Oh gosh. Oh gosh, oh gosh, oh gosh.

Yeah, this little rookie here is trying to write a one-shot in the new Contagion section. I'm pretty sure I'm the one who submitted for it to be created (seeing as we went to see it opening night and I was bored, which eventually led to typing up an email with a completed character list, etcetera etcetera), but after reading the first actual Contagion fic (365 by INMH), I feel as though anything I upload will look like total and complete dirt compared to it. So, folks, I present to you: dirt.

P.S: If you're the kind to listen to music while reading fanfics, I recommend any song by the Postal Service or Tina Turner's River deep, Mountain High. Her's… not Glee's :)

Disclaimer: I totally own Contagion…in my dreams. Where I have a hot sexy butler and magical ponies that talk. You get my point…

Pleasantly Kidnapped

Leonora pulled the long, black trench coat around herself tighter before fastening the leather strap around her waist. The sky above her was a clear, yet pale blue scene, dotted with occasional passersby of the avian variety. A brisk flow of wind picked up, swaying the long grass of the park in a way that made them resemble small waves, moving in a fast rhythm together.

She had decided that morning that, due to the pleasant weather the early spring had brought in, she'd take a quick stroll. There was nothing wrong with that. After locating a nice sweater, slipping on a comfortable pair of shoes (one of the two pairs of comfortable shoes she owned, to be exact), locking up her apartment and finally making it out the doors of her apartment building, however, the temperature decided to take a small dip. This didn't spoil her mood, of course, even though she had been slightly looking forward to it.

The few friends she had were up to no good, recently making tedious efforts to pull her out of the confines of her toasty home where she felt the most relaxed at and back into the world which seemed to be hesitantly, but surely, spinning again.

The worldwide threat had everyone avoiding contact with other humans. Any one with a bad cough or any other symptoms that didn't have their vaccine yet was immediately red-flagged. A plethora of businesses had been closed down. The industrial world seemed to halt in its ever speeding gait.

Now, after around three months post-vaccination, the epidemic was contained and people began to realize that the world couldn't stay stagnant. Nuclear plants had to be carefully monitored as to avoid fatal meltdowns, regular shops needed to be repaired from riot-damage and opened up again, and any and all agricultural workers were in for one heck of a planting season; many countries were in dire need of fresh produce. There weren't exactly a lot of individuals who believed all was safe, which meant that they could be found keeping their distance away from anyone without a vaccine identification band and touching high-trafficked things such as doors and public telephones.

Dr. Orantes knew very well that some of the skeptics' beliefs were a bit out there and as a result, she tried to avoid them as much as possible, which wasn't too difficult seeing as she didn't really get out much in the first place. This wasn't due to the fact that a horrible raging disease had plagued the planet a little over a quarter of a year ago, but because she'd rather relax on her favorite sinking couch, catching up on her studies or reading one of her favorite professor's papers and essays.

At some point, though, she had to decide that enough was enough.

It's been days since I've actually ventured outside for anything but necessities. People are probably starting to think I'm like the rest of them, scared with their tails tight between their legs. Yeah… a nice walk through Walton Park could do me some good.

And so the decision was made, which leads us to out current point and time.

She strolled on the gray concrete path that wound alongside the mid-sized river. Living in the city, most people didn't treat themselves to nature's beauty too often, so when Leonora had spotted a tree close to the waterfront, she couldn't help but change it up and walk towards the scene. A strange déjà vu feeling washed over her. When she reached the tree, her back slid down against it and soon she was in a crouched position, just watching the water dance and churn, the occasional piece of litter floating by.

When she closed her eyes, the déjà vu was no longer just that, but a vision. Almost a flash-back sort of sensation that cooled the skin on her face and neck and made every hair stand up on end, even with the wind settling down. Behind her closed eyelids, she saw a slightly less wide river than the one that was physically in front of her. She could hear not only the gurgling of water as it cascaded over the rocks and pebbles in the shallow areas near the bank, but the familiar giggling of gleeful children. She smiled, both inwardly and externally.

Suddenly, she was fully there, all her senses eagerly vacuuming as much as possible.

The air there was rather pure, each gulp tasting almost sweet. Perhaps this was due to the beautiful lotus and shotwell flowers along the water line and the Dutch clover that carpeted the entire surrounding meadow.

Leonora was on her back, sprawled out against the warm ground. The sun was bringing a wonderfully rare and bubbly feeling to the young woman. It was funny, because she hadn't experienced such feeling in a long time; it felt almost foreign, but she loved the whole experience all the same. She summed it up to being caused by endorphins. The feeling of being loved is often an effect of the hormone.

The bright feeling wasn't just caused by chemicals, though, and deep down she knew it. The scientist was sure that the love that glued the village together was slowly spreading over her and she didn't want to stop it. To be able to go and walk to the market was even a joyful experience. It made her satisfied to know everyone's name and for them to know hers…it was quite a switch-up from the regular chain grocery store where kids were constantly smoking and skateboarding outside, despite the signs of warning.

She could feel little fingers gently raking through her hair as she laid there on the ground by the water. She didn't even have to look up to know that it was Orre, one of her small students, who was constantly in awe when it came to Leonora's hair. Orre had a reason to be, of course, seeing as it was much different than the normal hair she'd always seen her whole life.

A small squeal floated up into the air. A gaggle of children ran past Leonora's feet whilst laughing and chasing one another. Her eyes closed and slow grin spread across her face. She sighed contently. Being out there with the children was one of her favorite pastimes.

It wasn't more than a few seconds later that she felt a small weight trip and fall onto her stomach. Her eyes opened slowly too see that little Yinsi, one of the youngest in the group, had fallen on top of her. After propping herself up on her elbows, Leonora set him upright and smiled at him in a way that would have dried away any tears that were threatening to fall.

"Orre, why don't you take Yinsi and join in on the fun", Leonora said, glancing backwards at the girl. She nodded quickly, stood up, and took Yinsi by the hand. The two of them scurried down the small slope to catch up with the others.

After watching them scamper away, she rested her head back onto the ground and re-closed her eyes, some of the most joyful thoughts bouncing around within her mind. Now that she thought about, it was astonishing how many of them contained the familiar face of a certain kidnapper…

She couldn't contain the huge smile that had suddenly bubbled up.

Stretched out and giving a little yip, she also slowly began to realize something was blocking the sunlight that was shining down gloriously on her. She poked one eye open curiously to see that the culprit was actually the center of the thoughts she had been enjoying. A deep blush spread across her cheeks.

Sun Feng towered over her body with a curious expression etched into his face. A small smirk played casually across his lips before speaking down to her.

"I see you are enjoying yourself, Ms. Orantes" he asked, still avoiding used her first name even though he was basically one of her major kidnappers. He felt as if things were bad enough without nudging her into a temperamental state. The last thing they needed on their hands was a grouchy, uncooperative hostage. Surprisingly though, Leonora had been rather agreeable and sooner than later, many had been arguing how ridiculous it was that she was being held in constant surveillance even though it was obvious that she wasn't going to try anything. Throughout that period of time, Sun had been very diligent in making sure the idiots, who would always joke about what they would like to do to her, kept their filthy paws off. He even remembered the first time one of them finally built up the gusto and to tried defy him. Sun had almost, just almost, lost it that day.

Kanta, the guard on duty that day, had been messing around with his prey all that afternoon. Calling her both malignant names and making embarrassingly wanton comments about her body in both English and his native language, Kanta had kept at it until she was red in the face and her fists were curled up into tight balls. It wasn't long before she began to fire back with her own bombardment of insults. The short-tempered guard, not one to take such mouthing, especially from a foreigner, was quick to cross the room and in a blink of an eye, had her wrists in his tight grasp. She protested against his touch, which made her skin crawl, as he raised her arms above her head, his asinine smirk growing larger by the second.

That's exactly when Sun walked in.

His fists immediately clenched at the sight of that idiotic guard violating her like that. However, despite his natural instinct of wanted to choke Kanta with his own two hands, Sun took a deep breath before clearing his throat in with a strangely powerful force that insinuated authority. Leonora, who appeared as though she was preparing a wad of spit to shoot into Kanta's face, quickly turned her head to the side, her eyes meeting his.

"Mr. Muyogi, what exactly do you think you are doing? I was sure that it was made clear that no one was to touch our special guest unless absolutely necessary", he spoke, trying to keep the anger from seeping into his words. Kanta slowly turned to face the man at the door, but made no move to let go of Leonora. This was enough for her however; as soon as his gaze was directed towards something else, she took the opportunity to pull herself away, scooting over to the other side of the room. Kanta's eyes slowly observed Sun's face, looking for any sign of weakness that could reassure him of his own masculinity. Unfortunately for him, no such thing was found, not a single emotion played out among the other man's features.

"You are dismissed for now, Mr. Muyogi"

For a moment, the guard hesitated, but seemed to break; nodding his head towards Sun before exiting through the room's one other door.

Finally letting go of the anger he had been holding in, his fists relaxed at his sides. His short fingernails had left small, pale marks in his palms. Satisfied with himself for not losing his composure, he advanced towards the woman. She stood, as if shocked frozen, the only moving part of her was the hand rubbing her wrists as if that buffoon still had a grip on them.

"You won't have to worry about him anymore" he reassured her, leaning against the metal table behind them both.

She watched him warily as her hands dropped to her sides. Then she spoke with through narrowed eyes at him. "Our special guest, huh."

Sun Feng shouldn't have been surprised. But they had been talking in Mandarin, so you couldn't really blame him for being taken aback. Even though she had been taking the whole situation in stride (more or less), he knew that he had severely misused her trust. Before the kidnapping, it was normal for them to spend much of their day together. Leonora was rather the workaholic and absolutely wouldn't hear it when he had suggested that they take a day off even after he found her asleep at her desk, her head rested on a stack of papers and a half empty cup of jasmine tea next to her. Being her translator, they would often travel through the day with each other, with him guiding her around through the large city.

Now they were stuck in the middle of this situation, Sun felt especially pitted in between two parts of his world. It was her or his village. Of course, he ultimately had to choose his village, but he promised himself that she would never get hurt in the process. Seeing her glare at him like this made him feel as if he had failed her.

"Is that the nice version of saying hostage now?" she continued, her unwavering stare looking deep into his face, almost as if she was staring right through him. Instead of answering her question, he rubbed the back of his neck and said, "You are learning quickly."

This made her eyebrow quirk up slightly in the unique way he had only seen her due and a crooked smile flash on her face before being wiped away, getting replaced with a look of confusion and anger as she realized he was trying to change the subject.

"Mr. Feng", she began, using the formal approach that they had been doing for so long now. It almost seemed ridiculous. "I would like to be released from holding. Is there anyway you could help me?" Her face was stern and she wasn't showing any signs of letting up her intense gaze. Sun began to fumble with his words, trying to form a response in his mouth. Of course he couldn't release her from her occupation as a hostage; that would be complete treason against his village. It didn't take her long to understand that maybe she should have arranged her words in a different manner.

"From holding in this cell, Feng", she rephrased. He stopped and looked back up to stare at her. She seemed to be undergoing a deep blush, her cheeks gradually turning a warm crimson. He grinned slightly on the inside. She only used his last name by itself if she was getting into a playful mood.

The inward grin suddenly popped out as he chuckled softly, the sound sounding weird bouncing off the walls of the small room. Her eyes lit up at this and she seemed to rock back and forth on her heels a bit. He calmly placed his hands on her shoulders nodded his head. She smiled back.

Now that he thought about it, that smile was very similar to the one she was shining up to him right now. Extending one hand down to her, she took it gracefully and together, she was hoisted off of the ground. However, the force may have been a little too heavily applied, for the end result caused her to be pulled close to his torso, her free hand whipping out to block her fall ended up pressed against his chest. With her face so close for that half a second, Sun was sure he could feel the heat rolling off of her in heavy waves.

Leonora was quick to take a step back, letting go of his hand and reestablishing her personal bubble. A weird pang resounded through Sun's body as she pulled away, though he wasn't sure why. Well, he wasn't completely daft. He knew that lately he had indeed been…spending rather large amounts of time with the American...day in and day out. It wasn't really the most obvious thing in the village, but Sun was sure the elders had taken a hint, taking the time to pat him on the back or shoot him a warm wink whenever they passed but never saying why in particular. He knew how he felt when he was around her and had long accepted the fact that it was an incredibly pleasant feeling that he wasn't sure how'd he fare if it wasn't around anymore.

Clasping her hands behind her back, the fair-skinned lady took another few steps back.

"Well, I suppose I'll see you…er…later?"

Another sturdy nod from the man was followed by, "I suppose you will". The rare cocky smirk that Sun rarely got the chance to use crept along his features. She ignored it and twirled around before prancing away towards group of children playing with each other and rolling down the small hill.

Sun, in turn, took a few steps back himself, still looking at her retreating form. It was odd how these moments popped up now and then and usually ended with them not speaking many words. It was the look in each others eyes that gave it all away. Nothing much was left to be said.

He turned to head up the long steps that led to the market.

Leonara's flashback ended. Suddenly, the duller river was back into sight and her back was once again pressed against a tree. A loud sigh escaped her lips. As much as she tried to reflect the thought off, she knew that something some thing within her was yearning for a return to the small village.

Standing, she smoothed out her coat, before heading towards the path. At the moment, all she wanted was some nice jasmine tea. Preferably the kind a certain kidnapper seemed to be able to make perfectly…

So, what did you guys all think? Gosh, I know it took along time to finally get this online, so apologies and free virtual cookies all around! And yes, I did get the majority of my little o/c names from Pokemon (i.e. Kanta was from the region Kanta, Orre is a region name) and Yinsi is a Chinese name stolen from my favorite soap opera, Bu bu Jing Xin. :D

HEY, YOU'D BETTER CLICK THAT LITTE BOX THAT SAYS REVIEW AND LEAVE ONE OR IMMA COME GET YOU!

Love CC333