A/N: A little fill for the Portal community based off the song "Mission Street" by Vienna Teng. The song led me to Teng's "The Last Snowfall", which is so beautiful that I wanted to write something for the anon who requested the fill in thanks.
Mission Street
Cars. People. Bright colors. Bright sounds.
There was a whole world outside her window she was no longer part of and, try as she might, she couldn't remember having ever been part of it. She'd found work, found a tiny room she could afford to live in with neighbors who smiled when they saw her but never said a word. She tried to remember what it was like to be human and not some lab animal with mixed results. Everyone she met was friendly and kind, something she did her best to accept with gratitude. Her landlady loved her quietness, the woman at the coffee shop down the street loved her smile, and she wondered what it might be like to love someone warm and if she would ever trust again.
The sun had set and she watched the lights dance down the street. It was cool outside but she left the window open anyway to mask the silence. There was nothing to see or do in her little apartment, furnished with just a bed, a beanbag, and a singed box with no hinges and hearts on the sides. Three candles burned warmly in their candelabra on the box, casting a light she preferred to the harsh bulbs in her ceiling. She didn't know what it was that everyone else did when they weren't working or asleep, so she spent her nights watching the street, hoping to glean some insight.
A light knock on the door startled her into a crouch, hands poised to shoot a portal, eyes darting about for the right kind of surface. The knock came again, soft and inquisitive, and she relaxed. When she opened the door it was the woman from the coffee shop. Her smile was small and bright.
"I hope this is okay," she began. "You always seemed so lonely and your landlady told me which apartment was yours. I brought your usual."
An uncertain, shy smile crossed her face and she welcomed the coffee shop woman inside with a hesitant gesture.