Noctis winces at that, though it's tempered somewhat at the surrounding cuddle. He's literally surrounded at this point, enhanced further when he feels a fuzzy weight on the other side, as Umbra finds them and curls up against his hip without pause or preamble, tail lightly thumping in the grass. He's quite safe, and he'd feel happier if he wasn't already thinking so deeply about how dangerous joy is to him these days.

"You mean, before I lose myself in someone else's."

It's not a question. She'd been worried about that happening to her, as she'd mentioned here and there before now, and it's fair to assume the risk could be the same for him. He hasn't struggled to disassociate himself from the memories after the fact so far, and his feelings don't seem to be artificially altered as far as he can tell, but in the moment... he can't deny that he'd had times where he forgot himself. Not replaced by another, just... empty. And that was scary in its own way.