1. shimmer (a taylor swift au)

-chapter three-

Ellie glanced up at Taylor, Wendy clutched in her little hand. The woman was tall and Ellie was sure that she was the most beautiful person she'd ever seen. Four people had just walked past her on the staircase, and the child wondered why Taylor had been the one to spot her.
"Someone is coming to pick us up," Taylor told her. Ellie nodded, smiling. "They want to have a quick little look around my apartment to make sure that it's a safe place for you."
Ellie sighed, worrying about what would happen if Taylor's house wasn't safe.
"You'll get to meet the cats," the woman grinned, and for a brief moment, Ellie was distracted from her fears.
"What happens if they don't like your house?" She asked gently. "Will they make me go home?"
Taylor stopped walking and knelt down in front of her. Ellie liked how she did that. It made her feel like Taylor understood her.
"I can't think of any reason why they won't like my house, but if they don't, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it, okay?"
Ellie nodded, holding Wendy a little bit closer to her chest.
"How far away do you live?" Ellie asked as the two of them started walking again.
"Depends on how bad the traffic is," Taylor told her, and Ellie watched as Taylor checked the time. "Hopefully it won't be too bad right now, it's quite late."
Ellie was going to mention how tired she was, but she didn't want to sound like too much trouble that Taylor might decide to get rid of her. So she walked in silence to the car with Taylor but didn't drop her hand once.

Even in the car on the ride home, Ellie was silent. Her mind was whirling at a thousand miles an hour, so much so that her head began to hurt.
When they got back to Taylor's apartment, Ellie's feet hurt so bad that she didn't even want to get out of the car. She was going to ask Taylor if maybe she could carry her, but got scared and decided Taylor might return her. She didn't want to be any trouble at all.
A stranger was standing in the foyer, and Ellie hovered behind Taylor.
"You must be Sam?" Taylor spoke, and Ellie wondered how she was so brave. The little girl hated talking to people she didn't know. But Taylor did it so easily.
The man nodded. "I just need to make sure that everything in your apartment meets our code," he spoke. "You must be Eloise?"
The man addressed her and Eloise blushed, standing squarely behind Taylor, burying her face in the woman's coat.
"She's tired," Taylor excused. "It's been a really long and hard day for her."
"I can imagine. Well, we'll get this over as soon as possible so we can all get to bed."

Ellie was told to sit on the couch in the living room and she did so quietly. She didn't move, but couldn't help but look around in amazement. This was the biggest house she'd ever seen. The walls were filled with art and the ceilings were so tall that she was sure a giant could stand up perfectly fine.
"Do you see this?" She whispered into Wendy's ear. She hugged the elephant close to her chest, and let herself smile. "We're in a castle!"
Taylor and the stranger were walking from room to room, and Ellie could hear them talking quietly. As their voices got quieter, she began to worry that she'd be sent back home again. What if Taylor's house wasn't good enough? What if it was too big that she might possibly get lost and so she had to be sent home?
Ellie held Wendy up in front of her, staring at her one lopsided eye. The elephant had been in her life for as long as she could remember, but she didn't know when she arrived. All Eloise knew, was that Wendy was her best friend in the whole world.
"Do you like it?" She murmured quietly to her. "Well, you can't like it too much because we might have to go home again."
Ellie spoke in a squeaky voice, mimicking what she believed her friend to sound like, "I don't want to go home, Ellie! I wanna stay here forever and ever and eat sprinkles with Taylor!"
Ellie was about to speak again when she heard something behind her. Leaning over the back of the couch, she found a cat. Which one, she didn't know. But it was fluffy and had the bluest eyes she'd ever seen.

Ellie gasped in amazement because she'd never seen a cat this close before. She wanted to get up and play with it but she also knew she was asked to sit on the couch. She didn't want to move just in case Taylor decided she was naughty and decided to send her back. She didn't want to go back.
She was excited when the cat jumped up beside her, probably confused about why a tiny person was wearing Taylor's jumper. Ellie loved the jumper, and she liked that it smelt like Taylor.
"Hi," Ellie whispered, not wanting to be too loud. She yawned, lying down beside the cat. "I'm Eloise. But you can call me Ellie. But you're a cat, so call me whatever you want." She felt her eyes begin to get heavy and tried to fight it. She couldn't fall asleep, she had to prove she was a big girl and that she wasn't a baby.
Whichever cat it was curled into a ball in front of her, and Ellie reached out to stroke it. The cat started purring, and she giggled before the weight of the day sent her to sleep.