-This story follows the events of Animal Crossing: New Leaf. Ross, a human from out of town, unexpectedly becomes the new mayor of the town of Anthrin. His new secretary, Isabelle, has advised him to take a tour around the town in which he met the various anthropomorphic animal townspeople and went through the small yet expandable shops on Main Street. Ross enters the clothing store known to all as Able Sisters.-
Ross opens the door and it rings a bell. "Welcome to Able Sisters!" Ross looks up and sees a blue hedgehog-like person with large orange cheeks and a green and white plaid apron. "Oh! I haven't seen you around here before. Are you the new mayor everyone has been buzzing about?"
Ross nodded and scratched the back of his head in an unsure way. "Well, this is my first time in town also, but now I'm a mayor."
"Oh. I'm sorry for the unnecessary burden that has been placed on you," said the apologetic hedgehog. "By the way, my name is Mabel!"
"Ross. I would prefer if you wouldn't call me mayor for now. I'm still trying to process all of what happened."
Mabel just chuckled at the expense of Ross. "Well Ross, here at Able Sisters, we sell all sorts of clothing items from dresses to shirts to skirts to pants!"
Ross stood and looked at the large variety of different patterns and clothing. He noticed some blank spots on the display shelves as well. "What are these for?"
"Well every so often, someone comes into the store with a design of their own. If you already have a design made, we can make it into a reality." As Mabel said "reality" she motioned her right hand in a rainbow arc.
"That's pretty neat. Who makes the clothes, though?"
"Well, that would be my wonderful seamstress sister, Sable!" gesturing towards a brown hedgehog with a slight height advantage over Mabel as well as longer hair spikes and a face with a generous amount of freckles wearing a pink and white plaid apron. Currently at work on a design with a frog on it.
"Oh. Well by the looks of it, she has some really nice handiwork." Sable's ears twitched slightly when Ross made this comment, but she didn't stop sewing.
"Doesn't she? Anyways we have a whole other section of the store to go over." Mabel grabbed Ross' hand and brought him through the door to the right of the clothing department. "This here is our accessory outlet. We have hats, glasses, fake beards, and even masks! The umbrellas seen here can also be purchased in the clothing department."
"Welcome to Able Sisters accessories." The voice that made this half-hearted greeting was by a midnight purple colored hedgehog with a slighter than slight height advantage over Mabel, but visibly shorter hair spikes which looked cut. Her attire consisted of a long sleeve white shirt underneath a black business skirt and around her neck was an orange plaid ascot. Her blue eye shadow and mascara stuck out as being different from the other hedgehogs considering the other two didn't use makeup.
"That's our other sister, Label," Mabel said this with a hint of joking in her voice.
"It's Labelle. I changed it, remember?" She seemed annoyed by Mabel's comment.
"It's not legally changed yet. You just call yourself that after that giraffe lady got you into the world of fashion. Until then, you're always going to be 'Label'." Mabel finished with a winner's smirk.
"Does Sable make these too?" Ross inquired.
"Oh heavens no!" Labelle interjected. "We import these from different designers with good taste and sell them for anyone who wishes to change their style."
"We buy them then sell them again," whispered Mabel into Ross' ear.
"Regardless, who is this person, Mabel?" Labelle wanted to know this question since Ross came in.
"This is our new mayor, Ross." As Mabel said 'mayor' she covered Ross' ears to protect his sanity.
"New mayor? So he's the one everyone was waiting to see." Labelle had a look of intrigue with a tone of disinterest. This seemed to slightly annoy Ross. "Anyways, will you be buying anything today?"
"Maybe tomorrow. Today was a tour day and I apparently still have some 'mayoral' duties at town hall to do." Ross seemed drained when he said 'mayoral' but continued. "I also need a house first so..."
"I understand. You have a good day, Mayor," Labelle said in a flatlined tone.
Ross exited out the door that leads straight into the accessories part of the shop and continued down Main Street.
"So... your thoughts on the new mayor?" Mabel had a mock innocence tone to her voice when she said this.
"That 12-ball shirt was not doing him any favors. He shouldn't be wearing shorts in this weather. He's wasn't even wearing a hat. That and-" Labelle glanced at Mabel who had a grin that said 'Oh. I see.' "What?"
"Oh, nothing. It's funny how you're being so nit picky with him."
"It's his style that gets to me. All he needs is to change his wardrobe a tad and-"
"You might actually have a crush on him?" Labelle's ears perked up when she heard this. Following this reaction, she equipped herself with a stony face.
"Just go back to work. I don't want my little sister to impede my productivity." Labelle gestured toward the door leading to the clothing department while glaring at Mabel.
"Yeah, yeah." Mabel left the accessories side and went back to the clothing store. "Sable! Sable!"
"Hm?" Sable looked up from her sewing machine for the first time that day.
"Thoughts on our new mayor?" Mabel inquired.
"When did the new mayor come in?" Sable asked completely confused.
Mabel's jaw dropped open when she heard her sister say this. "Seriously? Ross is the new mayor and the one who complimented your sewing!"
"Oh." Sable was surprised, yet her voice suggested she didn't care. "Well, I guess I'll just see him tomorrow then."
"I guess..." sighed Mabel holding the bridge of her nose.
[The next day...]
Sable woke up the next morning at 8:00 a.m. before either Mabel or Labelle could wake up. She brewed some coffee from some beans from Brewster's to perk herself up. Sable proceeded to go into the store and start sewing some more designs. About an hour before the store officially opened, Sable heard a knock on the door.
"Hello? Are you open yet?" The person asking seemed to be holding something drawn on a piece of paper. "I have a design that I wanted to put on a shirt. Hello?"
Sable looked up from her work and walked to the door. "We're closed," she stated matter-of-factly. "I'll take it at ten." She started walking away but turned around with a new question. "Weren't you here yesterday?"
"Oh. Uh, yeah I was here yesterday," the person scratched his head for no reason. "I'm Ross by the way."
"You're Ross?" Sable bowed apologetically. "I'm sorry for how I acted yesterday. I'm a bit of a work-a-holic horse."
"Funny. I could've sworn that horses don't have paws." Ross seemed proud of his terrible joke.
Sable chuckled slightly before realizing that it was cold outside and Ross only had a long-sleeved shirt and shorts. "Would you like to come inside for a bit?"
"Yes. Thank you." Ross came in and sat down in a chair he pulled next to Sable's work area. He tried making some small talk with the female hedgehog. "So you make all of these clothes?"
Sable looked back at her sewing machine and continued her preemptive tailoring. "All throughout the day I make clothes for the next day. I get up the earliest and I go to bed after everyone else. I always have a full work day."
"Wow. That sounds stressful. Do you ever have a day off?"
Sable shook her head slowly. "It's a full-time thing."
"What do you do with the clothes that don't sell?"
"We take them from off the display and turn them back into scrap materials for new designs or to recycle for later times."
This answer made Ross remember why he came to the store in the first place. "Speaking of new designs, do you think you could turn this into a shirt, long sleeves preferably?" It was a plain white shirt with text saying 'Press to EIGHT' and a button that had a bold, red number '8' on it (A/N: For those who have no clue, this is the 'EIGHT' button from The Stanley Parable). Sable was clueless as to why he had this design and sweat-dropped when she saw it.
"Um, sure?" Sable reluctantly took the design and continued working.
"Thank you, Sable!" Ross surprise hugged Sable to which she flinched by widening her eyes and straightening her back. "I'll come back later today to check up on the design! Oh, and I'll buy this jacket." He took a blue down jacket off the display and tossed 520 bells (A/N: the currency in the Animal Crossing world for those who don't know) at Sable and ran out the door with a large smile on his face.
Sable just stared forward for about 15 seconds before snapping out of her initial shock of being hugged by a guy. She then looked back at the design that Ross had made and start transferring the design onto a piece of cloth.
10:00 came around and the other two sisters woke up and by this time, Sable finished Ross' shirt.
Mabel stretched as she walked into the main store area. "*yawns* Mornin' sis! Whatcha working on?"
"This is a design someone submitted."
"When did they submit it? No one came yesterday with a design." Mabel was completely confused.
"They actually submitted this morning before we opened. I just finished it now. I'm just waiting for him to come back now."
Mabel's eyes widened when Sable said 'him.' "Who's him? Is it another admirer?"
Sable blushed slightly, but Mabel didn't notice. "No. It was Ross. He came by this morning before we opened and dropped off a design. I got to work on it so it could be ready by the time he comes around today."
"Oh. Well, I'm glad you two have such a nice relationship. I'll leave him to you then." Mabel had a smug smile when she said this.
"Mabel. It's not like that. He's just another customer. He didn't know our store hours so he came earlier than most to drop off his design. I decided to do him a favor and complete it so he didn't have to wait long." Sable was visibly distraught by what Mabel had said and even though Sable was the older sister, she felt flustered.
"Yeah, yeah. Anyways when did he say that he was coming back? I know you're dying to see him again."
"He didn't say, alright. I was just going to continue working until he showed up again. He's just another customer, Mabel."
"Okay. You do that. I'm going to check on Label for a second."
"You do that." Sable continued staring and working at the sewing machine for tomorrow's line-up of clothing. The frog design from yesterday was seen on an umbrella in the middle display.
"Hey, Label. How are you holding this morning?" Once Mabel finished her question she noticed that Labelle was wearing a hat. It was a midnight blue dress hat with a frilly black lace flower on the side of it. Somehow, it didn't seem too out of place for her to wear.
"What? Do you like the hat?" Labelle held it with both of her hands and struck a flaunty little pose.
"Well I do, but why are you wearing one?"
"More publicity. If I wear some of the items we purchase from other designers, then others may feel more inclined to do as well. It's a legitimate business strategy."
"Alright then. Just... keep up the good work." Mabel genuinely questioned in her mind the absurdity of what she just saw. 'Sometimes I wonder how I ended up being the little sister...'
A little after 11:30, Ross came back to the store. He had a large grin on his face and walked right up to Sable's sewing machine. "Hey, Sable!"
Sable immediately recognized the voice of the mayor and looked up from her sewing. "Hello, Ross. I finished your shirt." She held up the 'Press to EIGHT' shirt for him to see and Ross' eyes sparkled as if he was a child looking at a shiny new toy.
"It looks great! Just how I imagined it to look." Ross reached into his pockets to pull out some bells as payment. "How much do I owe you for this?"
"I can't possibly charge the mayor for his first design. It'll be free of charge."
"Okay then." Ross cleared his throat and said in an unserious authoritative voice,"I want you to treat me, your beloved mayor, in a manner befitting any other patron of this fine establishment of tailoring."
Sable could hardly keep from laughing at what Ross just said in that voice. "Alright then, Mr. Mayor. That shirt I made will cost you 500 bells."
Ross received the shirt while also still chuckling at what just happened and tried on the shirt immediately. He had to unzip the blue down jacket he was wearing to actually see the design itself. "It's great! I really like it, Sable. Thanks."
"You're welcome. We hope to see you again soon!" This was a standard saying that Able Sisters would do when a customer leaves. Sable's saying seemed to have more enthusiasm behind it at that time, however.
Mabel, being nearby, heard the whole exchange. She swiftly approached Ross as he was leaving and after Sable's attention shifted back to her work. "What is my sister to you?"
"Huh?" Ross was completely taken by surprise by Mabel's sudden appearance and her question.
"What is my sister to you?" Mabel repeated.
"A friend, I guess?" Him only knowing Sable for a portion of two days could only say this much. "She's a bit shy, but fun to talk to. Then again, I try to talk to as many people as I can because I'm an outgoing person."
"Hmm..." Mabel eyed Ross up and down which made him slightly uncomfortable. "Alright then. I'll take your word for it." 'Then again I'm not really against them being together in the first place.'
Ross backed out the store uncomfortably. "Oh, wait. I need some glasses to complete my look." He entered into the area directly connected to the accessories shop. "Hey, Labelle."
Labelle was surprised because she was adjusting her hat in a hand mirror. "Oh! W-Welcome to Able Sisters accessories! Anything I can help you with?"
Ross was becoming increasingly weirded out. "Uh, do you have any glasses or goggles that could make me look like a lab worker?"
"Lab worker? I might have something like that. Let me check." Labelle looked through a stockpile closet that housed an assortment of headpieces to make look like anything from a casual person to a video game character. "Ah. Here are some goggles." She pulled out a pair of goggles that looked steampunk in a sense, but still not out of place in a lab setting.
"They look great. How many bells would that be?"
"1,020 bells." Ross and Labelle exchanged their wares and money, Ross being very satisfied with it. "Would you like to purchase anything else today, mayor?"
"No, I'm fine thanks." Ross noticed that Labelle was looking slightly fidgety. "You okay, Labelle?"
"N-No! I mean, I'm fine. It's no cause for concern." Labelle looked slightly away from Ross look of concern. Eventually, he dropped the topic.
"Alright then. I'll see you guys tomorrow. Don't work yourself to death or anything."
"I try not to. We hope to see you again soon!"
Ross left the Able Sisters for good this time and went about his day. "Those girls are somewhat strange, but they seem nice enough. Mabel seems to be the only one that can speak casually around me. Sable seems formal and shy, and I have no clue what is with Labelle. I guess I'll come back tomorrow and talk to them all again."