Title: The Gears turn on
Author: Shadow/Phantomness
Pairing: Championshipping (Lance x Red)
Fandom: Pokémon
Theme: #19, GDP (Gross Domestic Product)
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfiction belongs to me under international copyright laws and taking it is plagiarism. Thank you. *Phantomness bows*

Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks. Game-verse

Warnings: AU, het

“We can take it as a measure of our strong economic stability that the GDP has risen by a steady average of two percent per year over the last ten years…”

Goodman droned on, while Red felt his eyes drooping. He hadn’t gotten much sleep last next, and he glared at the Dragon Master sitting next to him, knowing very well whose fault that was. Lance simply smirked and gave him an unrepentant look.

“This is your fault.” He muttered, taking a sip from his glass of water.

“I know.” His wife purred, looking quite satisfied. “But I think you found it quite worthwhile then.”

Red flushed and looked down, while Goodman continued to lecture. He felt like he was in class.

“This is important, right?”

“Well, as long as our economy is not in a depression and we aren’t facing insane amounts of inflation, you don’t have to worry about anything.”

“Oh, good,” The Champion grinned.

“So our Gross Domestic Product rising anywhere from one to three percent is reasonable. If it drops below that, well, then our economy is stagnating and prices will probably start to rise and then our paychecks would get cut and people would quit training Pokemon – stuff like that.”

That made more sense than the numbers and weird abbreviations – what was DPI anyways – that Goodman was reciting with almost religious fervor. “Ok.”

He slipped his hand into Lance’s under the table, taking comfort in the fact that he wasn’t suffering alone, and tried really hard to listen to the rest of Goodman’s speech.

She took notes with one hand, and stifled a yawn. At least they weren’t dealing with embezzlement or corruption too much. Well, no government was perfect.

Red cuddled, and managed to keep his eyes open until the meeting ended. Then, he made a beeline for the cafeteria. He needed coffee now!

Lance chuckled, and followed.

End Fic

Completed 1/1/07

Edited 8/12/09

The Gross Domestic Product is the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time (Brief Principles of Macroeconomics, 4^th Edition by N. Gregory Mankiw)

Y = C (Consumption) + I (Investment) + G (Government Spending) + NX (Net Exports)

Higher GDP = Higher Standard of Living