Originally Posted by
Ambaryerno
It works better when you consider the context:
Teen Scott was really given the short end of the stick, with everyone judging him for the things that his adult self did yet which he has no control over. He's also someone who at that time of his life was struggled interacting with other people. He was also fairly recently (from his perspective) in an abusive situation with Jack O' Diamonds, not to mention his difficult childhood in the orphanage. All of these things are something that he and Laura share in common and could connect over; victims of abuse, difficulties connecting with others, and the unfair judgment of their peers over things beyond their control.
Laura is also just coming off Arena, probably one of the more traumatic experiences she's had to deal with since escaping the Facility. It's made clear that what happened there, on top of her capture and torture by the Purifiers in the aftermath, (still annoyed this never got explained considering the last we saw of her in Arena was Logan personally loading her on a medical helicopter) left her in a bad place. Teen Scott comes along and is just...nice. When he first addresses her he doesn't try to push her, he just talks and tries to listen. And we've seen from her interactions with other characters Laura naturally gravitates towards people who show her any sort of kindness or empathy.
Over the next few arcs we see a bit more of this building, with Scott helping her through a breakdown when the Purifiers release the footage of her under the Trigger Scent on Murderworld, which gets a payoff when he starts to crack upon meeting his father again.
So this was far from forced, and instead was a development that got derailed when Scott left the book. WARREN, however, was absolutely forced, with him suddenly being interested despite their not interacting at all up to that point.