Damon Salvatore can easily lure you in just by his engaging laugh and his charming smile.
His eyes are black – ’fathomless and full of strange lights’ and which have a tendency to ’fill the universe’.
He has dark beauty and grace and the sensuality that draws women to him.
Yes, Damon Salvatore is the King of Shadows.
Thought what he is inside is a question only Elena Gilbert could wholly understand.

Ian Somerhalder is an American fashion model, actor and producer, probably most notable for playing
Boone Carlyle in the TV drama Lost, Paul Denton in the film adaption of
Bret Easton Ellis’ The Rules of Attraction, and more
recently Damon Salvatore in the TV drama The Vampire Diaries.

Elena Gilbert is compassionate and kind, with a smart wit and
timeless beauty, seventeen years old, fres-faced, with lovely features, she once swept
through life with the ease of a popular girl, until she suffered a tragedy.
With the arrival of the mysterious Damon, Elena will feel and discover things that she has never felt before.

Nina Dobrev is a Bulgarian-Canadian actress, instrumentalist, and model currently living in Canada.
She has played the role of Mia Jones, the single teenage mother on Derassi: The Next Generation, since the show’s sixth season. She currently stars as Elena Gilbert in the TV series The Vampire Diaries.

Because I think Elena is the only one who can make him forget about Katherine.
I love pretty much everything about these two.
They have amazing chemistry, they look great together, she brings out his humanity.
I can't wait to see more of them.
Nina and Ian are great friends, and that makes DE even better.
These two are gonna be big, I can feel it.
This is the start of an amazing couple.
~ Elvira (TheSweetestSmile)

Their chemistry is just undeniable.
When they're together it isn't that hard for all of us to see what's right there in front of our faces.
They belong together and no one else can tell us otherwise.
Ian/Nina and Damon/Elena see it.
You see it.
I see it.
We all see it.
It's there and it's there as clear as day.
It's no secret why we can all agree that this couple is meant to be. It's just there!
~ Ashley (Dean&Jo4ever)

I think the main reason I love Elena and Damon is because they’re not your average pair.
It’s not a good girl falling for the bad guy story, Elena’s a spitfire and Damon meets her halfway.
I love the fact they’re not cheesy, rushed and cliché, Elena brings out the best in Damon, she is his humanity after all and Damon is what a true vampire represents:
he knows what he wants and nothing will stop him to get his way.
And that’s Elena.
And that’s what makes them so passionate, even though Elena sees past through his façade
and puts him in his place every time, she’s the only one to see right through him and that’s what makes the chase more worth it.
Because its not gonna be easy, its never gonna be easy with them.
Easy is not fun.
~ Claudia (timtyra)

The reason why I love Damon & Elena is not only one. There are many reasons for that love.
And that’s just because this couple has so many facets and layers that you love all of them altogether.
They are not an average or ordinary couple.
And it’s not just because Damon is a vampire, but because Elena and Damon are both passionate and fiery and they give each other this pull-and-push effect.
They can get on each other’s nerves and then there are other moments where Elena can see through Damon and make him more human than he would like.
Elena is at her best when she is with Damon. She has more edge, more spunk and she’s just not cheesy when she is with him.
Damon and Elena have the best chemistry on the show and the sexual tension is explosive.
~ Lala (MissDK)

Damon/Elena are in my 'Top 3 Favorite Couples Of ALL Time'.
You'd have to be blind not to see something intense brewing behind Damon's snide remarks and Elena's cold rejections.
The way he looks at her proves that he has some humanity left, even if only a bit, and we've seen that mostly only Elena can bring it out.
I think she trusts both brothers and feels fierce loyalty towards them, but she hasn't realized it where Damon is concerned.
They have something that is indescribable.
If Damon cares about Elena this much, when she's trying to convince herself she hates him,
then just imagine how explosive they'll be when Elena finally acknowledges some feelings.
It will be like fireworks on your TV, that's for sure.
They're flawed yet beautiful, weak yet strong, confusing yet understandable, hurtful yet loving.
They find perfect balance in one another.
The fact that Damon/Elena, Ian/Nina, make a gorgeous pairing is just icing on the cake.
One thing's for sure: Elena Gilbert will never forget Damon Salvatore, and vice versa.
In love or not, and that's what makes them an OTP worthy of the title, the fact that they already share this bond that is,
at weakest, unbreakable, without even being in a relationship
or admitting even a slight form of civility to the other.
~ Gaby (qaby |♥|)

When I heard Ian was playing the 'bad' vampire I knew instantly that he would be my favorite character.
But I had no pre-conceived ideas about ships as I hadn't read the books.
In fact, when I watched the initial promos I wasn't too put off by the idea of S/E.
Then, 'Night of the Comet' aired and I was done.
From that first moment, when Elena spun around, her hair whipping Damon's face and their lips almost touching, I was a Fatalist through and through.
For me, the most important thing in a ship is chemistry.
And in that split second I felt more chemistry between a pair of characters than I have for a long while.
As the show has progressed, D/E and Ian/Nina have never disappointed me.
Whether it is hot banter...
whether it is sizzling sexual chemistry ...
or (the greatest D/E moment of all) whether it is D/E laid bare, no games, no tension...
'I can do it...if this is what you want, I'll do it.'
D/E can do anything.
I cannot wait to see this relationship develop.
I think it is telling that D/E have such a huge fanbase already, despite not really having many scenes.
And I'm not just talking about their fanbase on message boards...
D/E really have the support of the media.
Every episode review I read would pick up on their undeniable chemistry.
I have faith in Ian, Nina, Kevin and Julie.
I think D/E will be the hottest ship of this new decade!
~ Natalie (foxyfreds)

I have never read the books before and before seeing the promo for the show, never even heard of the Vampire Diaries.
However, I can remember that while watching the promo for the first time, my attention was immediately drawn to Damon and Elena and before the show even started, I found myself rooting for them.
Then the show started and I allowed myself to have an open mind, wanting to give both ships, Stefan/Elena and Damon/Elena a fair chance.
After the pilot, I knew without a doubt who Elena belonged with and they hadn't even met yet.
From that scene at the graveyard when Damon was staring at Elena through the fog,
something about it thrilled me, excited me,
and I found them to be the most intriguing and the most forbidden couple on the show.
I found myself craving and wanting to know more.
As the show went on, it was obvious that Damon was dark, twisted, loving to lure women to do with as he pleases,
but I also saw something else, something underneath the act that he puts up.
Though Damon is naturally saracastic, dark, and cocky, looking into his eyes I knew there was something more and after meeting Elena,
after seeing him being taken aback at Elenas understanding and tenderness at losing Katherine, a woman who was a big part of Damons and Stefans lives both,
after seeing him in her room as she slept,
looking at her with such affection and wonder as he carressed the side of her cheek so delicately when Damon had showed
no real affection towards anyone in such a long time, really affected me.
Suddenly this girl began to tear at the walls that he has built around himself,
working her way into his head and without even knowing it,
his heart.
They are the couple that shouldn't be together.
They are wrong, forbidden, however couldn't be more right for one another.
They are known as the fatalists because no matter how much they try to fight what they feel, in the end it will become inevitable
and the feelings that they are keeping inside of them will
explode into something Damon never thought he could feel again and something Elena never expected.
~ Ashley (toxicgurl169)

I think that the real Damon is the one near Elena. It's incredible how she's able to make him human.
He can hide himself behind his cruel beaviour, but with her he's different.
For now, we didn't see a lot of D/E interaction but I feel that Ian and Nina have so much chemistry!
They have a connection, you can feel it.
I think it's inevitable that something will happen between them.
And it'll be something impetuous, passionate and aching.
I love that these two will have a slow build-up.
I want Elena to really see Damon and fall for him deeply and viceversa.
~ Silvia (Peyton89)

I love DE because there is just so much potential there between them.
Every time they have an encounter, it's always very meaningful, from their first real talk in Elena's kitchen to Damon deciding to make Jeremy forget, for Elena.
Elena is one of the only people that Damon shows true human emotions for and Damon makes Elena's fiery personality come out.
In the books, it is obvious that they have strong and passionate connection.
Elena is one of the only people Damon really truly cares about and would do anything for.
Elena does love Damon and although at the moment she's trying to resist her feelings for him, she'll realize that she can't deny them for too long.
~ Kem (naturellebella)

Sam Keen once wrote:
"You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly."
This had been true in Elena and Damon's case, Damon isn't perfect - he's wicked and sometimes cruel, he drinks human blood and kills, but Elena sees past through that facade. Elena finds the inner Damon that's worthy of love.
The Damon that nobody knew, just her.
The Damon that is capable of restrain, compassion, fear and love.
Yes, it goes to say that I am tired of the emotional clichés of the good boy/good girl love story.
A compelling love story strives not only with the show of love, but also of the complexity of being together, the restrain, the doubt, the obstacles and more importantly the progression called build up.
In order to truly love a person, you must know him/her inside out and it's always better to feel the love in the heart subtly than knowing you love the person first.
These are the reasons why I love Damon and Elena.
They build their love within their hearts and move on to knowing the feelings eventually.
Thus, Sam Keen is right, love is the way Elena could see Damon perfectly.
~ Gay (HappySquared)

Wish list:
1. Damon to save Elena.
2. Elena to allow Damon some of her blood
(maybe to help him recover from something, and for it to be a really HOT scene.
Maybe Damon could struggle to stop...but he would.)
3. Damon to need to compel Elena, but not be able to do it.
4. Damon opening up to Elena.
5. A Damon/Elena hug.
6. An apparent and steady build-up to a romance to come.
7. Damon and Elena bonding.
8. Damon telling Elena his version of the Salvatore history.
9. Damon earning Elena's trust.
10. Elena trusting Damon.
11. Elena choosing one of Damon's plans instead of Stefan's.
12. Damon protecting Elena.
13. Elena standing up for Damon.
14. Damon choosing Elena over Katherine.
15. A D/E Road Trip.
16. A D/E shut-up kiss.
17. Elena taking care of Damon.