Chapter 4

Rachel is pretty happy with herself. Alright her vocabulary is still taking a nose dive the more time she spends with James but honestly it doesn't even bother her; sure she has to actually remember and force herself to use real words but if the only bad thing that comes out of her friendship with James is the fact she uses the word "fuck" a lot then she's perfectly fine with that. He's a brilliant friend and she loves that he'll practically drop whatever he's doing if she needs him.

She'd spent a lot of time with him, the two of them planning on setting Dani and Santana up on a date and she'd be surprised at first about the fact that he seemed to be willing to participate. After what Dani had told her about James' over protectiveness, when Rachel had gone to him she had expected him to tell her to leave Dani alone and not interfere but instead he had been more than willing to help her set up the two girls.

Apparently he'd let her in and trusted her completely; which was something that Rachel loved having. Once you got past his exterior and managed to get close to him he turned out to be an amazing friend. The first time she realises this is when she ends up working late at the diner and its pitch black outside when she finishes. James apartment that he shares with Dani is in the city, but he can tell that she's panicking about walking to catch the subway in the dark, not even to mention that fact she'd have to on it to go to her dodgy neighbourhood; so what does he does? He insists on walking her to the subway and then actually getting on it with her and walking with her to her apartment.

The embarrassed side of her tries to tell him at the diner that she doesn't need him to do it and then again at the subway when he doesn't leave her. Part of her wants to prove to him that she doesn't need his help but then he just looks at her and tells her to shut up its not even that big of a fucking deal and she can't help but think he's the most amazing friend in the world and maybe she holds onto his arm a little tighter because she's touched by the gesture; maybe the smile that sits on her face as she walks with him is because she really likes him and she's glad that he's come into her life. Maybe she'd tell anyone that mentions any of it to her to shut the fuck up because she doesn't really care about what anyone else thinks.

….

Operation "Dantana" gets launched a couple of days later after a meeting in the Kitchen at the diner when it's only Rachel and James working. They seem to be getting shifts together more and Rachel doesn't even really care much because right now she's just enjoying being able to just talk with a guy that she enjoys spending time without worrying if he's just playing her or if there's going to be any drama come up and ruin things. The fact that James doesn't date makes things easier in that regard and she's sure as hell never going to meet any of the girls that he has one night stands with so it makes being friends with him just easy.

She's learnt more about him, stuff that she knows he's only shared with Dani before her; everything just feels good between them and she knows that James is someone who she can trust completely. One of the benefits of being practically a brother to Dani is that he knows when she likes a girl and he assures her that Dani is totally fucking hot over Santana and it should be easy to get them together. True to form as a big brother, he employs the renowned teasing technique to push her towards actually asking Santana out. The only issue he says is that Dani is really shy about these and sure the blonde girl knows how to flirt but she's only ever had one real girlfriend and that was doomed due to the fact that Dani is so close to James.

Rachel finds out that Dani's girlfriend pretty much made an ultimatum that she wanted to stay with Emma then she needed to tell James to back off; which Rachel isn't surprised to find out basically ended up with Emma being shown the door and told to fuck off. James tells her that he feels bad it happened and had asked Dani if she wanted him to back off only to be met with a stone walled answer that he was her best friend and brother so if any girl had a problem with that then they could off because nothing comes between them. Rachel had a sneaky feeling that while James doesn't' date girls he fucks them, if he did find someone who he'd be willing to put his heart back on the line for then he would be as defiant and protective as Dani had been. Rachel finds herself thinking that it's a perfectly fine thing for them to do considering how close they were. She also finds herself thinking that hypothetically she wouldn't have a problem with how close Dani and James are, because she knows that he would be loving boyfriend. She might think about that scenario in a non-hypothetical way from time to time.

Their plan is fucking genius Rachel thinks smugly to herself when she sees Dani and Santana walking hand in hand through the doors of the diner on one of the rare occasions where they all have a shift together. She can't herself from running into the kitchen before they see her grinning like an idiot and squealing as she throws her arms around James' neck. Alright, maybe she's just a little too excited that her first attempt at matchmaking has apparently been a success and it's definitely a little bit excessive to barge in on James' conversation with Max by practically jumping at him. Screw it, she's proud of herself and James gives the best fucking hugs imaginable.

"Hello to you too Rach" He says laughing when she lets him go a few moments later; but not after enjoying the way he holds her close. "Normally I have to buy girls a couple of drinks before they throw themselves at me like that"

"Fuck you" She replies giggling at him. She's learned enough about him now to know that he only makes these jokes when there are other guys around, his cocky side coming out to hide the fact that he's sweet. Once she managed to understand the difference in what most people see of him and what she and Dani can see him like, it made it easy to see why he's so protective of not only himself but Dani as well; how scared he is of showing anything the rest of the world can exploit. That's why doesn't care that his more abrasive side that has to show off comes out when other people are around. "Come look"

"I'm busy Rach" He complains and she just rolls her eyes at him and cuts him off

"Shut up and come with me ass-hole" The way he smirks at her and squeezes her hand tells her that he's prouder than he should be of the fact that she swears more than she used to; as if he's happy that he's corrupting her.

"Whatever, lead the way you crazy b" Both him and Max laugh as she jabs him in the chest before pulling him by his hand towards the service hatch and gestures for him to look through "What am I looking at? Oh…."

"Exactly" She says as they look at each other and share a knowing smile and before she knows it he's offering her his fist for her to bump. Giggling she clenches her own and bumps it against his as he chuckles. "We're awesome"

"We're fucking amazing babe" He smirks at her and she can't help the grin that appears on her face at the affectionate nickname but who cares about that, it sounds so good coming out of his mouth that she just hugs him again. There's one thing that she never feels around James and that's uncomfortable.

….

"So like you two are dating yeah?" James asks as they are sat around in the bushwick apartment. It was a couple of days after the hand holding incident and Rachel been pretty smug since seeing it. Santana had invited Dani over for dinner with them and apparently Dani had been able to convince as James put it, force as Rachel corrected him while saying he was full of shit, to come with them. So it was the five of them lounging around on the two couches they had watching a film together.

"Yeah we are why" Santana replies, pausing in her process of eating a dorito and looking at him with suspicious eyes. Rachel bites her lip knowing that the suspicion is probably for good measure considering how much James enjoys teasing them all, especially Santana since he found out the latina can give as good as she gives. It's been a source of amusement watching the two of them the last week or so when they've all hung out; much better than cable TV.

"I was just wondering" He shrugs, a slight smirk on his face and Rachel knows he's not done. "When you two plan on having sex"

Yep here it comes the fucking asshole Rachel thinks to herself, her eyes widening as she watches the other Dani and Kurt freeze to look at him.

"Let me know and I'll make sure to pretend to not be listening. 'cus you two are hot and I wouldn't mind listening to you getting your fucking groove on" He finishes and starts laughing at the look Dani is shooting him; Rachel and Kurt join him because honestly its fucking hilarious how much he teases them and sure its probably inappropriate but that's just James; he reminds her of Noah a lot but they all love him for it.

"I'm seriously going to cut you in your sleep" Dani remarks shaking her head as she reaches and finds Santana's hand to squeeze. Rachel can't help but let out a little "aww" at the gesture, because its seriously sweet.

"Dan, it's a joke; relax" He says; to his credit, he's actually not wearing a smirk or a smile, he looks sincere.

"It's a good job I love you" Dani replies and James shoots her a wink.

"Seriously, I'm really glad you two have finally realised what the rest of us saw about three fucking weeks ago" He says, picking up his glass of wine and gesturing to them. "Congratulations"

"Thanks" Santana says taking a sip of her own. She shakes her head slightly, but Rachel can see that amused smile that tells her Santana likes it really.

"What about you James, any girls you're interested in dating?" Kurt asks next to her and Rachel gulps as she gazes over at him and sees that familiar blank expression that he puts on every time something like this gets mentioned. She feels awful for him, because she knows exactly why he hates it.

"Sure" She's a little surprised and that answer and looks over at James to see a smile on his lips. "But it means giving up my glamorous lifestyle as a, what was it you called me Rachel?"

"A manwhore" She supplies rolling her eyes at him; she hates it when he pretends to be upset about her teasing him. "And don't act like it upsets you because I know you love it."

He shrugs at her with that stupid handsome smirk on his face, swallowing his wine before speaking again; "Speaking of manwhores, how's that douchebag ex of yours; is he giving you any shit because I'd love to kick his ass"

Rachel giggles at him. "No he isn't and I don't want you kicking his ass"

"Shame" He replies, shrugging his shoulders. "Let me know if you change your mind"

"I will" She smiles back at him, raising her glass to her lips. She's got a feeling that even if she asked him in two year's time, he would still happily track Brody down for her. Yep, she was pretty glad that she had James in her life.

...

"I'm ready for fucking bed" James says as he appears next to her at the counter. She turns her head and smiles at him before looking back at the magazine she was reading. "What's that you're reading?"

"List of Auditions" She replies. "Since apparently the Funny Girl producers have forgotten all about me, I'm preparing to spend the time from now until the end of summer auditioning for anything and everything"

"They haven't forgotten about you, they're probably just deciding how to tell the others that they've this fucking amazing hot Jewish girl and that they best just fuck off back to whatever cave they crawled out from" He says smirking at her and she can't help but burst out laughing. "Don't laugh, I'm serious"

"You're sweet" She says, touching his arm and rubbing her thumb across his skin. "But it's okay, as much as I wanted to play Fanny Brice there's plenty of other roles out there for me"

"Don't give up, you're amazing Rach alright" He replies nudging her shoulder with his. "Besides if they don't want you then it's their loss; fuck 'em their show will be crap without you"

"It means a lot that you believe in me" She says squeezing his arm before moving it away again.

"It's easy to believe in you; I've heard you sing and you're fucking unbelievable" He replies and Rachel smile brightens. He knows exactly what to say to cheer her up, sure it might be profanity ridden but its sweet and she appreciates it. "Hey look"

Rachel follows his gaze and she turns her head to look at him; James is smiling as well at the fact Dani and Santana are sat close together on the small stage in the diner as Dani starts playing "Here comes the sun"

It's beautiful watching them sing together as they get completely lost in one another; she can see that the two girls care about each other as they sing only to each other, ignoring the fact that they're in a diner with about ten other people. She glances at James about halfway through and she sees the tears in his eyes as he watches his best friend; reaching out she takes his hand in hers, when he gazes back at her they share a smile. Rachel loves seeing this side of him, the caring person that he would try his best to have you believe doesn't exist but still manages to finds it way to show itself around her.