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The shopping center was packed, but not as packed as it would be on the weekends. Marlena and Bucky had been roaming around the mall for at least an hour and a half attempting to find Bucky some decent clothing to squeeze himself into. He was a fairly difficult person to shop with, or at least in Marlena's opinion he was. It was to be expected, though. Bucky was from the early 1900's, so he wasn't very up-to-date with this century's fashion. It was aggravating for him, but he didn't seem to mind it very much; it was actually helping to restore some of his lost memories.

Since Marlena and Bucky had arrived at the mall, they had been to at least eight different stores, each of them failing to provide Bucky with any sort of interest. The only clothing he grew a liking to was the clothing that most 80-90 year olds wore. Marlena had to constantly remind him that a biologically twenty-eight year old man dressed like that would only draw more attention. She knew he couldn't help it, and she was more than ecstatic that his memories were beginning to make their way back, but she knew that he didn't want anyone to recognize him. People wouldn't even pay attention to him if he were dressed like a normal twenty-first century man.

Marlena stood outside of H&M's dressing rooms, rummaging through items on the clothing rack. After Bucky's many failed attempts at trying to pick out his own clothes, Marlena stepped in to handle the situation herself. She had grabbed quite a bit of clothes from the men's department and shoved him into a fitting room to try them on. He was adamant at first, but after receiving a hard glare from the petite brunette, he wasted no time at all in scurrying into the room to change.

Marlena took a sip of her coffee and continued rummaging through the insane amount of clothes. She soon stumbled upon a plain grey shirt with long sleeves, as well as a black leather jacket, a brown leather jacket, two pairs of jeans, and a black v-neck shirt. She gathered them in her free hand and turned to head into the fitting room area, only to stop when she noticed Bucky walking out. He had an annoyed look on his face, most likely due to what he was wearing. Marlena chuckled at his expression, but averted her attention to his fourth outfit. He didn't look bad at all, at least to her he didn't. He wore a long sleeve shirt with maroon and grey stripes on it, as well as a pair of black jeans and a pair of black boots, very similar to the ones he wore to the mall.

"See? That looks great," Marlena smiled.

He gave her a look. "This is strange," he murmured, looking down at the tag hanging off of his shirt, "and expensive. If I remember correctly, a shirt like this would cost like two dollars back in the nineteen-thirties and forties."

Marlena chuckled and walked towards him. "Yeah, well, the economy is a fickle thing, my friend."

Bucky just scoffed and eyed the clothes in Marlena's hands. "I think I've tried on enough clothes, Mar."

She raised a brow and shoved the clothes into his hands. "No."

"Marlena—"

"Bucky," she mocked, cutting him off and pushing him back towards the fitting room, her coffee still in hand. She ignored the looks she was receiving from the store's customers as she headed into the men's fitting room and looked at Bucky. "Try them on. It won't hurt you."

"You've already bought me so much, it isn't necessary," he tried to reason with her. And it was true; Marlena had bought Bucky at least six outfits plus other random clothing from two other stores, respectively known as American Eagle and J. Crew. Because Marlena was such a caring person, she didn't mind it all, but Bucky was beginning to think it was a bit too much. It was only now that he was speaking up about it.

"You know what isn't necessary? Elena Gilbert's and Damon Salvatore's relationship, but you don't see me complaining about it, do you? Now change," Marlena retorted, earning a strange look from Bucky. He had no clue who or what she was talking about; he only knew she was trying to get her point across.

"You're pushy," Bucky stated as he pulled the curtain shut.

Marlena just smirked and headed back out of the fitting room to look at more clothes for Bucky. She knew she needed to stop, but she couldn't help it. She wasn't used to buying things for anyone other than herself, plus she wasn't even using her own money, so that made the process easier. Her mom—who had taken quite the liking to her grandfather-in-law's best friend—had slipped her credit card into Bucky's jacket pocket without him knowing; she had texted Marlena telling her to buy him whatever she could when she managed to snag the card from him, and so that was exactly what she'd been doing for the past hour and a half.

Marlena had wandered towards the opposite side of the men's department to look for clothes. It would do her no good to search for different clothes while standing in the same place. She just hoped Bucky would be able to find her when he came out.

As she sifted through clothes and nonchalantly sipped on her coffee, she heard a rather excited voice behind her. Her blood ran cold, and she froze right where she was hoping the man behind the voice would dismiss her presence and continue on.

He didn't.

"Marlena Claire," she heard.

She squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath before turning around to face the man calling her name. She recognized his smiling face right away; it was the face she so desperately wished she could forget.

"Dylan," Marlena mumbled with a fake smile.

She looked her ex-boyfriend up and down, noticing just how much he had changed since they last saw each other their senior year. His hair was a lot shorter than it used to be, and he looked much bigger than he was in high school; she assumed he had been lifting weights or working out or something along the lines of that. It didn't matter to her, though. Yes, he could change the way he looked on the outside, but he couldn't do anything to change the horrible person he was on the inside.

"What are you doing here?" Dylan asked her with a smirk on his face. That was one thing that hadn't changed about him: his stupid, arrogant smirk. Marlena hated it when they were together, and she even hated it now. 

"Here? In this shopping mall? Gee, I don't know," Marlena remarked sarcastically with a roll of her eyes.

Dylan raised a brow at her and crossed his arms. "I'm asking why you're in the men's section, babe."

Marlena visibly cringed at the sound of him calling her babe. It made her want to punch him in the face, but she lacked the muscle to do so. "First of all, I'm not your babe; second of all, I'm shopping."

Dylan narrowed his eyes at her confession and glanced down to the bags in her hands. She was shopping for a guy, and he didn't seem to like that at all, despite the fact that the two had been separated for over a year. He was the same way when the two were together back in high school. He hated it when she interacted with a male that wasn't him; he even hated her sitting within three feet of another guy, but Marlena had been so infatuated with him she didn't care. She did whatever he wanted out of fear of losing him, and he took pride in that back when they were together.

"Shopping for another guy, I see?" Dylan spoke, his voice cold.

"Yep, sure am," Marlena retorted with a dry chuckle. "Why do you care anyway? You broke up with me if I remember correctly. You shouldn't be worried about who or what I'm buying for."

"I guess it's because I never really got over you, to tell you the truth," he admitted with a shrug of his shoulders.

Marlena gaped at him, unable to believe a single word he was saying. This man was the reason their dangerously toxic relationship had ended in the first place, and thinking about it only angered her. She could recall every single tear he had caused her and all the mental pain he had caused her. He was the reason she could no longer trust men, because she feared she would just get hurt again. The only males she trusted were her little brother and Bucky, and she hadn't even known Bucky for two days.

"You seemed to be very much over me when you had your tongue shoved down that slutty blonde's throat a month before we split," Marlena countered.

Dylan chuckled at her words, and, without a word, he gently removed her coffee cup from her hand, pressing the straw between his pink lips and taking a sip of the cold liquid. Marlena had to bite her tongue to prevent the string of profanity from slipping out. She hated cussing because of her father, but if there was one person in the world who could manage to bring out that side of her, it was Dylan.

"We're not in high school anymore, Marlena," he stated. "I'm well passed the childish games."

"You really should have realized that two years ago, Dylan," Marlena remarked as she turned to walk away, only to be pulled back by a strong hand. She glared at her ex-boyfriend and attempted to remove herself from his grasp, but he was much too strong for her.

"C'mon, don't be like that, babe. We're adults now. How about you and I give it another go?" Dylan suggested with a smirk on his face. It took everything in Marlena not to reach up and smack it away.

"How about not? I've moved on, and maybe so should you," Marlena told him, finally managing to snatch her arm out of his hold.

She stormed away, but he only went after her. This was not how he had planned for things to go the first time he saw Marlena again. He thought that she would be happy to see him, not to mention more than willing to take him back, but that didn't seem to be the case at the moment. He despised the fact that she seemed to be over him only a year after being out of their three year relationship. It made her a challenge and made him want her more.

Dylan latched onto her arm again and Marlena spun around. She was fuming now. She just wanted him to leave her alone so she could get back to Bucky, pay for his clothes, and leave. But with Dylan lurking around she couldn't exactly do that.

"Will you please leave me alone?" she exclaimed desperately, attracting the attention of several customers, including Bucky who was still in the fitting room adjusting his clothes. The moment he realized that it was in fact Marlena's voice, he threw his shirt and jacket over his shoulders and ran out of the fitting room.

"Why? So you can continue your little shopping spree for this mysterious friend of yours?" Dylan scoffed, "You know good and well you'll never find anyone better than me."

Marlena rolled her eyes and was more than ready to retort until a familiar voice stopped her. She almost sighed in relief as she watched Bucky strolling over to the two of them.

"Is something wrong here?" he questioned Dylan. His eyes flashed down to his hand, which was still tightly grasped around Marlena's wrist, and he glared at him. Dylan grew uncomfortable under the former assassin's gaze, but his hold didn't release, despite how much Marlena pulled.

"No, nothing's wrong. This is between me and her," Dylan countered as he tightened his grip on Marlena's wrist. Marlena whimpered at the sudden tightness, causing Bucky to glance at her before shifting his focus back on Dylan.

"Let her go," Bucky demanded.

He was growing quite angry with Dylan, mostly because he was harassing and hurting Marlena. He just hoped he would listen; he didn't exactly want the situation to grow violent and he definitely didn't want the Winter Soldier to resurface inside him because of some petty kid who didn't know how to keep his hands to himself.

"And who's going to make me?" Dylan retorted. There was a crowd beginning to form around them, but the three of them didn't exactly worry about it.

Bucky glanced down at Marlena and gave her a reassuring smile before closing in on Dylan. He didn't even hesitate before wrapping his flesh-hand around the base of Dylan's neck and lifting him several inches off of the ground. Even without the strength of his cybernetic arm aiding him, Bucky was still stronger than the average human and even Steve Rogers himself; he had Hydra to thank—and hate—for that. Dylan let go of Marlena's arm the moment Bucky's palm made contact with his throat. Marlena watched on in surprise as Bucky held him in the air, while other customers watched on in fear. She was only slightly afraid of him, mostly because she hadn't seen his violent side to such an extent before, but these people hadn't seen it at all. It was rare to see an average-sized man lift another man off the ground with just a single hand nowadays. To these people, it was something only a superhuman could do.

"I guess you just found out," Bucky remarked as he stared menacingly at the man in his grasp. 

Marlena watched with widened eyes as Bucky held Dylan in the air as if he were light as a feather. She saw something change in Bucky's aura, his eyes glazing over with a distant, hostile look that made the super-soldier almost unrecognizable. Something inside of her told her that Bucky wasn't even aware of the menacing grip he had on Dylan's windpipe. It was as if Bucky had forgotten where he was and what he was doing, and Marlena couldn't help but believe this was Hydra's doing.

Marlena glanced around at all of the horrified onlookers before latching herself onto Bucky's left arm. He looked down at her and his eyes softened dramatically. She was silently pleading with him to put Dylan down, and when Bucky noticed this his gaze shifted towards the several onlookers. He looked back at Dylan—who was losing quite a bit of oxygen—and threw him to the floor without another thought. Something inside him had snapped, and he shook his head violently before gently grasping onto Marlena's wrist. He pulled the both of them out of the store as quickly as possible, trying to find a way to rid himself of the gnawing feeling playing at the very edges of his heart.