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 the songs in the story.
-
Chapter 7: Cloud's Lesson and Secrets
The next day… Cloud instantly cleaned up from last night and went next door to Yuffie's house for more than one reason. One reason was to apologize for walking out last night and the second was to explain why he didn't want to tell her about his ex-girlfriend.
When he knocked on her door he didn't expect Tifa to answer it. "Tifa, What are you doing her?" He asked her confusingly.
"Oh, I spent the night here." Tifa started to explain. "Yuffie lives alone so I spend a lot of time here to keep her company." Cloud was wondering why he never noticed any else besides Yuffie living there. Even though he wasn't there for very long it was very weird.
"I see…" said Cloud. "Oh, I was hoping to talk to Yuffie. I need to explain some things to her. You know about what happened last night."
"Oh," Tifa said standing aside from the door to let Cloud into the house to let him in. "She's up in her room playing her piano. Be sure to knock first. She doesn't like it when people just walk into her room."
Who does? Cloud didn't like it when people did that either. But Yuffie but express it more than he does because Tifa warned him and that usually doesn't happen with much people. "I'll take you're word for it."
Cloud slowly made his way up the stairs and heard someone playing piano, but it wasn't what he expected. He was expecting someone who wasn't experienced, but what he heard was really good. If she was that good at piano, why wasn't she that good at guitar?
He went to the room where it was the loudest and knocked on the door. When the playing stopped he knew that he found the right door. He was a little surprised at the sight of Yuffie in her green pajamas. Apparently she hasn't gotten ready for the day.
"Oh," Yuffie said a little shyly. "hey Cloud."
Why was she acting shy all of a sudden? "Hey Yuffie, I want to apologize for the way I acted last night. The whole thing about my ex-girlfriend is a very sensitive subject for me and I don't really like talking about it right now." Cloud finished taking a breath. He didn't plan on explaining it all at once, but it must've just slipped all out.
"I know. Tifa told me some possibilities to why you wouldn't want to even mention her." Yuffie said thinking back to when she recovered consciousness last night after Cloud left. "And I shouldn't have forced it. I'm also sorry."
Cloud should've known Tifa would try talking to Yuffie. She's been playing Psychologist since they were little. "Yeah, Tifa's a miracle worker. I forgive you."
"Me too," Yuffie said smiling at him. "by the way, did you hear the song I was playing?"
"Yeah it was really good." Cloud said. He was curious on how she was good at piano but not at guitar.
"Come in." Yuffie said inviting him into her room. This was the first time she invited a guy into her room, but Cloud was somehow special. She didn't know how, but he was somehow different. "I need some help with my guitar playing."
He gave her his full attention as she said that. He also noticed her three Washburn guitars, the WI64 Idol, the black colored X30, and the D10S acoustic guitar. Wow, she did only play Washburns. "So what's the problem?"
"I can't seem to come up with a good riff with my skill to go with the song I came up with on my keyboard." Yuffie said explaining her problem and grabbing her acoustic. "Listen."
She started strumming her guitar, but it was only down strokes. That was her problem. "Yuffie, you never learned how to play using up strokes have you?"
"Up strokes?" She asked instantly ending her playing.
"Let me see your guitar." He said holding out his left hand. She handed him her acoustic guitar not to sure if what he was going to do was good or bad, but she trusted him. "Like this." He did a strum down then did a quick strum up. "That's an up stroke. Just instead of going back to another down stroke, go back up and do and up stroke. It helps a lot for speed." He handed the guitar back to her. "Try it. Be sure to get all the right strings though."
Cloud watched as Yuffie did a few down strokes then tried an up stroke, but it didn't sound right. "I messed up."
"That's okay. You don't always get it right. It also works for string picking. That is a nice guitar though." He had to admit, that was really nice for an acoustic. "I'm usually not into acoustics, but that is a nice guitar."
"How could you not like acoustics?" Yuffie asked him in shock. At least her shyness from before was gone and to him was a good sign. "They are amazing."
"I just never got into them." Cloud replied to her. He never owned an acoustic guitar of his own. "I've been playing electrics since I first started."
"Wow, same as Reno." Cloud was noticing that he was really similar to Reno. "But he could never find an acoustic he liked because he's a lefty."
Cloud didn't realize they didn't make many left handed guitars until he moved back to Nibelheim. It must've been hard for Reno to even find his first guitar. "Wow, so he must have it pretty rough when it comes to finding a good guitar."
"Well, he found his." Yuffie said plainly. "But enough about that. If you won't tell me about your ex, tell me something else. How about you tell me the worst thing you've ever done."
Cloud had to sit up off the floor for this one. "Hm, I've done a lot. I guess the worst one was back when Zack, Sephiroth, and I snuck fireworks into the girls' bathroom at school." He sat down on her bed that was covered by a green blanket. Green must've been her favorite color, he thought. "Not the small ones. Big ones, like Beautiful Blues and Blonde Jokes."
Yuffie didn't know the kind he was talking about, but he said big, so she figured the ones that made the big explosions.
"Anyways, we tied the fusses together, tied them also to some extension fuss. It took ten minutes to go off after we lit the fuss for the fireworks to go off." Cloud needed to take a breath and started to chuckle as he thought back to the day of the incident. "Five girls were in the bathroom at the time they went off."
Even Yuffie was laughing was laughing at the thought of five girls running out of a bathroom lit up by a bunch of fireworks.
"But it also damaged the school building and costing the town thousands to repair it." Cloud said looking down in shame. "At least we didn't get caught."
"Because you three were smart enough to cover your faces?" Yuffie asked curiously.
"If only. The fireworks melted the camera pointing to the entrance to the girls' bathroom." Cloud admitted. Why did he admit that? "We got lucky."
"Wow! You should've just lied to me." Yuffie told him. "I would've thought you were smarter."
"Okay, what about you? What's the worst you've done?" Cloud admitted his worst. Now it was Yuffie's turn.
"Well, mine wasn't as bad as yours, but it was pretty bad." Yuffie said putting her guitar back on its stand. "Before I moved out here, back when I was younger I would pitch a fit every time I wouldn't get what I want." She sat next to him, but at a good distance to avoid any awkwardness. "But one day. I pitch a fit and ended up knocking my father into a stand that had a bucket of blue ink under it." Yuffie was trying so hard not to laugh. "His skin was blue for the rest of the day."
Cloud couldn't stop himself from laughing. Not only at Yuffie's father, but also at the fact that she used to pitch fits. "That's… Oh…" He could say anything he was laughing so hard. "You were such a brat!!"
"That's what you're laughing at?!" Yuffie was pretty mad at Cloud, but she figured she'd play with him too. Physically play with though. She tackled him off her bed and onto the carpeted floor. "You better apologize! Right now!"
"Now way." He wasn't laughing as hard as he was but he was still laughing and wrestling with the small girl. Well, she was small, but strong. No wonder she could handle Washburn guitars.
But, as they were wrestling Tifa walked into the room and that's when things got awkward. "Wow! You guys made up quickly." Tifa said getting the wrong idea seeing Yuffie on top of Cloud. "I guess I am a miracle worker." She mentioned also referring to Yuffie's so called dying love life.
Cloud and Yuffie instantly separated. "It's nothing like that." They both said at the same time.
"We just…"
"Relax, I heard the whole conversation. I was only kidding." Tifa explained still standing in the door way. "By the way, Reno called. He wanted us to meet him at the mall. He included you too, Cloud." She wanted to make sure Cloud knew he was also invited.
"Thanks." Cloud said. By the time he realized it, he was getting pushed out of the room by Yuffie. "What the-?"
"Get out, I need to get dressed!!" She said shoving them both out of the doorway and slamming the door.
"If she keeps slamming that door it's going to break." Tifa said a little annoyed. "Oh well, she's only fifteen, she still has a lot to learn."
"You're telling me." Cloud agreed with Tifa as they both stood there in front of her room. "She didn't even know how to do up strokes on guitar. That's why she was so slow at it."
"Really?" Tifa played drums and didn't really know much about guitar, so this was also news to her.
"Yeah. Now she might also speed up and we'll get this band up and running when we get the time to." Cloud said before Yuffie opened her bedroom door wearing a pair of long jean shorts and a black t-shirt. Another thing Cloud notice she was wearing were fingerless gloves that also covered her wrist.
"Okay let's go." She said walking down the hall towards the stairs.
One thing was bothering Cloud. It was around eighty degrees outside. Why was she wearing gloves? Is she covering up something? Something was indeed wrong with this picture.
End of chapter 7
-
Author's Note: I hit a writer's block after posting up the chapter before. Tried writing something else, got bored with it after the first chapter and deleted it. Seriously, I have the worst luck. Also, I was shaky about doing some original songs in this story, but I've decided not to. I'm open to any suggestion for the next chapter because I might hit another writer's block.