Damon Salvatore

Where to start?

For the longest time maybe for over a 162 years Damon has been nothing but second string to brother Stefan Salvatore. Before either brother became vampires or had even met Katherine there was a problem, though it was less obvious at the time to them. Their father started it by favoring Stefan over Damon. Some would say he saw Stefan as a second chance to have the obedient son to take over his business since Damon wasn't the type. He refused college. He left the military without word or remorse for his decision. He wasn't the ideal son his father wanted but Stefan was. Damon didn't take orders or being forced into a certain box well, he wasn't that kind of person. He was his own man.

With it began a long line of issues for the Salvatore Brothers continuing 145 years later. The issue being everyone choosing Stefan the so called 'Good Brother' over and over. Katherine continued the cycle after their father by choosing Stefan. She favored Stefan while she toyed with Damon. Though yeas she may have been in love with Damon or have actual feelings for him she clearly had much stronger ones for Stefan despite the complete and utter devotion from Damon. He would've have done anything for her, become anyone or anything for her, and he would've given up everything for her. Alas, she didn't feel the same for either brother that way though but she was willing to be seen in public with Stefan unlike with Damon. After she was supposedly buried in the tomb she spent the next 145 years lying to them about where she really was. She watched over Stefan while avoiding Damon. Once she returned though she told Damon for her it was Stefan that it would always be Stefan for her. This utterly destroyed Damon as he had been waiting 145 years to be reunited with her only to have her completely reject his love for her. It cut him deeply as it had when he heard his brother was in transition just as he was. It was supposed to be him, only him. It's why he promised Stefan an eternity of misery because Katherine hurt him so deeply.

Once the two brothers returned home to Mystic Falls a 145 years after they had met Katherine. Everyone soon forms their own opinions about the two mysterious brothers labeling Stefan the 'Good Brother' while Damon is named the 'Bad Brother.' Both welcome their roles with open arms as Damon wants to be feared now, he wants to control, and claim his prize: Katherine. Until he meets Katherine's doppelganger Elena Gilbert who realizes that there is more to Damon.

Elena is the first to see there is more to Damon than what everyone can see so plainly on the surface, there is so much hidden beneath.

Damon plays the part of the monster to everyone including Elena and Alaric the people who become Damon's best friends and closest allies. Both of them realize he plays the part of the monster because it's the best way to keep people at arm's length. It keeps him from getting hurt by those he lets in because everyone he has let in has burned him. So much so now he believed the only one he could trust was himself. It's so much easier for him to just be hated; there is no threat to his heart in being hated. But Elena for her part understands Damon and can see everything he has ever done has been in the name of love since that's what he spent 145 years fighting for.

Damon is passionate, hot-headed, hard to control, unpredictable, and is anything but heartless. Damon doesn't allow many people into his heart for fear they may break whatever is left of it. Since Katherine he has only allowed a few into his heart. He let Elena and Alaric in though Alaric certainly only saw less than Elena saw of Damon's true colors.

Unlike for Alaric though, Damon is willing to do anything for Elena. He would let her hate him if it meant she would be alive do it. He would let someone she cared about die if it meant keeping her alive. He would die for her. He would do whatever she asked, no matter how painful. He would stand aside and watch her with his brother if he thought she was happy. He would claim his brother deserves her and he doesn't. He would never lie to her. He would never break a promise to her. He would be there whenever she needed him. He would be the one to keep her alive. He would make it real. He would never force her to feel anything for him. He would never force her to spend time with him. He would be the one to keep her alive. Most of all, though, his love would be unconditional.

To most Damon is an awful person being encouraged by Elena to be a 'better man' despite all believing him incapable. Elena saw he was more than capable, that he was a better man, and he had just hidden his true self away. She didn't wish to change him only to let him be himself, but she accepted him the way he was even if he didn't. He claimed he wasn't the better man, that it wasn't who he really was, and that she was forcing him to be something he wasn't. But the truth of it was it was just hard for him to be something he hadn't been in so long: Himself.

Elena over time saw who he really was and could break through to him when no one else could. She understood him when no else did or even still does. She trusts him, not only with herself but with those close to her. When he tells her something she believes it because he's never been anything but truthful with her. She ran to him with problems she couldn't tell anyone else, not even Stefan. She wants him around when hell breaks loose because she knows she's sage with him. He became her best friend, wormed his way under her skin, and then into her heart. She can't shake him no matter what she does. Even before she truly knew or felt something for him when she saw who he was for a just a moment she refused from then on to let him die. She protects him, even when most would let him die for all the crimes he's committed, but she won't and can't.

In turn Damon has always been there when she's needed him. Such as when she hit a man (vampire) with her car, he saved her from getting killed. He helped her take five minutes from her drama filled life and just have fun for once. He gave her a second option out of going to the dance but she felt confident in the brothers' protection. He was there when Stefan disappeared in the middle of the Miss Mystic Pageant so she wouldn't be humiliated he stepped in for Stefan. He helped find, stop, and lock up Stefan when his bloodlust got the best of him. He stayed with her while she sat with the detained Stefan. He helped her returned his brother's control and told her more of their story. He protected her when her mother threatened her. He offered to save Caroline by giving her his blood. He stopped her from getting hurt by Elijah. Twice. He put himself between her and certain death knowing it was a fight he would lose. He realized Bonnie would die and let Elena think it was real to trick Klaus because it had to be real. He told her the truth and she understood, no questions asked. He tried to make sure she would return to him, no matter what. He would not lose her. He tried to stop the ritual once he realized it wasn't what she wanted and he couldn't stand the idea of her hating him forever. He carried her away, staying with her until she woke, human and not hating him forever. He was there for her while they looked endlessly for his wayward ripper brother. He remained by her side after a stupid lapse in judgment made him take off, leaving her unprotected. He promised her after she tearfully asked him where he had been that he would never leave her again. She was reassured since he never broke his promises to her. He remained helpful and by her side once she became something she never wanted: a vampire. Even after a brief period when he thought to honor his promise to his brother to leave instead he remained with her to teach her how to be a vampire. To control herself and to learn the proper way to hunt.

During this time she tried to make things work between her and Stefan but they had one too many problems now. She trusted Damon far more after they found out Stefan had been lying to them and in cahoots with Klaus. Although Elena isn't entirely without guilt since she turned to Damon instead of Stefan when she couldn't hold down any sort of blood. She kept looking to Damon for help instead of her boyfriend. Something that didn't go unnoticed by either of them Stefan broke it off even after Damon took the moral high ground. Damon didn't use the fact that Elena kept turning to him instead of Stefan. He told her the truth, to fix things between her and Stefan. He loved her enough to respect her choice and to try to help fix the couple's problems. He let her go. How can someone like this be considered selfish?

After one perfect night and morning with Elena once Damon was finally chosen the whole world around them came tumbling down brick by brick. They discovered Elena was sired to Damon. They aren't sure how much the bond may be influencing Elena's emotions as well as actions since very little is known about a sire bond between two vampires since they are so rare. They also believe it may be altering the way Elena feels for Damon by intensifying the romantic feelings that created it in the first place. Now Damon isn't sure Elena has really chosen him. All he needed was a little doubt to think everything he shared with her was nothing more than some fraud. Elena on the other hand has never been surer about anything in her entire life. Despite a confession of love Damon still remains unconvinced. It all links back to the fact that Damon has never been chosen over his brother. Everyone including Stefan believe he is the better brother, that he is better than Damon. So how can one man stand against a million voices? Find one that will agree with him.

Damon had hoped it would be Elena even when she constantly repeated to him over and over that it would always be Stefan he held some small hope because they did have such a strong connection. He hoped one day she would change her mind and choose him over Stefan. Once that day finally came he still had reason enough to doubt her thanks to the sire bond. Now he hopes to get the cure to find out whether or not she really does care for him. After all she did say when she choose Stefan it wasn't for always, it was just for right now, and it seems the right now has changed.

Damon has been craving love since 1864 which is why he was so eager to love Katherine. It's why he was so eager and willing to become a vampire so he could be with her forever, so he could have love forever. It's why he clung to saving Katherine from the tomb and why he was so heartbroken to find out she had been free for 145 years without bothering to contact him. He finally saw Katherine for what she was. She was never really as interested in him as she was in his brother. Damon lost Katherine for a second time to Stefan no less, everyone's first choice.

Underneath his façade of being a cold, heartless, monster is a truly selfless man with more scars than most. Damon insisted at one point to Elena that he didn't deserve her but his brother did. Before he compelled her to forget that along with his first admittance of love to her and that he couldn't be selfish with her. Damon has never been selfish when it comes to Elena. He stood by and watched her be with his brother instead of himself. He never tried to really force her into falling in love with him when he had multiple opportunities to do so. She spent three months with him without vervain or his brother but he never compelled her. When it comes to Elena he is absolutely selfless so maybe it's time he be selfish with her and stop denying himself. It's also proven through that he doesn't tell her everything good deed he has done just to get the credit, he keeps them to himself as well. He didn't tell her about what he did for Rose or that they met first or that he thought his brother deserved her and that he didn't or just how much he loves her.

Underneath his façade is a vulnerable man who desperately wants someone to love him over his brother. He thought it would be Elena who had seen everything until she chose Stefan once more. After a while Damon began returning to his monster façade to push people away because maybe he believes if even Elena couldn't love the real him, then maybe no one can. He had shown her everything only to get shot down repeatedly in favor of his brother. So when she changed her mind and chose him instead he leapt at the chance consequences from his brother be damned. He had waited for her to finally decide she wanted him and he wasn't about to let her walk away or change her mind on him again. He knew thing with his brother would be hard but he felt dut bound to tell his brother no matter how hard it might be or how mad he might get. Damon thought his brother deserved to know and for him to do the right thing by him.

Damon always tried to do right by his brother. To look out for him, protect him even when he was upset or angry with him, and to watch over his little brother because they are still brothers at the end of the day. Damon didn't do all he could have for his brother in the last 145 years but Elena changed him, made him even better than he was. After that Damon decided to be much more helpful to his brother to try to teach him control. Can Stefan say the same? Or is Stefan only there for Damon when he's about to die? Is Stefan only a brother when his brother is dying?

Damon isn't perfect by far but he is a better man than anyone thinks aside from Elena who knows all of his deepest, darkest secrets. She's seen him at rock bottom, at his absolute worst, she's seen him do horrible things, and has never been spared the truth when it comes to him. Yet she remains here and by his side despite the awful crimes he has committed because he was always there for her when she needed him. He always lends a hand. He always shows up in the nick of time. He protects her. Comforts her. Although no one would ever see his greatest traits because he hides them away behind a mask of evil. Damon the so called 'Bad Brother' isn't truly all that bad. He's just lonely and searching for a mate who will choose him always.

Damon Salvatore may be a monster to all but he is a savoir to one.

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