And I present to you, Chapter 4! The first chapter with Tom Nook as hinted by the title.

Animal crossing belongs to Nintendo.

"B-r-r-r-r-r-i-i-i-i-n-n-n-g-g-g."

The phone rang irritatingly loudly, rattling itself in effort.

"B-b-r-r-r-i-i-n-g-g."

Sable slowly opened her eyes. Drowsily she rose, looking around the silent living room in confusion, she was sure that something wasn't quite right. Mabel! The storm! She got to her feet and immediately began to search for her. Goodness knows where that child had gone.

"B-r-r-r-r-r-r-i-i-i-i-i-i-n-n-n-n-g-g-g!"

With a jolt Sable was reminded that someone was calling her. With haste she rushed to the phone hoping that the caller hadn't hung up. She hesitated for a moment before speaking.

"Hello?" Sable asked quietly pushing away her shyness. "This is Sable Able, is there anything I can help you with?"

"Sable?" Feeling relief sweep over her she realized who was calling.

Tom Nook was a raccoon that lived nearby to Sable. She and him were good friends, he was one of her only friends really. Despite that he was a nice and normally generous animal, he had a tendency to hang around with some shady characters.

"Nook is that you?" She asked hopefully.

"Oh, its so good to hear your voice again!" He responded. "I haven't seen you in over 2 weeks! Is everything okay?"

Sable stiffened. Everything was not okay. She wanted so bad to tell someone everything, but at the same time wanted to keep it to herself and forget that it ever happened. Ether way it certainly wasn't a conversation to have over the phone.

"I'll tell you everything at the beach, meet me there at 3:00" Sable bit her lip, she felt as though she had made that promise too quickly, but didn't get a chance to change her mind.

"Oh, okay... See you then." He said with concern edging his voice.

Sable placed the phone back down without waiting to hear him hang up. 3:00, she had to meet him there at 3:00.

Tom sat on the soft sand watching the sea wash over the pretty little shells that were scattered along the beach. How long had he been sitting there? Was she late? Why hadn't he seen her for such a long time? Tom mulled over the thoughts that had been bugging him to pass the time.

The small raccoon picked up a fairly flat stone and threw it across the water watching it skip upon the waves 6 times before sinking down to the ocean floor. He nearly didn't hear Sable squat down on the sand beside him and throw a stone which jumped a far less impressive 2 times before dropping into the sea.

"Hello" he said in a friendly tone not looking at what stone he picked up.

He threw the rock watching it sink immediately due to it's roundness and weight. He had to hold back a blush of embarrassment, nether of them were paying much attention to the skipping stones.

"Hi." It took a while for Sable to reply, she seemed distant, almost as if she wasn't there at all.

He remained silent, allowing her to be the first to speak, if she ever did manage to speak that is.

For a long time the two of them remained quiet, not saying anything at all as they threw rocks into the open sea. Eventually Tom couldn't handle the silence anymore and let his curiosity take over.

"What's been bothering you?" He asked trying to sound casual.

Sable froze mid-throw. eyes widening as she searched for the right words.

Tom stopped for a moment and looked to her, waiting patiently for a response.

Sable moved her mouth as if she was talking but only a high pitched little noise came out. There was no way he could have heard that.

"come again?" The young raccoon looked at Sable hopefully, waiting for her to speak again.

with a sigh, Sable began to explain the events that had taken hold recently. She started slowly, almost feeling a little better to finally get this off her chest, then making frantic gestures, moving her arms wildly to express the terrible moments, then ending in tears sniffling pathetically as she drawled on, feeling sorry for herself.

Tom Nook felt he had to hold back tears himself, how could something so horrifying happen to a sweet, shy little hedgehog like her?

He searched for words to comfort her as he began to grab another rock.

"Are you feeling okay?" The raccoon finally asked, watching his stone skip across the calm water."

"I'm fine." she retorted in a grumpy manner, wiping her face on her arm.

"It sounds like you're a little angry." He teased, absentmindedly feeling for another pebble to throw.

"I'm not angry!" Sable shouted projecting her rock at such a force that they were both splattered with water.

Tom's expression couldn't have been more shocked than Sable's. Perhaps she was angry.

Mabel came running up interrupting the two abruptly. She darted her eyes back and forth between the two obviously interested in what was going on between them.

"You... Brought her along with you?" Tom changed the subject, he hadn't noticed the little girl playing not far away.

"Well I couldn't have left her home alone, could I?" She pointed out, beginning to get up so she could help the young one build a sand castle.

"So what have you been up to while I was gone?" She asked sitting down in the sand and making a pile of semi-wet sand, trying to start a casual conversation.

"Well, I've been visiting Redd occasionally-" He started sitting down beside Sable and Mable getting his paws clogged with muddy sand as he helped them much to his disgust before being interrupted by Sable.

"Tell me you haven't been seeing that shady fox again!" she interrupted rolling her head back dramatically.

"He isn't that bad!" Tom defended the young fox.

"Do you know what half of his 'merchandise' is?" She inquired keeping an eye on Mabel as she ran off in search of more wet sand.

"well..." He searched for the right words to defend his friend, it was true that he wasn't the most genuine of salesmen.

"Not too long ago I saw him trying to pass of a rotten peach as a shrunken head!" She didn't give him a chance to speak. "For, how much was it? 1000 bells!"

"He doesn't have much money." He noted loyally.

"Well we're near broke, have lost all power and heating, and are running out of food and you don't see me scamming everyone I see!" Sable suddenly shut her mouth as she realized that she had revealed much more than she planned.

Tom Nook for the first time, stopped and marvelled at this young hedgehog that had taken responsibility over herself and her sister after her parents death, and began to realize the severity of their situation.

"I know a few people that I could call-"

"No!" she interrupted yet again, and looked over at him with large round pleading eyes surrounded by dark circles almost pouting "Promise me you won't tell anyone."

Without saying another word to him she got up, not looking at Mabel as she called to her.

"It's time to go, Mabel." She said with finality, already kicking up sand as she trudged along the shoreline.

Mabel looked sad but didn't protest as she ran up to her older sister to hold her paw as they padded away. Tom was left watching them leave, unable to suppress the feeling that he should have done more to help the sisters.

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