#s15 amelink means so much to me

[kaimelia]

lover

a/n: hi random s15 amelink! hope you enjoy mwah I miss them <33

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"Hey, you all set?" Amelia glanced up from her phone to see Link standing above her, concern spread across his face.

"What?"

"You've been sitting here for like, half an hour; I just figured I should check if you're good before I leave."

"Yeah, I'm just waiting for Meredith; she's my ride home." Link sat down in the armchair beside her.

"This probably isn't what you want to hear, but I just saw Grey get pulled into a trauma as I was leaving the E.R.," he shrugged in sympathy, and Amelia groaned dramatically.

"I'm gonna kill her. I just got out of an eleven-hour surgery, and I haven't eaten since breakfast." Amelia laid her head against the couch cushion behind her, closing her eyes and placing a hand on her forehead.

"You want a ride? I'm heading out, and I can drop you off." She sat up with wide eyes.

"You're serious?" He nodded. "Ugh, I could kiss you."

"Oh, I-"

"Let's go," she jumped up from the couch, grabbing her bag from the floor and slinging it over her shoulder, following Link out of the lounge and down to his car in the parking lot.

"You wanna stop and get something on the way? Pizza, maybe?"

"Pizza's good," Amelia sighed as she collapsed in the passenger seat, leaning her head against the window and yawning. "As long as you just run in and grab it."

"I'll call now," he muttered, pulling out his phone and dialing a number, Amelia's eyes closing as he began to speak softly.

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"Hey." She opened her eyes to see Link holding out a box which she took from him eagerly. "Which way is Meredith's?"

"Oh, uh," she glanced around and yawned. "Your place is closer." Link raised his eyebrows.

"You wanna just head back to my place?"

"If I go to Mer's, I'm gonna have to deal with Ellis wanting a ton of bedtime stories, and Zola will need help with her homework, and I love them, I do, but I just can't deal with that right now."

"I thought our rule was no sleepovers?" She rolled her head to the side and glared at him.

"You wanna get picky now?"

"Okay," he whispered. "To my place."

By the time he pulled into the lot of his apartment complex, Amelia eagerly threw the door open and hurried up the stairs, waiting for him to unlock the door before dropping the pizza box on the counter and stuffing her face.

"Sorry about the mess," he muttered, picking up an old takeout container from the table, "I didn't think anyone would be coming over."

"You call this a mess? You should come live with three children for a day. This place is spotless." Link shrugged and reached over her to grab a slice of pizza.

"I like keeping my things organized; what can I say?" She glanced at him for a moment before taking another slice.

"Why is your apartment so bare? It looks like you just moved in," she muttered, covering her mouth with her hand and glancing around the space she had barely been in.

"I've never been one to settle somewhere; I've moved around a lot, and I'm not here much for anything other than sleeping. It's functional."

"It's cold," she muttered, "literally and physically. It feels lonely in here."

"You live in the adult equivalent of a frat house. I like my quiet and solitude."

"Do you have friends?" Link scoffed quietly at her question.

"Are you asking if I have a best friend who I go to the mall with every weekend and have sleepovers with on our nights off? Because, no, but I do have friends, thanks for asking."

"I mean, you're never doing anything when I call."

"I grew up an only child, and everything was about my parents. I'm used to being alone, and I don't mind it. But, most of the time I'm not with you; I go out with Jackson and Nico or Jo." He picked up the last slice. "You want it?"

"All yours." She wiped her hands on a paper towel. "Next time I come over, I'm gonna bring you a candle or something."

"Feel free to decorate my place while you're at it," he mumbled, "you're here almost just as much as I am, and I'm never going to do it."

"That's a dangerous offer. You'll end up with color in here." He shuddered comically, rolling his eyes at her.

"You act like I'm the most boring person you've met."

"You like sports and playing the guitar. Not to diss you, but that's the most stereotypical thing I've heard."

"There is more to me, but whatever you say." Amelia narrowed her eyes at him and shook her head.

"Knowing those things would break the rules of our relationship-not-relationship," she hummed, closing the box and handing it to him.

"I'm pretty sure this breaks the rules of our relationship-not-relationship."

"Which is why I'll sleep on the couch."

"Why? The bed's perfectly fine."

"I don't trust myself to be in that bed with you," she muttered, looking up at him for a brief moment as he pursed his lips and nodded firmly, holding back a smirk that she could still see on his face.

"Right. Well, you take the bed; the couch will ruin your back, so I'll sleep on there."

"What? I'll be fine."

"Amelia, just take the bed. You're the guest here, and I want you to be comfortable. It's just one night."

Amelia. He'd never called her that before; it was always Dr. Shepherd, but Amelia decided she liked the way it sounded coming from his lips, the way he enunciated the middle of her name as if it was the most important word he'd ever said.

She shook her head quickly to ignore how warm her cheeks felt.

"Your room smells like you."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Pheromones."

"Alright," Link muttered, "I'll bring you a pillow and some blankets; it gets freezing in here at night." She watched him walk away into the bedroom and return a minute later, tossing a blanket at her and setting another one on the coffee table in front of the couch. "Anything else?"

"I don't have pajamas," she sat down on the couch, "and I don't really wanna sleep in these clothes."

"You just want a shirt or some pants, too?"

"Just a shirt." He nodded firmly and left again, throwing a balled-up t-shirt at her when he came back. "Thank you."

"I'll be in the bedroom if you need anything else, alright?" Amelia gave him a thumbs up before he left, exchanging a quick goodnight and watching as he shut the bedroom door.

She threw on the shirt, noticing the logo of some random baseball team she had never heard of and almost laughing as the fabric covered down to her knees.

After some brief exploring of the near-empty space of his living room, she laid down on the couch and pulled one of the blankets over her body, soon realizing that he wasn't lying about the discomfort of the sofa.

Amelia sighed and grabbed the blanket from the couch, wrapping it around her body like a shawl as she tiptoed down the wood floors of Link's apartment. She pushed the door open slowly, cringing as it creaked, and she could make out Link's figure sitting up in the bed.

"Amelia?" She closed the door behind her and breathed heavily, slowly padding towards the bed.

"It's freezing out there."

"I know, that's why I left you another blanket on the-" He stopped speaking as Amelia got on the bed and it dipped below her, and Amelia was silent as she moved towards him. "What are you doing?"

"Shut up," she whispered, laying down beside him and throwing her blanket over their bodies before she curled up against his side. His hand pressed gently against her back as she laid her head on his chest and pulled the comforter up, placing her hand on the other side of his chest. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight," he whispered in response, and Amelia closed her eyes contently.

She could feel how quickly his heart was racing in his chest below her head, but she didn't mind, because hers was beating just as fast.

[bloomingundertheshadows]

I can't get over the fact that schmico have been together longer than Amelink, Magston and Marina on station 19 who just got married in their finale. It just makes it seem grey's doesn't really have an interest in writing for queer men beyond using Jake and schmico for press.

Oh anon, little did you know, you've brought forth another one of my midnight rants. This has been bothering me for so long, and finally I can justify discussing it at length. Other people have spoken about this, but I have no life, so here we are. In short, you are correct. But, there is so much to discuss, so get your drinks and snacks ready:

What bothers me about the fact that Schmico has been together longer than Amelink/Marina/Magston is the complete disparity between how the writers portray the intimacy of these relationships. Don't be bamboozled - I don't mean sex or anything. By intimacy I mean that the writers portray Amelink/Marina/Magston as serious relationships where the characters have an emotional understanding of one another and truly carry that sense of people who know one another as partners. Obviously relationships move at different paces, but if I showed Schmico to someone without forcing them to do the math, I think most people would assume they'd been together a year at most. They fight like they are just getting out of the honeymoon phase and figuring out their boyfriend has real flaws. Quite frankly both of their behaviors (Levi constantly pushing Nico's boundaries, the whole weird ass sex buddies thing, Nico flipping out over drawers, and Levi running away ) are insane for a couple who by the start of season 17, were probably together like 2 years. Maybe I overestimate emotional maturity, but these are grown men, and you cannot convince me that these two would have made it to season 16B if they behaved like this regularly. I hate it. I hate how other couples have been together shorter time periods and get to behave like a valid adult relationship while these two are behaving like teenagers.

I've always felt Schmico existed within a pocket dimension of Grey's Anatomy - completely cut off from the rest of the cast/storyline or overall plot. I literally feel like the show stops whenever they come on screen, and we start watching this mini-show within a show. I don't know if anyone else can describe this feeling, but sometimes Schmico just feels so unnaturally placed that I doubt they are even in Grey's Anatomy. 

The best way I can prove this is the fact you could place this season's schmico storyline anywhere in the season, and it wouldn't even matter. They could have had Nico ask Levi to move in with him during 17x05 or 17x06 or 17x07, etc and it would not have mattered - they are so isolated you can literally cut and paste their storyline anywhere in the season without changing anything. (I realize that technically vax guy can only appear in the last episode because of when the actual vaccine was developed, but let's not pretend he couldn't have been replaced with literally any other male character. The vaccine trial was a fun tidbit, but literally meaningless to the progression of the plot). Nothing that happens to them is dependent on anyone or anything else in the show. This wasn’t as true in S15-16A, but it is on full display now. Every once in while they get pulled into a cameo appearance in a bigger plot-line, but this has no real consequences and lasts for 1 minute at most (see Nico’s numb comments). The fundamental cause of this is poor character development and the complete unwillingness of production to make these characters part of Grey’s - but we all know that. 

As a result, I truly believe the writers have some sort of temporal disorientation where even they forget how long schmico has been together. Because schmico is so dissociated from the show, it feels like the relationship is on warpspeed. Sure, a few weeks may have passed between Nico asking Levi to move in and him actually responding, but when you never see the characters in the show except for when they’re having relationship issues, it doesn’t actually feel like any time has passed. They have taken away the audience’s ability to place these characters within the show’s timeline (which is already kind of messed up to begin with). I think this contributes to the audience’s dislike of them because while other couples are seen interacting with many doctors across the hospital  over multiple episodes, these two will show up for 3 minutes every two episodes and the rest of the show stops while these two get locked in an enclosed space to fight. Literally. The show isolates them to closets or on call rooms or even Nico’s apartment - if I was more meh about these characters, I’d  be annoyed too that we stopped all character interactions to watch these two fight in the middle of a deserted parking lot.  

This whole pocket dimension schmico is also part of the reason I think the writers struggle to figure out that they shouldn’t be behaving like this. I’m not giving them a free pass because they are part of the problem, but I doubt incorporating this side couple that only gets 1.45 minutes of screen time each week is a fun or easy job. Schmico are not woven into the fabric of the narrative, and I bet even the writers feel confused how best to write them. 

I imagine the Grey’s writing room has lots of whiteboards that roughly charts a character’s plot each season. Except, schmico’s plotline is written on sticky note that Krista uses as a coaster. Once they complete the episode, someone notices Jake walking by and suddenly realizes they’d forgotten schmico. Then, there’s a desperate attempt to shove them into the story before filming begins. In the crunch, there’s no time to consider whether this makes any sense. 

As for your second point about them only using them for promotion, I 100% agree. The headlines about “Grey’s Anatomy introduces first Asian male surgeon” literally haunts my dreams. I’ve spoken at length about the fact Grey’s is running on a season-by-season format right now, which I think helped contribute to this nonsense. I am hesitant to call out anyone by name because this show is a group effort, but I can’t help but feel like Jake kind of got forked. He (and Alex) put out a lot of press for Greys during Season 15, and he spent a decent amount of time talking about his storyline, and I always felt he was pretty happy with it - and Krista also spent time hyping up this storyline (Your friendly neighborhood reminder that Krista once said schmico was her favorite couple. I can’t prove it’s a lie, but I’m willing to bet my left kidney). However, they totally dropped the ball once the news articles were gone and the internet had moved onto different things. It’s pretty insulting to the actors, and I would feel pretty salty if I came onto a show where I started with a meangingful storyline only to end up here.  

I have nothing too much to say in conclusion. Most of this has been said before, so it’s not like I’m adding anything new. Given how everything ended, Season 18 is looking good for both Jake and Alex’s return. While I can’t say for sure they will come back, I think that right now, Grey’s is giving them both a steady paycheck and probably good connections and resume building. Last season I was super hopeful we’d get a better schmico storyline or at least something that didn’t revolve around the same old tired plot. But we all see how that went. At the bare minimum I want to believe that the Nico’s a d*ck plot will kind of be put to rest, but they have made it pretty clear that Nico is literally at fault for everything in this relationship, so I bet Levi will be mad at him next season too. 

Good thing the fanfiction is strong in the community. May you all rest well knowing you put more effort into this couple than paid professionals. 

[confused-and-hurtzo]

Grey’s S15

So... I pranked myself like I always do, and I decided to do a mini grey’s rewatch of seasons 12-15. To be completely honest, I didn’t watch season 13 or 14 entirely, and I wanted to understand this past season better. (I lowkey also wanted to see Deluca’s character development b/c I want to understand the man that Mer just said ‘I love you’ to). So here is a review of Grey’s S15, what I hope to see in S16, a rant on some comments I have seen on the internet about. I just need to let my thoughts out. 

First of all, I am a big Grey’s Anatomy fan. Although I roll my eyes every time I say it's been running this long, this show has a special place in my heart. I started watching the show during my formative years, Cristina Yang basically raised my teenage self. I started in middle school, and now we are here, a year away from graduating my undergrad at UofT. I don’t want to discredit the amazing women that raised me, but I also don’t want to not mention Shondaland and its influence on who I am today. Overall, Grey’s is kind of like my bible, I rewatch it every time I need to feel comfortable, validated, and reasonable. Its storytelling has allowed me to understand so many things, such as addiction (s/o to Private Practice and Amelia Shepherd), family issues, loyalty, love, empowerment. Its most important lesson is that life goes on. No matter how hard it gets, it just keeps going, and that's the beauty of it. We all can take whatever it throws at us, and come on the other side, stronger and wiser. I hate it when people say that they miss the old Grey's, that they miss Derek or Cristina. It’s all very valid, I miss them too. However, that is life, people die, people move across the globe, and you just have to deal with that and move forward. 

I really enjoyed this season because of its attention to detail. I know this sounds very odd, but, after watching S12, 13, and 14, I feel that this season was packed with references. It mostly stayed true to the characters' storylines and amended some plot holes from previous seasons. I love that the Mer-Tatcher storyline had a conclusion, I always wondered what happened to him after Lexie died.  I also enjoyed meeting Alex’s mom, she is honestly a sweetheart. Benley’s story was so exciting, I am never concerned about them because they are perfect, but it is good to see them going through hard times. They brought back Teddy, which allowed Owen’s character to move forward. I loved that they gave Amelia a chance, we got a better explanation of why her family was not there, and her story became full-circle. There is more reference to the Mer’s kids, making us remember that she is a mom LOL. Finally, although he is a more recent character, I love Schmidt so much. He cracks me up, and his story is so underrated. 

In this part, I will focus more on my favorite characters of the show and what I liked about them this season:

Meredith: I have to admit, I always thought I was Cristina Yang, but the more I reflect on this, the more I realize that I am more of a Meredith Grey. I am so proud of how far she has come, professionally and emotionally. She is a warrior. I love how happy she is this season. It's partly because of her new relationship, but also she is very stable now, with her kids, her award, her friendships. She is always working really hard to be a better person, and it takes a courageous person to admit that you need to improve and actually doing the work to be better. She understands her past and moves forward, motivating the people that love her the most to do the same thing. She has changed, for good. And, people may say that she is not the Meredith Grey she was in season 1, and I say that this is a good thing. She has grown up and learned from her mistakes (some of them, she was still afraid of I love you’s and committed insurance fraud, but some things don’t change lol). Cece was such a central character for her storyline, I loved how she allowed her to believe in herself and in life-after-love (yes, this is a Cher reference), which is why Merluca is a thing now. I high-key believe that Cece intentionally created the Link-Andrew-Meredith love triangle for Deluca to step up his game and show her how much she wants to be with her. After all, Cece was there when they talked about the kiss, she saw something, and finessed her way into making it a reality. I can’t help but smile at the fact that Mer is smiling like a teenager again, it fills my heart. I too loved Derek, but he died. That happens, it sucks. But, Mer has every right to move on and fall in love again. She deserves finding love again. 

Alex: Alex as chief was my favorite thing this season. I love how he just got the job randomly, but this job allowed him to prove himself what he is capable of. Don’t get me wrong, I love Bailey as chief, but we all knew that she was going to be a great chief someday. I always root for the underdog, and in this particular situation, he was the underdog. My favorite part is when Bailey and Weber realized how good he was at the job because he understands that delegating is a thing (lol). I liked meeting his mom, that storyline just re-states how pure he is. I love how he doesn’t realize that Merluca is a thing, he is just completely oblivious. It broke my heart to see him freaking out about Jo because it made me realize how much Izzie scared him. He is the Most Improved Character of the show. Period. 

Amelia: I love Amelia so much. She is often very misunderstood by some fans, but you all need to watch private practice to understand her better. I liked this season because it made justice to her and her journey. We learned a bit more about Christopher. We saw her being a mom with both Betty and Leo. We saw her helping Betty through her addiction. We saw her standing up for herself and end a relationship that had become very toxic. We saw her talk to her family and, more importantly, talk to her mom. We saw her rise above her love for Owen and let him be happy with Teddy. She has grown so much and this season allowed her to do that, which I am very grateful for. After rewatching S15, I now am a full Amelink stan. I love how they start their first significant interaction with Link word-vomiting his feeling about the overdose wave. He talks a lot, just like her, and he is willing to listen to her talking. One reason why Omelia didn’t work out was that Owen didn’t talk and Amelia felt that she shouldn’t talk either, leading to significant miscommunications. I also love that Link understands addiction a bit better than Owen, which is already a sign that this relationship has potential. I loved Omelia, they had a very awkward, sometimes funny, sometimes dark relationship and helped each other in very dark moments. They did love each other, in their own twisty way. However, I think that it kind of became an addiction for them to be together despite all the red flags, which is not healthy.

Jackson: I love Jackson, he has such a big heart. Kind of salty about Japril not being endgame, but we gotta move on. I loved how supportive he was with Catherine during the tumor surgery, their chemistry is so good. Like. It’s hard for me to believe that they are not actually mother and son. I love that he is a high-key Merluca shipper and how much he respects Richard Webber. I hope he doesn't die. 

Deluca: OK... so I just going to say that I want him to be in peds so bad, he is the SOFTEST character atm, I am in love. He has also grown this season. I think its partly because the writers want us to believe he has now that he is dating THE Meredith Grey, but we stan this evolution. People always complain about how he didn’t want to date Maggie b/c she was his boss, and I would like to disagree with that to an extent. Yeah... the problem was that she was his boss, but the main issue was because he was afraid of the favoring situation, meaning that he didn’t love Maggie because was not willing to put up with what others would think about them. Sigh. Anyways... I enjoy how much depth his character is getting, learning about his family was important because we now understand the difficulties he has faced. He has shown that he is no longer an intern. I cringe every time people try to invalidate his character by pointing out how immature he was. No one on Grey’s is their intern self. Look at Alex, Mer, Bailey, SCHMIDT... everyone has grown out of their intern mistakes, so why should we just bring up Andrew’s to justify why Merluca shouldn’t be a thing? (and so what if he is not as mature as Mer? Mer wasn’t as “mature” as Derek, and no one batted an eye... double standards am I right?). The being beaten up by Alex storyline really shook him. He did say some irrational things, but how are you supposed to be 100% rational when you went through a very untenable situation? He deserves the benefit of the doubt and a second chance. Don’t tell me you all have never said impulsive things or had inappropriate crushes. Smh.  

What I want to see in S16

Meredith in jail and her village supporting her. 

Jo and Alex dealing with Jo’s depression in a compassionate and empowering way. 

Teddy and Owen being parents and being in love.

I want a Towen wedding, just because I want everyone to look pretty AF.

Owen and Amelia being good friends. As much as I think Omelia is no longer a viable love relationship, I really like their chemistry, and I would like to see them becoming good friends. 

Merluca being domestic with the kids and talking about their past. I want Mer to tell him about her losses, her feelings, her fears. I want them to talk about the age difference in a positive way. I honestly don’t see Mer getting pregnant, but like I always think about Ben and Bailey and how Ben just became Tuck’s dad and he loves him like his own son. I can see Andrew loving Mer’s kids in that way. 

Andrew choosing peds and Alex mentoring him, just like Arizona. Team Peds 2.0?

I want to see Carina more, more insight into her character. She is always someone’s lover or just Andrew’s sister, but we don’t get to see her by herself.

Andrew just dealing with the sister trifecta. I want funny, light, comic relief interactions.  

Knowing where the fuck Jackson is. I am ready to see him go, but I am also not prepared to see him go. 

[kaimelia]

I just wanted to say that you are so incredibly talented and your writing has been making me so happy! I know you said you're stopping the shorter prompt things for a bit but I just want you to know that I love them so much!

Reading your fics is always a little emotional for me. Especially that last one (where Scout passes away), I did cry. And it was a good cry.

Also, please write more s15 amelink! (I mean this in a please do no a DO IT NOW type of way sorry if it seems demanding or mean I don't mean it like that) I love their relationship so much and everything about it is just so beautiful! You write them so well!

Thank you for all of these fics! Last thing: would you possibly be able to make a separate master post for these fics? no pressure!

oh i'm gonna cry this is so sweet-

thank you so much for this? like literally everytime I get a message or comment or anything on my fics i'm just so <3333 it means the absolute world to me

I am definitely planning on writing more season 15 amelink! i've been spamming @graykn inbox with all of my thoughts about them and i'm so sorry gray but also gray might be posting a s15 fic so definitely check that out (peer pressure. peer pressure! everyone go pressure gray into posting yeah!)

i'm so glad you enjoyed them :))))) thank you so much for this

and I will work on a master post now!