FrieAme AU where Friede's a paediatrician and Amethio's a terminally ill inpatient. Friede's in charge of Amethio's care and keeps telling himself not to get attached but oops Friede gets attached. So does Amethio. Contains main character death, obviously!

Thanks to my good friend for always contributing great ideas! <3

I feel like Ame's terminal illness would take ages to get diagnosed between Ame trying to pretend like nothing's wrong with him and Gibe not taking him seriously/paying attention when he starts getting sick a bit more frequently.

But even then it's the sort of thing where, even if it had been caught early, it's still terminal
[Me] I was originally gonna just be generic and give Ame cancer but honestly what illness he has isn't important so I think I'll make it vague
[Me] There's lots of weird terminal illnesses out there anyway
[Redacted] When do you think Ame had to be sent to the hospital in a rush?
[Me] I feel like he would've collapsed at school or something during like... a class presentation or some kind of school event? Usually he's very prim and proper and serious, so everyone around him is shocked when he loses consciousness suddenly one day and seems to be in pain
[Me] School nurse or whoever decides he should be taken to hospital rather than be treated at the school, but they do contact Ame's family (ie Ham) who immediately arranges things on his end
"[Me] I think Ame would have been feeling unwell on and off for a while and had a couple of times where he almost passed out from pain or whatever but he was too scared to ever say anything to Gibe

And Ame would be convinced he'd get punished if he missed a day of school"
[Me] Maybe there was a point in time where he was sick enough to not be able to go to school, but everyone (Ame included) just assumed it was a cold/some kind of virus, and it seemed to go away, so they didn't think anything of it
[Me] Part of me also has the thought that some of the early symptoms, along with ones that were generic/dismissible, were like... things that would be embarrassing for a teenage boy to want to bring up to anyone lol (Nothing specific in mind, just things Ame would be very hesitant to tell an adult about)
[Redacted] Oh... it happening at school seems good for maximum humiliation... (Ame perceives it as such but it isn't)
"[Me] Wait hold on

It happens during some big exam that Ame's been worried about because it's worth a good chunk of his grade and he's determined to get the best grades in his school year... but he's in a lot of pain the day of the exam and he can't focus on it at all

And not too far into it he completely blacks out"
[Redacted] I can imagine him passing out on his desk and perhaps people don't even notice it at first
[Me] Oh, I like that... Maybe he initially falls onto his desk after being hunched over in pain for a while, but after some time passes while he's unconscious he makes some kind of noise (His pen falls to the floor or he falls out of the chair himself) and then people around him are like "Hey wait a second"
[Redacted] I can see that. He is used to hiding his pain after all so imo even then, it would be discreet.
[Me] Yeah... The only reason why it wouldn't is if his body betrayed him somehow but I can't see that happening until he's been hospitalised for a while
[Me] (Disclaimer: I don't know how medical stuff works but lol it's a fanfic people aren't reading them for medical accuracy)
[Me] But you're right, Ame's very good at hiding his pain (gee I wonder why)
"[Redacted] Damn you Gibe, it's all your fault-
(And don't worry about accuracy)"
[Me] Also in my mind even when Ame gets taken to hospital, they can't find what's wrong with him initially, and Ame doesn't want to admit that he's in as much pain as he is etc, so he gets sent home with some medication and that's that
[Me] Until it happens again a month or so later at home one evening. But he passes out in his room so nobody notices until the morning when Ame isn't awake at his usual time (I imagine either Zir or Coni would realise he's not at breakfast and grow concerned)
"[Me] Once again, though, nobody can work out what's wrong with him, even after a bunch of routine scans & tests.

Maybe Gibe even accuses Ame of faking it for attention at this point"
"[Me] The pain (which is like... abdominal pain or something initially) isn't there constantly. It comes and goes. Some days it's worse than others. And occasionally it's unbearable.

Ame almost passes out at school again, but not quite, and his teachers are now wondering wtf is going on with him"
[Me] One of Ame's teachers says that he should probably be taken to hospital again but Ame insists that no, he's fine, he's just feeling a bit unwell (If he ends up in hospital again, Gibe's going to be furious, and Ame knows he'll probably get hit -- which he wants to avoid at all costs)
[Me] But after a couple of hours in the school infirmary, his pain's getting worse despite being given some medication from the school nurse, and she tells Ame that he needs to see a doctor
"[Me] Ame tries to convince her, in his somewhat delirious state, that he can't, and he should go back to class and there's nothing wrong with him and he's okay and no matter what he's not to go to hospital again

Things get too much for him and the pain makes him throw up a bit... and then he passes out"
"[Me] When he wakes up he's in hospital and oh fuck he's going to be in so much trouble with Gibe... He's expecting Gibe to come in and yell at him for being useless and disgraceful etc

But Gibe doesn't turn up. The doctor who sees Ame asks him what tests he's had done, realises a couple of important ones have been missed, and tells Ame he needs to do those"
[Me] before he goes home (Ame's almost in tears at this point)
[Me] And during one of those tests that's when they discover that he's got a rare terminal illness
[Me] It doesn't even really register with Ame because all he can think about is how angry his father's going to be at him for missing school and making a mess of himself in public and causing problems for so many people and--
[Me] But beyond that uh. I'm not sure if Ame would go directly from that hospital, which he hates and tries to run away from multiple times because he's in denial, to where Frie works, or if they'd try and send him home first... I don't think Gibe would want him to go home though
[Me] Ame realises that Gibe's so disappointed in him, he won't even come to yell at him : )
"[Redacted] Oh, I really like this.

I also like the thought that Gibe accuses Ame of faking it for attention (he really sees the worst in Ame for no reason huh), almost gaslighting Ame into thinking that nothing is happening to him actually : )"
[Redacted] Perhaps in the early stages, Ame tried to reach out to Spi somehow when they were both at home but Spi said he was busy so... (like Ame wouldn't easily ask for help and perhaps he wanted to tell Spi that he was a bit in pain? but never got to tell him this since Spi brushed him off)
[Redacted] I feel like the hospital where Frie works is really far away from Ame's place. Perhaps the first hospital he was sent to was closer to his place so if Ame ran away, it was because he knew he could go back home, so putting him in a hospital far away was also to dissuade him from running away.
[Me] Yeah! Maybe since it was something he was shy about too he thought "Well Spi's not that much older maybe he'll know" so he tried to ask, but since he fumbled over his words too much Spi got fed up and wouldn't listen to him
"[Me] Ame: Do you ever... um...
Spi: Ever what?
Ame: I-I mean, does your... Does it...
Spi: How many times have you been told to speak properly?
Ame: ......Sorry
Spi: I don't have time for this. Either be precise or get out of my face
Ame: ......D-Do you ever have... Um--
Spi: [Groans] You know what? I don't actually care"
[Me] And then Spi kicks Ame out of his room
[Me] Also I agree about the hospital! And I think that Gibe purposefully picked the one run by Luci's family too, but it was that plus he was looking for somewhere further away and also isolated (ie he couldn't just hop on a bus to get back home)
[Redacted] Ame sorry no one in your family wants to listen to you at all... they are all terrible!
[Redacted] Gibe isolating Ame further is so <3 (but Ame will meet the love of his life there so... there was a positive to it)
[Me] Ham would've listened if Ame asked him but lol as if Ame's gonna ask an old man about Embarrassing Health Problems
[Redacted] He could have saved himself a lot of pain if he did ;_;
[Redacted] Well not that it would have changed a lot of things in the end but you know.
[Me] I feel like in this AU Ham would be kind to Ame whenever Ame was in trouble and Ham was around to help, but like... Ame would never approach him directly because Ham's too close to Gibe for Ame to feel comfortable
[Me] enough to talk to him
[Me] Ham would quietly feel a bit guilty that he didn't make more of an effort to see if Ame was okay, but he knows Ame would've hid things as much as he could anyway
[Redacted] It's all Gibe's fault. Fucked up Ame so badly that the poor boy almost died before asking for help.
[Me] And Gibe doesn't even know/care until Ame actually does die
[Redacted] How the actions of a single man ruin an entire family and cause trauma for generations
[Me] Plot twist: Gibe was actually kind to his children in comparison to how he himself was treated by his own father (Which isn't an excuse)
[Redacted] Generational trauma seems like a thing with him tbh
[Me] Gibe thinking ignoring his kids was better than constantly beating them etc
[Me] All it did was fuck them up in different ways lol
[Redacted] Yeah he thinks that at least he is giving them freedom by ignoring them but huh...
"[Me] Oh

Gibe wanting to be a better father than his own dad was in similar ways to Ame wanting to be better than Gibe... Gibe reading Ame's letter and realising that he fucked up big time and just as shitty as his own dad..."
[Me] Then again Gibe never wanted to be a father in the first place but he didn't actually want to, like, hurt his kids. He knows what it's like to be on the receiving end of that and he wasn't trying to do it intentionally, but at the end of the day, he did the same thing as the father he hated...
[Redacted] It's just a cycle <3 (Spi will break the cycle of abuse)
[Me] Ame would've too : )
[Redacted] He would have...
[Me] Frie witnessing all of this and going "Maybe it's a good thing I'm not from a wealthy family actually"
[Redacted] Makes him reconsider his own upbringing for sure!
"[Me] In my mind Frie was raised by his dad, who he has a good relationship with, but his mother was kinda abusive and she walked out when Frie was young

So maybe that's why he's so critical of Gibe. Because Frie knows Gibe's not even trying to be a good father (Well, in Frie's mind he's not lol)"
[Redacted] Frie is very invested in that family dynamics..!
[Me] Frie just knows how much Ame suffered...