How to Balance Music and Love

Summary: He was the new kid. Her band needed him. She needed him for another reason.

Ages: Cloud, 17. Yuffie, 15. Vincent, 18. Tifa, 16.

Couples: Cloud x Yuffie, Vincent x Tifa, Reno x Elena.

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy or most of the songs in the story.

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Chapter 4: Hanging Out with Reno

Cloud, Yuffie, and Tifa rode to Pizza Hut with Reno in his black midsize Hummer H3. It had crappy gas mileage, but Reno and Cloud both agreed that it was a real man's car, even if it was the midsize H3. Reno drove because it was obviously his car, He let Cloud ride shotgun while Tifa and Yuffie were more than happy to sit in the back. What Tifa and Yuffie didn't expect was that Cloud and Reno were talking about guitars the whole way.

"You know Reno; you are really good at Guitar Hero." Cloud admitted. "You got a higher score than when I first tried playing that song. You have no idea how long it took me to unlock that song." Cloud remembered that he stopped counting his tries after ten.

"Thanks." Reno said accepting Cloud's complement. "I guess I just picked up a lot from playing Guitar Hero at my friends place and playing guitar in a real band."

Cloud was a little surprised to know that Reno was in fact in a band. "You play in a band?"

Reno saw the look of confusion on his face and decided to tell him the whole story. "Yeah, I play in a Metalcore band, but I'm work on a solo Blues project for fun. My dad was a Jazz guitarist and wanted me to follow in his footsteps, but I didn't like playing Jazz. He literally disowned me when he found out I joined a Metalcore band…"

"What about your mother?" Cloud was wondering how a father could disown his son without the mother trying to stop him.

"My mom died when I was two. Back to the story… I've been living with my friend and his dad ever since. For awhile I've been playing an Ibanez RG, but I always had to tune it because of its tremolo bridge. I thought I was doomed to playing it until I found a lefty Schecter S-1, it doesn't have tremolo, but it kicks more ass than my Ibanez did. Since then I've been playing that in the Metalcore band and my Blues project." Reno finished taking a breath. He hasn't told many people his life story, but when he mentions being in a band, people ask him everything that involves his life story because to him, music is his life.

"Well, you're a versatile player then." Cloud admitted. Reno was more versatile than he was. Really, from Jazz to Metalcore and also doing Blues on the side. "That is something to be admired."

"Thanks, not many people think that. When I tell people that they always think of how depressed I should be with my dad disowning me, but I do crazy things to prove that it'll never affect me." Yuffie did always wonder why he was such a whack job she first met him, and now she knows.

"So that explains it." Yuffie said leaning forward. "I still remember when you wore an adult diaper to school."

Hearing that made Cloud laugh, because he remembered back when Zack did the same thing. Except that's the only thing he was wearing that day. "An old friend of mine did the same thing. He got in so much trouble at school that day."

"Really?" Reno remembered coming up with an excuse and got off with a warning. "The only thing with me was I had to go home and change. Only because I said I was in a rush and didn't want to miss more class than I already did."

"Hm, He just said he wanted to relive his baby days." Cloud replied. He remembered Zack not being good at excuses at all. "That got him suspended for a couple of weeks."

"Seriously, we've got to hang out more often." Reno said to Cloud. Tifa told him that Cloud would get annoyed by him, so much for her knowing him.

Tifa was also blown away by how well Cloud and Reno were getting along. She thought Cloud would freak out and never want to see him again. "You really have changed, Cloud."

"Yeah, well having a crazy best friend and an even crazier girlfriend did that to me." He said not thinking and not realizing after that he mentioned Aeris.

"Girlfriend?!" This was the first time Tifa heard of his old girlfriend.

"Hey are we almost their?" Cloud said changing the subject. It was obvious that he didn't want to talk about it.

But, Yuffie was the most curious about his old girlfriend. "So, who was she?" She asked Cloud.

"I don't want to talk about it." Cloud said looking out the window.

Now it was Reno's turn to change the subject. "Hey, we're almost their. Who's hungry?"

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While Tifa and Yuffie went back to Yuffie's house… Reno and Cloud hung out at Cloud's place for awhile. Reno wanted to meet Cloud's mom after hearing Cloud talk about how she's opening up a diner and is such a good cook. Cloud also told him about his Gibson and not only did he want to see it for himself, he also wanted to hear Cloud play it.

He liked it a lot, but was blown away by how good Cloud could play. He was shocked to see Cloud doing all kinds of solo techniques including tapping, sliding, and shredding.

"You are amazing, Cloud." Reno said with shock. "I think you should try out for Yuffie's band in the making." He called it that because he knew they really needed some help.

"I want to, but I never got around to asking her today. I said I couldn't yesterday, but that was before I found out that my mom doesn't need me to find work or help her out in any way." Cloud replied to Reno's words. He tried to ask her at the restaurant, but he was distracted by other people asking him about his guitar and stuff like that.

"I'm also impressed that you use Mesa Boogie amps too." Reno said. He also had Mesa Boogie amps. "I use a Mesa Boogie Lone Star stack myself. I love it more than I loved my Randall stack." Reno remembered back when he had his Randall MTS amp stack. He was really glad he switched to Mesa Boogie.

"Yeah? I don't blame you. I've used Peavey amps, Marshall amps, and Fender amps, and none of them are as good as my Mesa Boogie amps I have now." He remembered going from store to store trying out a bunch of different amps and finding Mesa Boogie as the best ones for him. "The Dual Rectifier head just works for me better than anything else."

"Yeah… Let's go do something else." Reno said a little bored. He liked talking about amps and guitars, but not all the time. "Like watch some T.V. on your big screen." He leaned back on Cloud's desk and unexpectedly knocked down Cloud's picture of him and his friends. "Oh, my bad." He picked it up and noticed the picture of the brown haired girl. "Is this your ex girlfriend? She's pretty hot."

Cloud quickly snatched it from him and put it back on his desk. "Yes, I don't want to talk about it, okay?" He said in a tone that was more serious than usual.

"Fine." Reno said not wanting to get anymore into the subject. He didn't want to bother Cloud and end up getting hurt. "I also have troubles with the ladies so I'll just leave it as it is." He made his way out of Cloud's room.

But, he noticed that Cloud didn't follow him and was instead talking to the picture of the girl. "Sorry about that Aeris. He didn't mean to." That was a little weird to hear, but Reno wasn't one to judge because he had some issues of his own to deal with.

When Cloud walked out of his room, he knew from the look on Reno's face that he heard him talking to the picture. "I'm pathetic aren't I?"

"Not that much." Reno said. "Not as badly as me."

They started walking towards Cloud's living room. "Really?" Cloud asked his red headed new friend.

"Yeah, I can't even tell my friend Elena that I like her more than a friend. So, I think of her during my private time…" Reno was now thinking of ways to put the next set of words together. "My hand wasn't cutting it and last week I masturbated into a cantaloupe."

Reno was right. And Cloud thought that he was the pathetic one, Reno was twice as bad. "A cantaloupe?"

"Well, I softened it up in the microwave-"

"I don't want to hear anymore." Cloud said stopping Reno from continuing. "It's official. You're the pathetic one." The sat down on the leather couch, but with a good distance between each other. Cloud grabbed the remote and turned on his T.V. and hid Direct TV receiver. "So what's on?"

"Do you have IMF?" Reno asked. It was personally his favorite channel because of all the music from other countries.

"Yes I do." Cloud said changing the channel.

As they watch T.V. Cloud knew that he was going to fit in here pretty well, but he also knew that he'd have to tell someone about Aeris eventually.

End of Chapter 4

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Author's Note: The whole masturbating into fruit thing is not an original idea of mine. I got it from the Good Luck Chuck movie and I just thought it would be funny. And I'm giving Reno the Schecter S-1 because it is my favorite guitar and am trying to get one of my own.