Hello everyone! I hope you've had/are having a wonderful weekend. Mine flew by in a blur of social events, but I still managed to get this update completed. Still, don't be surprised if you see a few typos/grammatical errors and, as always, feel free to point them out so I can fix them stat!

I swear I have the best readers, and I thank everyone that made the time to write me feedback. If you haven't written in feedback from a guest account them my replies to your kind words and critiques should already be in your inboxes. If you have written in from a guest account then let me use this space to give you my thanks. Some guests sent me some incredibly sweet reviews, for which I am truly grateful.

Life has been so busy that I'm considering changing my style of writing and just setting aside half an hour everyday to chip at the updates. It's getting harder and harder to set aside half a day to knockout eight pages at a go, so I need to figure out a way around it. I know how much I anticipate updates to my favourite stories, and I don't like putting you guys through endless waits for new chapters.

Finally, many thanks to everyone that has followed/favourited myself or my story. I still can't believe so many people are enjoying it! Yay!

And now, here's Chapter 28...

Rachel covered a yawn with the back of her left hand, using her right one to scroll through a seemingly endless series of text messages between herself and Quinn till she found the one she was looking. Brittany hovered by her side, taking in the sights and sounds of the Ginza district around them as they followed their driver along the sidewalk. From what Rachel could tell the area was very popular with both locals and tourists, who seemed to be out in hordes, enjoying the last night of the weekend.

The driver came to an abrupt halt and Rachel glanced up at the sign above the restaurant they were standing outside of. "You wait here?" the driver asked the two women, who merely nodded back before he disappeared. There was a long queue waiting outside the restaurant, and the brunette noticed a few people intently staring at her and her blonde companion.

"Is this the place?" Brittany asked, running an interested gaze over whatever she could see of the place as they waited outside.

"Yeah," Rachel said, showing her English friend the text from Quinn that read 'Umegaoka Sushi No Midori - Ginza. I always get their Ultimate Sushi Assortment, Maguro Assortment and Hotate Aburi Salmon when I'm there. God, my mouth is watering just thinking about their food!' The World No. 1 had followed that text with another one that said, 'I recommend asking for a seat at the bar. It's pretty amazing watching their chef's at work. And please, don't send me pictures.'

Brittany laughed at the messages, "You're going to send her pictures, aren't you?!"

"Duh!" the American grinned, exiting her message inbox and locking her phone.

"Ohiyo gozaimasu," a high-pitched voice spoke up, drawing the attention of both women. "You, The Brit?", a young Japanese woman asked, staring up at the much taller Englishwoman.

Brittany smiled kindly at the girl, who looked to be around their age, "Yes, that would be me."

The Japanese girl's face broke into a grin, and she turned to say something to a group of young people standing a couple of feet away. While she didn't speak the local language, Rachel heard the word 'tennis' enough times to get the gist of what she was saying. The entire group now made it's way over to the duo, and the brunette noted that they were also the cynosure of all other eyes in the vicinity.

The teenager was seriously pondering whether the caps she and Brittany were wearing made them stand out even more when a voice broke her from her musings, "You won America, yes?". Rachel turned to face the young man that had asked the question, and smiled even as she nodded. "Omedetoo gozaimasu," the spikey haired boy grinned, looking impressed. Rachel guessed her confusion must have been visible because a woman standing beside the boy clarified, "Congrats. For win."

"Oh, thank you," Rachel said, making sure the boy that had congratulated her knew her thanks was directed at both of them.

"Shashin onegai shimasu. Photo?" the girl that had first approached them asked, and both tennis players shrugged as if to say 'Sure'. The next thing Rachel knew she and Brittany were surrounded by a half-dozen people their own age, and each of them had a cellphone lens pointed back at their faces. "Hai chiizu!" someone from the group said, milliseconds before a cacophony of clicks filled the air.

"Doomo arigatoo," a man from the group said moments later, slightly bowing to the pair as he did.

This Rachel understood. "You're welcome," she smiled back, and turned to see that Brittany was also gracing the group with one of her dazzling smiles.

The pair watched the group walk back to where they were originally standing. "That has got to be the most respectful group of fans I've ever met," the blonde said without taking her eyes off their retreating figures.

Rachel 'hmm-ed' her agreement, and turned to see their driver heading back their way. "Please, come," he said, gesturing for the tennis players to follow him inside. Rachel almost felt bad they were getting in so quickly when other people had been waiting longer but her guilt was assuaged with the knowledge that someone from the tournament had called ahead earlier that afternoon to reserve seats for her and Brittany, so it wasn't like they were really jumping the queue.

They entered the restaurant and stopped in front of a waitress. The driver said something to her in rapid Japanese then turned to address Rachel and Brittany, "You eat, then come to car. I wait in car."

"Thank you, Takao," Brittany smiled, prompting the driver to quickly bow before exiting the restaurant. The two foreigners followed the waitress to the sushi bar, where the chef's called out a friendly "irasshaimase" upon seeing them, and sat down in the tall chairs she gestured to, eyes immediately drawn to the plates of food going by on the belt.

"It all looks so good," Brittany said turning her cap around so the strap closure now rested in the middle of her forehead. She shrugged at Rachel, "I doubt anyone's going to look up from their food long enough to recognize us in here."

Rachel couldn't argue with that logic and besides, so far wearing a baseball cap low over her eyes hadn't actually seemed to stop anyone from recognizing them. Not that the brunette really minded the attention, to be honest. Her fan experiences so far had been very non-intrusive and harmless, so she didn't hesitate to mimic her English friend by pushing the bill of her cap around to hang over the back of her neck.

The waitress came back their way and Rachel referred to her phone again to order all of Quinn's recommendations before pointing out some other dishes on the menu that caught her eye. Brittany added a few more dishes to their order before the waitress walked away and both women turned back to face the moving belt.

Rachel grabbed a plate before it passed them by and lifted the plastic cover off the top. "Unagi?", she offered, setting the plate between the two of them.

"Yes, please!" Brittany said, helping herself to the eel.

"Mmm," the brunette practically moaned upon taking her first bite, her nostrils flaring with pleasure as she chewed.

Brittany nodded vigorously, clearly enjoying her own piece of the fish. "Wow," she said after she swallowed "what do you want to try next?!"

By the time the waitress returned with their orders, Rachel and Brittany had already devoured some scallops that they picked up as soon as the chef was done searing them, two plates of prawn tempura and a serve of spicy Hamachi with avocado. They thanked the waitress as she set their food down, their appetites nowhere near satisfied quite yet.

"Wait," Rachel said, stopping Brittany from picking up a piece of salmon her chopsticks were hovering over. The American pointed her cellphone at her friend, "Ok. And look happy!"

"Oh trust me," Brittany smiled, deftly picking up the seared fish, "I'm happy!" Rachel clicked the picture just as the blonde brought the morsel to her lips, a look of sheer bliss on her features. The teenager smiled down at the picture, which was framed to include the Englishwoman and the mountain of food they had ordered, before sending it to Quinn with the message 'Thanks for the recommendation ;)'. Pleased, she locked her phone and dug in.

For long minutes the two women ate in quiet solidarity, only stopping to smile at one another when they happened to catch each other's eye. Eventually Rachel slowed down, no longer feeling as famished as she did when she first entered the restaurant, and from the looks of it Brittany was the same. She watched the blonde stifle a yawn, and seconds later stifled one of her own. "You look as exhausted as I feel," Brittany said.

The brunette ran her tongue over her teeth, checking there were no fish eggs or seaweed stuck in the crevices there, before replying, "You gotta love time zones."

Rachel had landed in Japan the previous night after a fourteen-hour flight from New York to Tokyo that didn't include the six-hour halt in Dubai. As she always did when traveling overseas, the American had set her watch to Japanese time as soon as she had stepped on the plane at JFK, trying to acclimatize her body to the thirteen-hour time difference between the two cities right from the word go. She'd landed at the Narita International Airport just after 6 pm local time, and could barely keep her eyes open in the shower that she'd decided to take right after she'd unpacked. Unfortunately all traces of drowsiness were gone by the time she actually made it to her bed, since it was 8 in the morning in New York and her body had decided it was no longer sleepy. The brunette couldn't recall how long she'd simply lain there with her eyes closed before sleep finally took her.

She was still groggy at breakfast the next morning but there was no time to rest because Shelby had booked them in for a 10 am hit on one of the practice courts at the Ariake Tennis Forest Park. The US Open champion just managed to squeeze in a quick shower after the practice session before she was swept away to participate in a kids clinic along with Marley, Kitty Wilde, Lily Chan, Piper Chapman, Padma and Parvati Patil and Asami Sato, who was hands down the most popular with the kids. The raven-haired tennis player was an outright celebrity in her native Japan, which is something Rachel had quickly clued into after seeing her on at least half a dozen billboards and screens on the drive from the airport to the hotel. The teenager had felt the effects of jetlag hit her a few times during the media-heavy event, but she'd soldiered on and ended up really enjoying the afternoon devoted to children.

Now the weariness was starting to catch up to her again and she glanced down at her wristwatch to check the time, unable to stop another yawn from temporarily immobilizing her. Blinking away the moisture that had pooled in her eyes, she took in the stacks of empty plates before them, "I'm going to sleep so well tonight."

"Oh, yeah," Brittany grinned, dipping a piece of tuna into some wasabi. The blonde swallowed the bite, surveying the food before them as she did, "God, I feel like all I've been done these past few weeks is eat!"

Rachel let out a short laugh, "Yeah, I saw the pictures. I thought you two had been eating out lots, and couldn't believe it when Quinn said that was just food Santana's grandma had been cooking."

Brittany was taking a sip of water but nodded her head vigorously, eyes wide as they stared back at Rachel. Gulping down the drink, she exclaimed, "I know right?! But the food was so good, I couldn't help myself!"

The brunette helped herself to some takoyaki, "Is the rest of Santana's family nice, too?"

"Mm hmm," Brittany said, adding another empty plate to the tall pile, "they were great. Her mom, Maribel, is just the warmest person ever. And her sister Alma's an absolute sweetheart. I mean, you can tell she worship's the ground Sanny walks on, and Sanny's such a great big sister to her. Alma's definitely got San wrapped around her little finger."

"Does she play tennis, too?" Rachel asked.

Brittany shook her head, "No, Alma wants to be a champion swimmer. She's already ranked third in her age group for one hundred and two hundred freestyle and two hundred butterfly, and she's really, really good. San would wake up at five every morning to go watch her train. It was really sweet. I went a couple of times, too."

Rachel stared at her friend for a long moment, before Brittany began to look a little self-conscious under her gaze. "What?", the blonde asked, lowering her eyes but unable to hide the hint of a smile on her lips.

The brunette shook her head, smiling, "Nothing. You just look... happy. I mean, I can feel it coming off you in waves."

She watched her blonde friend cheeks colour and searched her mind for a time when Brittany had ever looked as bashful as she did in that moment. She had come up empty handed when the Englishwoman acknowledged, "I am. Santana's... she's so great, Rach."

The American reached out to squeeze her forearm, genuinely delighted for her friend. Brittany cleared her throat, not meeting Rachel's eye as she half-whispered, "I'm pretty sure I'm in love with her."

"No shit, Sherlock," Rachel stated before she could stop herself, and burst into laughter at the look on Brittany's face. "It isn't hard to see, Brit." The blonde blushed again, and Rachel added in a kinder tone, "And I think it's safe to say Santana feels the same way."

"Really?" Brittany asked, the uncertainty evident in her tone.

"Really," Rachel said, in what she hoped was a reassuring tone, "I mean, I can't claim to know Santana's deepest thoughts but the woman looks completely smitten with you. I mean, some would even call you two disgusting. Not me, personally, but some people" she threw in cheekily. The playful slap she received on her arm a second later wasn't unexpected.

Her phone buzzed, and Rachel quickly lifted it off the counter and unlocked it. She grinned down at the message from Quinn, which read, 'That's just cruel, Berry.' She showed the message to Brittany before taking a new picture of the now almost-empty plates and sending it to Quinn with the caption, 'I would offer to save you some, but...'

She looked up to see Brittany observing her after she'd locked the screen and placed the phone back on the counter, and was about to ask the blonde if she had anything on her face when Brittany asked, "How is Quinn?"

Rachel leaned back in her seat and tilted her head to the side, "She's good, all things considered." Catching the quizzical look on Brittany's face, she clarified, "Her dad began serving his prison sentence three days ago."

"Oh, I didn't know that. Where'd they send him?" Brittany asked, her brow furrowed.

"FPC Pensacola, in Florida. I looked it up, and it's on a list of the best places to go to prison," Rachel said.

Incredulity was written all over the blonde's face, "There's a list of the best places to go to prison?"

Rachel nodded, a smirk taking over her features, "Indeed there is, with a slideshow and everything. And when you get to the end of the article there's a prompt to go to the next slideshow, which that day was 'Ten Practical Uses For Pet Hair.' Useful stuff, you know?"

The Englishwoman burst out laughing, "Christ! RIP, journalism." She shook her head, "But yeah, poor Quinn."

"Yeah," Rachel said, also sobering up, "but at least it wasn't all over the news this time so she didn't have to deal with any rabid media."

"Small victories," Brittany nodded. "Remind me to send her a thank-you card for recommending this place, will you?"

The waitress approached the pair to ask if they'd like anything else, and Rachel ordered a green tea while Brittany merely requested more water. "And how's the world's unlikeliest pair doing?" the blonde asked when the woman had left them again.

Rachel smiled at the nickname her friend had given Shelby and Jesse, bobbing her head as she replied, "Good! In fact, they've seemed even more relaxed since those pictures of them walking hand-in-hand at MOMA hit the web."

"Were they keeping it secret?" Brittany wondered aloud.

The waitress returned with their drinks and the two women thanked her before Rachel answered, "No. But they also weren't going to go out of their way to tell the world either. I mean, neither of them are really public figures so it's not like anyone outside of the tennis world really cares. It probably would have been a bigger deal if Shelby dated someone much younger than her back in her playing days but, you know, these days the press have younger fish to fry."

Brittany nodded and looked contemplative, prompting Rachel to ask, "What about you and Santana?"

The blonde sighed and seemed to consider her words, "Well, we've talked about it..."

"And?" Rachel pressed her friend.

Brittany sat up straighter, toying with the glass of water in her hands, "And Santana says she's ready to go public when I am. After all, she has been out since the beginning of her career."

"And you've never shied away from telling people you're bisexual," Rachel pointed out, "so why the hesitation now?"

The Englishwoman fell silent for a few moments, and Rachel gave her the time to think. She sipped her tea, watching as a whirl of emotions played out on her friend's face, and was still waiting patiently when Brittany put her thoughts into words, "I feel like I have so much more to achieve, to prove, on the tennis court, and I guess I don't want my relationship with Santana to make more headlines than my tennis. We all saw what happened to Anna Kournikova."

Rachel fought the urge to laugh out loud at her friend's paranoia, "Brit, the world focused on Kournikova's personal life because she barely played three full year's on tour and never won a single singles tournament. She had more of a life off court than on it, so that's a pretty lousy comparison to make."

Brittany didn't look convinced so Rachel continued, "And so what if the press does fixate on your relationship with Santana in the beginning? I think I know you well enough to say with absolute certainty that their gossip mongering isn't going to take your focus off your tennis, and their headlines will change when you start going deep into tournaments on a consistent basis. And God knows Santana isn't going to let anything distract her from winning more Slams!" Rachel gave herself a mental clap on the back when her friend smiled at the mention of her girlfriend's not-so-secret hunger for more success.

Setting her mug down, she turned sincere brown eyes towards her friend, "Look, it's not my place to tell you whether or not you and Santana should come out as a couple. That's a decision for the two of you to make. But, as your friend, I should tell you that I personally don't think there's ever a good reason to hide who you really are from the world. Especially when you have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of." Rachel paused, allowing her words to sink in, then added, "You know, one of the first things Jesse said to me when I signed with him was that the difference between a scandal and just another story is the manner in which the paps get a hold of the news. So just make sure you're in control of how the story breaks if and when you decide to go public, ok? I don't think I could bear reading utter nonsense about my best friend."

"Aww," Brittany said, her face melting into a smile before the blonde leaned over to give Rachel a side hug. She rubbed her hand up and down the American's arm, "You're right Rach. I don't know, maybe I just need to grow a pair."

"Hey, I'm sure it's easier said than done," Rachel said genuinely. "Just remember, I'm on your side, no matter what."

The blonde pulled away, nodding, "Right back at ya', Rach." She looked down, and Rachel followed her gaze to the final piece of their meal sitting on a plate. Brittany gestured at the sushi, "All yours."

Rachel shook her head and moved her body as far away from the plate as she could while still sitting on the tall chair, "Oh no, I can't. I think that might be the straw that breaks the camel's back. Or, you know, the piece of sushi that officially makes the button on my jeans pop."

The Englishwoman laughed, reaching for the tuna, "You certainly have a flair for the dramatic, my friend." She swallowed the bite, added the now empty plate to the tall pile and sat back in her own chair, glass of water in hand, "What about you? Anyone catch your eye?"

Rachel let out an almost-derisive laugh, "When? I've barely had a moment to myself these past few weeks. In fact, my idea of a vacation right now is a single-day where I have nothing scheduled!"

"Yeah yeah, life as a Grand Slam champion sure must be tough," Brittany said drily, a twinkle in her eye giving away her mirth.

Rachel playfully stuck her tongue out at her friend, earning a curious look from the waitress who came back to ask them if they'd like to order dessert. The two players didn't even need to discuss it before politely declining and asking for the cheque. Brittany turned her attention back to Rachel when she walked away, "Seriously, no one? Not even one of the hotties at the New York Fashion Week?"

The brunette shook her head, "I was there for exactly forty-five minutes Brit. Which is how long Jesse insisted I needed to stay to fulfill my contractual obligations to Tissot."

"You looked pretty happy in that picture I saw of you sitting next to Anna Wintour," Brittany pointed out.

"Ok, I'll admit, that was pretty cool", Rachel conceded. "Daddy almost fainted when she walked up to us to have a chat before the show. But what you didn't see in the picture was how exhausted I was after a one-hour one-on-one weights session with Sheldon. I'm pretty sure he had me bench-pressing my actual bodyweight that afternoon."

The cheque arrived and Brittany put a handful of yens into the cheque presenter before Rachel could begin to protest, handing it back to the waitress with a smile and a "Keep the change." "Ok, so no potential love interests then," she said to Rachel, sitting back and downing the last of her water, "but you'll let me know if that changes?"

"Of course," Rachel replied earnestly, "didn't I come running to you with that unrequited crush on Brody Weston?"

"A. That was three years ago, B. He did ask you out, but you weren't keen anymore by the time he was interested, so it wasn't that unrequited, and C. I'm praying your tastes have expanded by now to include people that aren't just narcissistic schmucks," the Englishwoman said, shaking her head and grabbing her bag.

The brunette laughed, finishing her tea before standing alongside her friend, "We'll find out, won't we?!". She stretched out a few kinks in her body, covering another yawn with the back of her hand, then slung her purse over one shoulder.

"Shall we?" Brittany asked, gesturing at the door. "I'm pretty sure I can hear my bed calling out my name. Like a siren."

Nodding, Rachel began the walk out of the restaurant, pulling her cap back around as she moved. She stopped briefly to turn and lift her hand in thanks at the calls of "arigato gizaimasu" that were directed at herself and her blonde friend, before commanding her feet to keep moving forward. The brunette could feel every muscle in her body crying out for rest, her sated belly only adding to her drowsy state. Bed sounded like a very good idea right about now.