Work Text:
Cloud wasn't single-minded, despite what their coworkers would have you think. He knew how to think about something other than cryptids, although if given the choice they'd nearly always pick the cryptids. Additionally, they'd done a bit of psychology as a teen, and knew the symptoms of a traumatic stress disorder.
Anyway, all this to say that he could tell Logico was suffering from some form of PTSD. With all the dead bodies they were constantly finding, it wasn't all the surprising. Which is why Cloud decided to see if Logico and Irratino wanted to go on a walk around town after the murder of the day.
Well, technically there had been three murders so far today, but Cloud had only been around for one of them, so it didn't matter.
Anyway, this is why Cloud, along with Azure and Night, the latter far less willingly than the former, were knocking on Irratino's office door.
"This is a bad idea... What if they don't want to, and then Irratino gets mad because we bothered them..." Night wrung their hands nervously. Cloud just waved them off.
"You worry too much, Night! Irratino couldn't get mad at us, the worst that'll happen is he'll say no." Azure responded, slinging her arm around Night, who flinched slightly in anxiety.
"Yeah... I-if you say so." Night rocked slightly on their heels, still looking nervous.
Just then, luckily, Irratino opened the door, looking curious.
"Oh, it's you three. What's up?" In the back of the office, Cloud could see Logico, sat on Irratino's desk.
"We were going to go wander around town, and we wanted to know if you and Logico wanted to come with us?" Cloud asks, and Irratino considers it, for a moment, before turning to ask Logico. The two of them have a conversation, before finally Irratino turns back to Cloud and their troupe.
"Sure, we'll go! Now, or..?" Cloud lights up, internally pumping his fist in the air.
"Yeah, that's what we were thinking!" Azure steps in, still leaning on Night.
"Okay, give us a minute, then!" Cloud nods, stepping back and letting the two detectives do whatever they're doing. Soon after, they step out of Irratino's office.
Now, Cloud was partially asking them if they wanted to come out of the goodness of their heart. But he had another motive as well - he wanted to see how Logico acted in a place with absolutely no murders. He knew for a fact that there would be no more murders today, since there had already been three, which was the maximum that ever seemed to take place around Deductive Logico. Night had done the maths on that one, and considering there had been a good few years of data to prove this, Cloud was confident that there would be absolutely no murders.
Anyway, the five of them wandered into town slowly, stopping every now and then to look at things - like when they passed the duck pond and Azure made them stop for ten minutes to watch them. Logico pretended to want to carry on, but they were basically dragging their feet when the group finally moved on. Cloud stifled a giggle.
Finally, they actually reached town. While none of them were relaxed (turns out the murders affected all of them, who could've guessed?), Logico seemed to go tense, eyes darting around constantly. No one else seemed to notice.
Eventually, Night dragged them into a clothes shop, and they all wandered around. Cloud was quietly following Logico and Irratino, mostly unnoticed. As expected, Irratino dragged Logico over to the dresses section. Everyone in the Institute knew Irratino loved wearing gender-non-conforming clothes. Cloud suspected it was to show the shyer members that this was a safe place, which had definitely worked.
What did surprise Cloud was when Logico seemed to be eyeing a couple dresses. To be fair, they were very pretty dresses. It was just - as far as Cloud knew, Logico had never shown interest in that sort of clothing. Still, there's a first time for everything, they supposed.
Irratino also noticed Logico eyeing the dresses.
"Do you want them?" Logico turned bright red, letting go of the dress as though it was on fire.
"N-no, I was just l-looking at it- sorry-" They stammered, looking anywhere except Irratino and the dress. Cloud squinted slightly - the immediate denial, the apologising... Cloud's psychology teacher would have the time of her life armchair-diagnosing Logico with something.
"You sure? We can get it if you want!" Irratino, ever the patient person, smiled kindly at Logico.
"I-I don't have money for it anyway, it's fine." Logico stuffed their hands in their pockets, still blushing slightly.
"If you say so!" Irratino continued looking at dresses, but Cloud thought he looked a little disappointed. Interesting.. But unrelated to Cloud's current hypothesis. He could investigate that later.
[__________________________________________]
Two hours, and several shops, later, Cloud officially had all the evidence they needed to conclude that yep, Logico definitely had PTSD. And honestly, so did Irratino, probably.
They honestly had mostly done this because they were bored, honestly. They didn't really have a use for this information at this point in time, so the whole study had been kinda pointless. Still, everyone seemed to have had a good day, and that was all that mattered, in the end.
"Bye, everyone!" Azure calls, as she pulled Night away. Irratino and Logico waved as the two of them got in Irratino's car, and the five of them split up for the day.
Finally, as Cloud got to their house and sat down, glad to finally be unwinding. It had been a long day, as most at the Institute were, and while it had been fun, they were exhausted.
Still, they couldn't wait till tomorrow. There were more stories to be told, then.