katayla | Fic: You Can Plan on Me (Cougar Town)

Title: You Can Plan on Me (Cougar Town)
Disclaimer: Not mine!
Spoilers: For all aired episodes.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 545
Summary: How are things between Laurie and Travis when he comes home on winter break?
Notes: For

ambiguousreason, who asked for ensemble with emphasis on Laurie and Travis. Ended up being more Laurie/Travis than anything else.

Lately, when Laurie looked at Travis, she thought, yeah, that was probably going to happen someday. She saw the chemistry and she knew herself well enough to figure she was going to give in eventually. Which made her feel incredibly guilty because he was her best friend's son.

Not to mention what Ellie would say. Not that she cared about what Ellie said, but. You know. And Andy would take Ellie's side and Grayson would take Jules' and then where should she be? So yeah. Maybe it wasn't ever going to happen.

And it wasn't like anything major, but, like, take today. Travis came home from the holidays and hugged his mom, made a snarky comment to the others and high fived her.

"I have so much to tell you!" Jules said and hugged him again.

"I saw you last weekend and talk to you on the phone every day."

"I made all of your favorite food! And cleaned your room!" Jules said.

"Well, I won't say no to that."

And Travis broke free from his mom and headed up the stairs. Laurie followed him. She lounged on his bed as he unpacked. He frowned at the drum set still taking up a large portion of his room, but didn't say anything about it. Laurie figured he knew how to pick his battles.

"How's Kirsten?" Laurie asked. She'd never been one to avoid the elephant in the room.

Travis shrugged. "You know."

"Not really. That's why I asked."

Travis sighed. "We're talking a break."

"That doesn't sound too bad!"

Travis just gave her a look.

"Sorry."

"Hey, if she doesn't want me, I have plenty of options."

Which maybe should've made for an awkward moment, but it was just so Travis that Laurie laughed.

"College boy home for the holidays? Yeah, that'll work."

"College man," Travis said.

And, okay, yeah. That made it a little more awkward. So she swallowed and said, "You should tell them you're on academic probation."

"My grades are excellent."

"Academic probation is way sexier."

And then their eyes locked and Laurie slid off the bed. She'd said things like that to Travis for so long and she didn't want to stop now, but it made her thoughts go in a slightly different direction these days.

"I should, um. Get back downstairs," she said. She avoided looking at Travis.

"Yeah. Right behind you."

She stopped in the doorframe, looked back and said, "I'm really glad you're home for the holidays, Travis."

"Me too."

And she got back downstairs and Jules asked if she should go upstairs to help unpack and if Travis seemed a little tired to her. And Laurie smiled and gave all the appropriate answers and when Travis came down, he gave his mom another hug and everything was perfectly normal.

Really. It was. This was the group, the way it should be, and she wasn't going to mess with that dynamic. She wasn't going to lose this and she wasn't going to do anything that would threaten her and Jules'—or Jules and Travis's—relationship.

The Travis laughed at one of her jokes. And she smiled at him in appreciation that someone just got her, in a way none of the others did.

And okay.

Maybe someday.