AN: I own nothing, except a worn and well loved copy of the DS version of this game.
Hopefully longer AC fic coming up soon.
Sable hates the city.
She went there, once. It was so long ago that Mabel hadn't been born yet and her mother was still pregnant with Labelle. She couldn't have been older than six. She held her father's hand and stayed close; the cars were too loud for her sensitive ears, and there were too many people. She doesn't even remember why they were there. She just remembers the fear and the wish to go home.
But fear isn't why she hates the city.
No, the city took more than her self confidence. It took almost everything she knows and loves. It took her sister, it took her parents, and it took her best friend. She will never forgive it.
She was twelve, and Labelle was seven. Much too young to move away from home. But Gracie visited, and decided she would make a good apprentice. She whisked her away with promises of fame and fortune in the city lights. Labelle, who was then Label, went away happily. The city had one strike in her book.
Then her parents, after discovering Labelle gone, left for the city the next day and left her with Mabel. They were walking across the street and were caught in a massive car accident. They never got to talk to Mabel.
And the city took both her parents and her sister, leaving her to live with a burden too heavy for her to bear, but she did it anyway.
And her support during all of this. . . Her best friend Tom. He came in the shop every day, and kept her company while she sewed. They talked all day about everything and everyone. At first, it was a small distraction from her situation, but soon she found herself looking forward to unlocking the door in the morning. It meant Tom was coming soon. Tom loved to talk about the future. How he would make enough bells to not have to worry about the mortgage payment to Tortimer, who ran the shop next door to the Able Sisters. He wanted to move to the city, where people had more money to waste and didn't have to be as frugal as people there. She didn't discourage him, and told him to follow his dreams.
Likewise, he encouraged her to step out of her comfort zone a little bit. She admitted to sticking to the patterns her parents had left behind, and he persuaded her to use her own ideas. Soon the shop had twice the merchandise, and twice the sales.
But soon she found herself in financial trouble. A day after confessing her problems, she found a basket of fruit. After a few days, she confronted Tom about it. He blushed and denied it, but it wasn't hard for her to see that he was trying to help her out. And to both of their surprise, she leaned up and kissed him on the cheek.
She wondered if her cheeks were as crimson as his. But she was sure that it was impossible to blush any harder than she did when Tom kissed her on the lips with a mischievous smile before he left that day.
But then two weeks later, he announced he was leaving. To go get his dreams, he told her. And then he was gone.
He came back, years later, and Sable wasn't surprised to see nothing of the person she had loved once.
Strike three.
Sable didn't think she had ever hated something before. Disliked, of course, but never hated something with every fiber of her being. But the city had taken almost everything she loved.
So she held on to everything she had left: her sister, her shop, and her heart.