“What? I- fuck...” He could remember a bit of that, of freaking out... It’d been so long since his last one, too. Cloud shook his head, frowning at his mate. “Don’t. Don’t apologize, Noct. You didn’t know that would trigger an episode, hells, I don’t know what triggers them.” He grimaced at hearing that he’d called his alpha Zack’s name. “Shit, Noct, I’m sorry-”
His grip on Noctis loosened, and then dropped as his mate reassured him. Goddess above, Noctis was too good for him. A hand lightly gripped Noctis’ shirt, gently, but silently leading him over to the bed, which he clambered onto and scooted to the middle.
Once they were settled on the bed, Cloud leaned against the headboard, fighting back a grimace. He hated thinking about the labs, for good reasons too- but this, this was something that Noctis needed to know. “I wasn’t alone in the labs, there was another ‘test subject’ with me. Zack Fair, a SOLDIER First Class who’d been on the mission to Nibelheim, who watched as my hometown burned, and fought against Sephiroth- and he was my best friend.”
“Zack... I think I’ve told you a little bit about him?” Cloud couldn’t recall exactly. “Zack was, was kinda like Prompto. All smiles and jokes, got along with everyone- hell, he made friends with Tseng.” Which was a rarity itself. “Zack was an Alpha, which is why I was forced to wear the collar, and I will admit I had a bit of a crush on him, but I think most of the people who knew him did too.” Cloud smiled in amusement. “His heart belonged to a omega girl named Aerith, who was a total sweetheart- and another friend of mine. He had a heart of gold, one that was in the right place, but sometimes what he thought was doing someone a kindness wasn’t.”
His hands gripped the sheets tightly, twisting them as he admitted, “Hojo and all of his assistants were betas, they didn’t have the power to push their pheromones into the air like omegas or alpha do, but on those days when things were really bad, Zack would try to comfort me by calming me with his pheromones. It worked with my body, but it sent my mind into a state like whatever you just saw- he was trying to make things better, but made it a lot worse instead”