A/N : I got a message asking about Klaine and whether they are together. At the moment, they are not together; but they will be in a couple of chapters, the marriage proposal hasn't happened yet but I have plans for that later on :-)

The first half of this chapter is from Dani's PoV and the second half is Rachel's.

...

Chapter 7

"Oh what a beautiful morning" Dani sings to herself as she moves around the kitchen in her apartment. She can't help but smile to herself as she pours a mug of coffee, thinking about how annoyed James would get if he could hear her referring to their apartment as hers. He occasionally would refer to the apartment as theirs, but most of the time he would insist it was his; despite the fact that he spends fuck all time there.

She doesn't mean anything by it; it's just funny to tease him because really she's eternally grateful for the fact that he's let her live there three years without ever asking for a single penny in rent or maintenance. She feels somewhat guilty; thinking that she's taking advantage of their friendship but whenever she asks him if he wants money, James will be adorably cute and tell her to fuck off asking; He's her best friend and she loves him a ton, but that doesn't stop her from making him dinner a couple of times a week as thanks or despite the fact she hates going out and partying, once a month she'll indulge him and go out with him and his idiot friends.

James never tries to pick girls up when she's with him, something she appreciates immensely. While she would never judge him and doesn't say anything about it aside from light teasing, she knows that James know how much she hates how he acts with girls. James is so much more than what he's been doing to himself the last few years, he's a really amazing, kind, caring guy who would make an amazing boyfriend if he could only let his heart open again. She really hates Natalie and what she did; it breaks her heart to know that James can't let himself love someone.

While he might not pick girls up when she's out with him, the fact that he was out last night worries her. What worries her more than that is the fact that when she checked in on him to ask if he wanted a coffee, James wasn't in his bed which really only means one thing. For once, Dani hopes that her instincts when it comes to her best friend are wrong, especially given her conversation with Rachel the night before.

She'd promised Rachel that James cared about her, and she knew that he did. Dani had known him for over seven years and she was one of the few people he knew, outside of his old school friends that he didn't see much and his parents, who could remember the time when James was completely open with his feelings when he had been with Natalie. He had really loved her, and for the first time since then; Dani could see the signs that James had found someone who he felt that way about. Of course, James was a complete and utter fucking idiot; He didn't see how Rachel looked at him, nor the way that he himself looked at the girl. For the first time in a long time, Dani was furious with James if he had in fact picked up a girl last night; Rachel seemed okay with what James did, or at least accepted the idea while they had been friends, but now that Rachel had realised she cared about James; Dani didn't' want to see her get hurt. You better have been at Cobi's last night asshole .

Dani settles down at the breakfast counter, eating James cereal because fuck him, he wants to stay out late and ignore the fact that Rachel is pretty much in love with him. She stays there watching the morning news on the large flat screen for about half an hour before she hears the front door of their apartment open and close, followed by the low whistling that announces her asshole friend is home.

Please don't of had sex last night, please have stayed at Cobi's. Dani thinks to herself, glancing towards the hallway as she sees James waltzing in, hand in his pocket as he carries a bag from a pastry shop. Her heart drops as she sees that grin on his face; knowing it can only mean one thing. Fucking Asshole, I really fucking hate you sometimes.

"Morning Dan" James says, pressing a soft kiss against her cheek before he turns around and she hears the opening and closing of a cupboard door.

"Morning" She replies dryly, clenching her jaw slightly.

"You okay?" He asks as he takes a seat next to her at the breakfast counter, reaching to pour milk into his cup. "Dani?"

"No, I'm mad at you" She replies, glaring at his confused expression.

"What the fuck did I do" He says, raising an eyebrow as he puts the milk back down.

"You know what you did" She remarks, shaking her head at him again when he just stares back at her blankly. "You're such a fucking asshole sometimes"

"Alright…I don't but I'll just assume it's your time of the month" He says, smirking and normally she'd let it go and make a comment back at him but not today, not after speaking to Rachel last night.

"Fuck you" Dani says raising her voice. "Where the fuck were you?"

"Do I really need to fucking say it? Jesus" James replies, rolling his eyes. "Where am I most mornings after I go out drinking? In some girls bed"

"I can't believe you sometimes!"

"What the fuck is your problem" James says angrily.

"YOU are my problem; you're such a fucking asshole"

"Why because I fucked some girl last night?" James replies, raising his voice. When she nods at him, he moves his hand and shoves the box off cereal of the breakfast counter as he stands up throwing his hands. "Don't start giving me this now, We've lived together for fucking three years. Jesus Fucking Christ, Dani it's a little too late to start getting upset 'cause I fucked some girl last night"

"You're actually a fucking dumbass aren't you?" Dani shouts back, standing up as well.

"Who the fuck are you calling a dumbass, I'm the one graduating college in a few weeks" He fires back, rubbing his forehead with his hand. "Jesus, what the fuck is your problem this morning"

Dani marches up to him and jabs him in the chest with her finger. James glares at her angrily and squares his shoulders in what she assumes is supposed to be intimidating but its anything but that. Dani knows James would never do anything to hurt her. Sure they argue, just like they are now but he wouldn't hit a woman.

"My problem is that you were out fucking some whore while you know there's a girl that cares about you and apparently you're too fucking dumb to realise it. Or Maybe you just an asshole who likes stringing her along"

"What?" James asks confused, though he stops shouting.

"Rachel, you fucking idiot"

Dani watches as his glare falls from his face as he drops back down into his seat before speaking quietly "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean" Dani replies, lowering her voice now that he has; knowing that she has his full attention now.

"Rachel?" He says swallowing "She…likes me?"

"Even you aren't dumb enough not to see it" Dani says softly putting a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly. "I know you like her as well, right?"

Dani watches James as he stares at the floor, watching as seems to be thinking for a few minutes before he looks up at stares right into her eyes; smiling slightly as she sees a flash of affection before he close his eyes and cover his face with one of his hands. Considering that he didn't deny what she'd said, Dani took it as a confirmation and pressed on.

"Stop fucking about with these girls you don't give a single fuck about" Dani says after pulling him into a hug, smiling as she feels him nod against her shoulder. When they pull away, she touches his face. "I'll see you later Okay? I love you"

"Love you too Dan" He replies and smiles slightly at her.

When she reappears out her room to head to work, Dani smiles as she sees James sitting in thought as he leans his head back against the couch, his hands covering his face. Maybe it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to get them together.

…

Rachel is in a good mood all day. Her conversation the night before, leaves her with a huge smile on her face all day as she goes about her classes at NYADA. A few people ask her why she looks so positive throughout the day but she just shrugs and says it's a beautiful day.

Later that night, She was sat in the Bushwick apartment along with Dani, Kurt and Santana as they indulged in good New York pizza that wasn't dominoes, thanks to Dani enlightening them about an either better place and a movie night while the four of them shared a few bottles of wine that the blonde girl had snagged from James' collection at their apartment.

She'd been a little disappointed when Dani had turned up without him, hoping that maybe she could have convinced her best friend into dropping his plans for the night and come settle with the four "lame asses" as he would say; a smile crossing her face as she pictured the last time he had come with Dani nearly a couple of weeks earlier as he had insisted that they were lame and he was much cooler than them, despite the fact that he happily sat cuddled on the couch with her while watching several of the Twilight saga.

It didn't bother her too much, Rachel had accepted it might take a little while for James to realise what it was between them. In a way, she was kind of glad he didn't; as much as she'd missed him, in the last couple of weeks she hadn't seen any of the three that were in the apartment now thanks to her busy nights at NYADA practising routines for her recitals that were coming up. Still she couldn't help that her thoughts lingered on him a few times more than normal as the movies dragged on.

They'd already watched a couple of films and they were well into the third bottle of wine; the four of them happily giggling away as they started to feel the intoxication taking over them. Dani and Kurt were definitely members of the "happy" drunk club, and Rachel couldn't help but laugh as the two of them laughed manically as Santana was reliving the moment a fat customer had tried to get her to go outside with him into the alleyway for a quick fuck a couple of days previous.

"Why do I never get any of that attention; I'm single!" Rachel moaned, slumping back in the couch resting her head against the arm rest.

"It's not all great" Dani replied, sighing. "It's happened to me a couple of times…it's not very nice, in fact, it's just plain creepy"

"It'd still be nice…almost like a compliment" Rachel shrugged. "I haven't had anyone think of me as beautiful in months"

"James calls you beautiful all the time" Santana replied, rolling her eyes.

Rachel smiles widely as she realises that James is a real sweetheart when he wants to be; the rest of the time he's a fucking asshole but he does quite often call her beautiful.

"I know he does" Rachel said trying to shrug off what Santana had said. "But sometimes I just wish a guy would proposition me for a date, or at least try to engage intercourse with me."

"Why do you still find a way to use long words when you're drunk" Dani giggled.

"I'm sorry, maybe I should be more like James…It's been months since I had a good fuck!" Rachel retorted and all of the started laughing.

"We can be the mayors of celibacy town" Kurt replied grinning.

"Have you even had a good fuck? I'd say not considering the two guys you've had sex with" Santana remarked.

"Finn and Brody were hot" Rachel protested, pointing at Santana with the hand that was holding her glass.

"Please Horse teeth wasn't even that hot" Santana remarked, "Don't even get me started on Frankenteen, remember I fucked him as well? He has puffy nipples"

The other three looked at her and then all of four of them burst out laughing.

"Okay" Rachel said giggling. "Lets not talk about this"

"Mhmmmm, you were the one who brought it up" Santana replied, licking her lips. Rachel eyed her carefully while she took a sip of her wine; even under the effects of alcohol, Santana was a clever manipulator who could easily take advantage of the moment to get something out of her. "I bet James looks good naked"

"I wouldn't mind seeing him without anything on" Kurt remarked.

Rachel nearly choked on her wine, coughing as she put her glass on the table to stop herself from spilling it down her clothes. She shot Kurt a surprised look, she'd never seen Kurt like this before and it was kind of scary how honest he had been.

"What? Don't look at me like that" Kurt shrugged, sipping his drink. "I'm just observing that James is a fine male specimen"

"Okay, let's not fucking talk about James like this please" Rachel said, shaking her head as she took another sip of wine; feeling her ears burn in embarrassment. The thing she wanted more than anything else right now was to see him naked in her bed, preferably doing things to her that blew her fucking mind. Of course, even if she was a little bit drunk, this wasn't anything she was going to admit to these fucking drunks that were in the apartment.

"Only 'cus you want to fuck him yourself" Kurt replied causing himself and Santana to giggle.

"Alright, lets leave Rachel and my best friend alone" Dani said, gesturing with her hand for them to calm down.

"Where is tall, tanned and handsome tonight anyway?" Santana asked, resting her head on her girlfriends shoulder.

"He's out with Cobi again" Dani answered.

"I wish he was here" Rachel said wishfully, sighing. At the knowing looks the other three gave her, Rachel shrugged. "What? I do. What sort of a name is Cobi anyway? God knows what his parents were thinking it sounds silly"

"His name isn't Cobi" Dani giggled. "It's Arnold"

"No…its Cobi. James introduced him as Cobi" Rachel replied, frowning at the blonde girl. "I'm not that drunk"

"It's a nickname" Dani said, smirking. "His name is Arnold Cobriant, Cobi for short"

"Oh" Rachel replied, chewing her bottom lip. "It's still a silly fucking name"

"Yes it is" Santana agreed before drinking the rest of her wine before reaching forward to refill the glass. "Is he hot?"

Rachel answered "No" at the same time that Dani spoke "Yes". The two girls looked at each other and Dani was shocked.

"You're kidding right Rach?" Dani asked, raising her eyebrows. "Cobi is gorgeous"

"He was cute but I wouldn't go that far" Rachel shrugged her shoulders. Honestly, she'd noticed he was cute, but she doesn't think he's attractive, not like James is anyway; his friend just looks average compared to that fucking piece of hunky man candy

"You got it so bad for James" Santana remarked with a smirk.

"Santana-"

"No Rach, we all know you like him; its obvious as fuck so please cut the crap stop pretending that all of us don't know it"

"Rachel, what Santana is trying to say" Dani said softly, smiling kindly. "Through all the adorable crudeness, remember we all know you care about him; you can talk to us about it"

"We all just want to see you happy" Kurt added, placing his hand on her arm gently squeezing.

Rachel nodded after a few moments. It would be good to talk some more, get it all of her chest.

"Did you speak to him last night, babe?" Santana asked.

"No, he didn't come home last night" Dani replies, smiling sadly. Rachel feels her stomach churn at the thought of what he was doing. She took a deep breath to try and stop herself from crying.

"Was he…you know" Santana asks in a tender voice. Rachel closes her eyes as she sees Dani nod slowly. She didn't want to cry over the fact that James had slept with another girl last night; she didn't have the right to be upset about it, he wasn't her boyfriend however much she wanted him to be.

"I'm sorry Rachel" Kurt murmured, touching her arm and squeezing gently.

"Don't apologize, he's not my boyfriend; I shouldn't get upset about it" She says and it's taking her so much effort right now not to let any tears fall. She's been his friend for a couple of months and in that time, it's never bothered her before; she'd hoped he would realise how she feels and would stop. The fact that she's realized her feelings for him but he's apparently oblivious to it amplifies things and makes her feel horrible. "It's not like I've told him how I feel, maybe I should just go up to him and kiss him?"

"Maybe I should just kiss him and then drag him back to his fucking apartment and have sex with him? Maybe then he'd realise how I feel about him" By the end of speech, Rachel can feel a tear running down her cheek.

"Oh, sweetie, come here" Dani murmured, gesturing for her to come and cuddle with her and Santana. Rachel smiled slightly, making her way over to join the two girls on the larger couch and she settled happily into the blonde girl's arms. Resting her head against Dani's shoulder, she sighed as she felt the comfort as well as Santana slowly rubbing a hand across her back soothingly. "James cares about you; trust me"

Rachel smiles sadly; "He just doesn't realise it yet"

"I think he might start to after this morning" Dani replied, Rachel lifts her head up slightly and looks at Dani's smiling face.

"What happened this morning?" Santana asked raising an eyebrow.

"He come in wearing that shit face grin of his and I laid into him" Dani says, Santana stills her hand slow movement up her back. "Told what a huge fucking bastard he was and we got into an argument before I finished it by saying there was a girl who is crazy about him and then called him an ass hole who liked stringing you along"

"You didn't-"

"I did" Dani said nodding. "He's not but it got his attention and made him realise who I was talking about"

"He knows I like him?" Rachel asks quietly, chewing her bottom lip nervously.

"If he didn't before then he definitely does now" Dani says smiling. "I told him to stop fucking around with girls he doesn't give a fuck about and he seemed to listen, I'm sure he took it in,"

"Really?" Rachel replies, feeling a smile cross her face. James knew that she cared about him? This was great, oh she can't wait to see him tomorrow...After a second it faded from her face again when she realised. "Then why isn't he here?"

"Why is he out with Cobi?"

"Hey, hey" Dani says softly. "James not being here doesn't mean anything; you know as well as I do what he's like when it comes to his feelings. He's just finding a way to express them to you alright?"

Rachel nodded. While she wanted him to be there with her right now, kissing her and well doing other things that made her feeling amazing; she could understand he might need a bit of time to accept what he felt.

"Alright, now that we got the soppy shit out of the way; Let's watch the rest of the film before her and the walking sex machine start going at it day and night" Santana remarked making them all laugh.

Rachel's smile returned for the rest of the night; now she really couldn't wait to see him.

…..

Next Chapter is James PoV.