill someone with those, you know."

She wiggled her foot into the shoe and was suddenly nearly tall enough to look him in the eye. Balanced on one foot, she grabbed for its mate.

"Worried?"

"Not especially."

"Is there a reason you are in my apartment at 0600?"

"Do I need a good reason to see my only sister?"

"At this time of the morning, yes, you do."

"Alright, I do have a reason. But promise not to get mad."

Leia Organa looked up from the caf she had moved to prepare in a portable mug, "Well, I wasn't expecting my morning to get any better. What?"

"I, uh, may have set you up on a date tonight."

Leia sighed, "How many times do I have to tell you, Luke? I'm too busy to go on dates, let alone with the men you seem to think I'll be interested in. For Sith's sake, I don't even have enough time to know what I'm interested in."

He crossed his arms and gave her that 'big brother' look. She hated the 'big brother' look.

"This one's different."

Leia reached for her bag on the counter, and checked that she had her five datapads, three comlinks, and handful of ration bars.

"You say that about all of them. And none of them are. Is this really why you came here this morning? To set me up on a date?"

"I'm just worried about you, Leia."

She slipped a small black cape over her shoulders.

"And I'm worried about being late to my meeting with the Prime Minister and the Commerce Minister."

Luke caught her arm before she hit the controls on the door panel.

"You're wearing yourself out."

"Do I look worn out?" She challenged him and he could only shake his head.

"I know you enjoy your job, and I know you're okay, but …"

"Force sustain me, Luke, I can take care of myself."

He let go of her arm and closed his eyes. She braced herself for the inevitable lecture.

"I think the Force is the only thing that keeps you going."

She smacked the door controls and smiled at her brother. One of her comlinks was buzzing and she began rummaging, one-handed, into her bag.

"I know, but it's my talent to deal with, not yours. Look, why don't we catch up later?" She found the vibrating comlink and stepped out the door.

"You're not off the hook, Leia."

She shook her head.

"You're still going to cancel that date."

"What'll I say?"

"Tell him I'm busy running the government or something," she called as she strode down the hall, satisfied with the click of her heels on the stone surface and shaking her head at her meddling brother.

She arrived late to the meeting, but was thankful the Prime Minister had not yet appeared. She chatted idly with the Commerce Minister, Lisi Nex, about the presence of some Hutts in Republic-controlled territory and the problems with attempting to integrate Hutts into legal markets.

"I've never met one, actually," Lisi mused.

"They aren't worth meeting, trust me."

It was common knowledge that Leia had encountered Jabba the Hutt on Tatooine; it was not common knowledge, however, that she had murdered him.

The door beeped before it slid open, giving both women the chance to get to their feet for the Prime Minister's entrance into the small conference room. Leia noted that the sun was about the burst over the craggy horizon of Coruscant. Another dawn meant only another day in meetings from sunrise to sunset, and then some.

"Minister Nex, Minister Organa, please, sit," the Prime Minister gestured to their chairs, "Let's get down to business, shall we?"

"Minister Mothma, Minister Organa, as you may know, over the past several years, a group of merchants, traders, business owners, entrepreneurs, and other financiers has coalesced into a powerful commercial organization calling itself the New Trade Federation. In attempting to learn from the mistakes the of Old Republic, we have been in ongoing contact with the NTF. They would like to be formally recognized by the government; however, this means that we must involve the Ministry of State."

Leia looked up from the report on her datapad and calmly rested her eyes on the Commerce Minister's face.

"What are they asking for?"

"I'll send you the original request document so you can review it for yourself. It looks like basic privileges to me, but I'm not the expert."

Leia nodded and shifted her gaze to the Prime Minister.

"Minister Mothma, have you heard of the New Trade Federation prior to this meeting? Because I haven't."

"Some things. Unlike the former Trade Federation, they don't appear to have a weaponized fleet, or have any interest in building one. Their interests seem to be closely bound up with the New Republic's own. I don't see the harm in discussing this further with representatives of the Federation."

As the Prime Minister spoke, Leia typed out a message to her two deputy ministers and her four assistants asking for all available information on the NTF to be pulled. Finishing the message, she sighed.

"My worry isn't that the NTF will somehow make a power move, or attempt to foment rebellion. I'm more concerned that recognizing an organization like you describe will make our attempts at pursuing any economic reform appear much less serious. This move may cost us politically, especially in systems that do not support free trade. Add to that the fact that plenty of intelligent people in our government, and elsewhere, think that power follows money … we're damned if we do, damned if we don't."

"Minister Organa, you realize we don't need to recognize the NTF on its terms, nor do we need to recognize the NTF at all."

"With all due respect, Mon, we don't want to make an enemy of the NTF, either. That's bind I already see us in."

The Commerce Minster broke in, "Leia is correct, Mon. We don't want to alienate groups like the NTF. The NTF will simply grow more powerful, and we'll be stuck with no way to direct or to control it. That will make us look the fools. We need to build strong relationships with large commercial organizations in order to demonstrate the sovereignty of the New Republic."

"Lisi, you know I don't agree that we should resurrect the guild system."

"I do know that, Leia. That's not what I'm interested in doing, but that's a discussion for another day. The NTF is a different monster. It's vertically integrated, expanding its reach, and growing wealthier by the minute."

Mon Mothma finally acted to cut off the budding argument before it happened, "Ministers, it has already been decided. We will pursue a relationship with the NTF. Since we can't predict the political outcomes, at least we know there are concrete benefits to doing so: we can place a representative of the Republic on the board of the NTF—"

"Of course they're governed by a board."

"Leia, please. We can have a representative in the organization, we will have access to its financial records, we will be able to track whether and where monies are being used for political purposes – lobbying Senators, for example – and our jurisdictional authority to tax them will be made very clear."

"Assuming in all of this that they will be above board with their bookkeeping."

"Well, Ministers," the Prime Minister sat back and fluffed her sandy red hair, "That will be your job to ensure when you meet with NTF representatives. The two of you can keep a tight reign on anything."

Leia scanned the document on her screen, surprised again by the level of technical expertise the NTF was displaying in their request. Something was off. Everything checked out from the information her assistants had been able to pull, but she knew a big something was missing. She depressed the intercom switch on her desk.

"Jas, get me Secretary Rieekan immediately. And put in a call to Minister Nix's office to see when the NTF representatives are scheduled to arrive. If it's today, make sure the minister gets the message that I will kill her."

"Yes, Minister."

Within minutes, Carlist Rieekan was sitting in a cube-like blue chair in front of the Minister of State's desk. It was 0731.

"Busy day?"

"You have no idea, Carlist. And I just had a whole new problem thrown at my feet to deal with."

"And that's why I'm here, isn't it?"

Leia smiled at her dear friend and half-laughed, "You know me too well."

The Secretary of Intelligence leaned his forearms on the transparent surface of the desk, "So, what is this new problem?"

"The New Trade Federation. They are seeking some sort of formal recognition by the Republic. Mothma and Nix think it is a good idea. I'm a bit more skeptical. There isn't really any reason to be, but something about the whole deal is bothering me."

"Force thing?"

"You could say that. I had my staff pull as much information as they could find on the NTF. I need to go a little deeper, figure out where the money is coming from, who the leadership is, all of that. I figured you'd already have a nice, thick file on an organization like this."

"You're right about that, but off the top of my head, I don't think we've had anything come up as a red flag. I'd say it looks legit. If you want, I can get the file to you. I just can't guarantee you'll find anything there."

Leia stood up from her chair and smoothed her form-fitting black dress over her hips. She turned to watch the traffic lanes outside the transparisteel window and tried to focus on the tugging in her mind that was making her suspicious of the NTF. The answer was there, she felt it – it just kept eluding her.

"Carlist," she turned around to address the former Alliance general, "You've run background on all of the NTF leadership, correct?"

"Of course."

"And nothing."

"Nothing of note, no."

Suddenly a feeling shot through the Force like a bolt of energy and Leia slid around the edge of her desk and advanced on the older man.

"You're omitting something, Carlist."

"Princess, I don't know what you're after exactly, but the NTF checks out, and its top personnel are clean as far as we've been able to tell. It has been growing for some time, since about a year or so after the victory at Endor, and it is certainly diffuse, but I don't think the New Republic has anything to worry about in at least opening talks."

The feeling that he was lying disappeared as he spoke, and Leia filed it away. Before she could think it through more, the intercom on her desk beeped.

She hit the panel, "Yes?"

"Minister, the Ministry of Commerce has informed our office that the NTF delegation will be here later today, at 1400. Would you like me to clear your schedule?"

"Jas, move my meeting with the Naboo to 1300 and reschedule my meeting with the Minister of Development to tomorrow."

"Will do, Minister."

"Thank you, Jas."

Leia silenced the connection and sighed.

"I have a bad feeling about this, Carlist."

Rieekan smiled at her and stood, "You have bad feelings about everything, Lelila. I know something is bothering you, but sometimes things are actually easy."

"Not in my line of work."

"Come have dinner with my wife and me tonight. You could use a break."

"That's my second dinner invitation this morning."

"Oh?"

"My darling brother tried to set me up on a date with Force-knows-who tonight."

"So that's why you can't join us for dinner?"

"No. I made Luke cancel whatever plans he had. I'm too busy, and with this new mess with the NTF, I'm just going to be busier. The idea …" She just shook her head, "Thank you for the invitation, Carlist, but maybe another night."

"I'll be in touch, then. Let me know how the NTF meeting goes. I'll get that file sent to you when I get back to my office. Keep sane, Princess."

She smiled and spread her arms.

"That's my only goal each day, Carlist."