Delena

"Because even if it doesn't work, even if all goes to hell, even if I'm miserable and alone, the smallest chance at the perfect life with you is infinitely better than an immortal one without you, and I know this, Elena. I love you... And I will love you until I take my last breath on this earth."

- Damon to Elena

Delena is the het ship between Elena Gilbert and Damon Salvatore from the The Vampire Diaries fandom.

Canon
Damon and Elena originally started off rocky, with Elena hating him at points. When first introduced, Damon was an evil vampire seeking revenge on his little brother Stefan for a promise he made to make his life a living hell. After nearly every other character, including Stefan, opted Damon as irredeemable and a monster, Elena could see behind the mask of his toxic masculinity that he was just someone looking for love and affection, hinting that Damon wasn't actually the villain. This jumpstarted the beginning of their relationship starting as allies, cthen lose friends ,and finally lovers.

First Meeting
Damon and Elena first met at the Salvatore Boarding house. Damon introduced himself to her whilst also revealing that he is Stefan's brother. In the living room Damon purposely brought up Katherine ,saying she was Stefan's ex lover and how Stefan must be finally moving on; Elena exclaims that Stefan and herself haven't had the awkward exes conversation yet. Before anything else can be said between the two Stefan appears from behind them furious. After some tension, Elena proclaims that it was great meeting Damon, and Damon then kisses her hand charmingly before she leaves.

In the first season of the show, Damon and Elena develop an interesting bond. Though Elena only sees him as a friend or even an enemy at times, he still decides to give into his feelings for her, especially after he discovers that his former lover Katherine is not sealed in a tomb as he had expected her to be. But for the time being Elena is still hung up on Damon's brother Stefan.

Damon and Elena's relationship starts off bad, in the beginning of the second season. After Damon was deceived by Katherine, into believing he had actually kissed Elena, he was very hurt when Elena stated that she would never have kissed him back. Later, Damon went to Elena's house and tried to convince her that she was wrong about her feelings for him. When she insists upon her words, Damon lashes out and kills Elena's brother Jeremy (who came back to life with the Gilbert ring). After that, Elena does not forgive him easily, but eventually she does forgive him, only to get mad at him again, for giving her his blood, to save her from Klaus' sacrifice. But all is forgiven in the last episode of season two, when Damon almost dies from wolf venom and Elena is there for him and she even kisses him. All is ruined though when they finally find out that Stefan had given himself over to Klaus.

In the third season, Damon and Elena are like best friends. They helped each other heal over the summer, in which Stefan had disappeared with Klaus. Elena kept bringing him new leads as to where Stefan might be but he chooses to investigate them on his own and keep her in the dark, because she doesn't want her to know that Stefan has been the one killing people. On the night of her birthday, he gives her the necklace she had lost, which had originally been a gift from Stefan. As it is discovered later in the show, that was the moment she knew that she loved him. They then continue chasing after Stefan and Damon is always by Elena's side when she needs comfort and vice versa. After Klaus makes Stefan turn his humanity off and feed on Elena, Damon vowed to never leave her again. A little later, when Elena had Damon take away Jeremy's memories, they finally share their first kiss outside her house. Things get rough when Stefan gets his humanity back and Elena has to choose between the two brothers. When Elena and Damon are stuck in a motel in Denver, they make out again. This time being the first Elena actually initiated it. But inspire of all, Elena picks Stefan in the end and tells Damon that thing would be different if they had met first. When Elena falls off the Wickery bridge she starts her transition to a vampire and gets her memory of their first meeting back.

In the fourth season Elena becomes a vampire, something that changed the was she saw life and her perspective completely. So at first she tries to deal with her intense feelings, but gives up at some point and breaks up with Stefan over Damon. Shortly after that the two sleep together, while at the same time Stefan and Caroline figure out that Elena is actually sired to Damon. When Elena believes her feelings for him are real, he along with everyone else are doubtful. She even tells him that she loves him, enough to let him take the cure to vampirism with her which he declines. Then due to her brother's death, Elena turns her humanity off and Damon tries everything to bring her back and he along with Stefan eventually succeed. Then it is confirmed by her that her feelings were true since the sire bond no longer existed and they start dating.

In the fifth season the first episode starts with us seeing Damon and Elena having the summer of their lives, before Elena is going to college. They are happy but something is bothering Elena, she haven't heard from Stefan all summer, but is having psychic dreams about him, in a bad place. She ignores it and then start at Whitmore College.

But after an attack at Whitmore (they all presumed it was a vampire attack), Damon picks Elena up from Whitmore and drives her home, because they find out Stefan has a doppelgänger that turned up and messed things up, and now Elena wants to find Stefan.

After that they are happy and it's all butterflies and rainbows, while they fights Stefan's doppelgänger Silas, but also Damon's dark past showing its surface. Because of that dark past they therefore break up.

Then Katherine turns up (as a human) and starts all the drama again. After the cure is pulled out of her body she finds out that she's dying, her and Naida her daughter finds out a way for her to take over Elena's body. So, while Elena was running back to Damon and them having an emotional reunion, Katherine takes on Elena's body permanently, and Katherine (inside Elena's body) breaks up with Damon only to be with Stefan. That makes Damon go off and kill one of Elena's best friends, Aaron.

But when Elena wake up inside her own body again (3 weeks later) she confronts Damon with Damon killing Aaron (after Damon told her) ending with them breaking up, but then sleeping together anyway.

Their almost breakup that night became final 24 hours later, when Elena ask Damon to let her go and then she leave him to go back to college. Their "hunger" after each other become almost irresistible and after Stefan give Elena his blessing for Elena and Damon to be together, she actually realizes how much she loves Damon and reunite with him in a passionate kiss after she thought he was dying and never got to see him again. And just when Elena thought she would have him forever he tells her he is going to sacrifice himself to save to town. She's devastated but actually dies with him, only to make Bonnie bring both back from The Other Side before it's destroyed. The problem is, something goes wrong and, Elena came back to life... but Damon didn't and he dies with Bonnie.

He got to say one last goodbye to her, but without her actually hearing him. She's devastated while Damon tells her everything he love about her and how much he don't regret anything.

During the next seasons they go through hell but they get through it and eventually get together but their biggest hardship came when Kai linked Elena's life to Bonnie's and as long as she were alive, Elena would remain asleep. But the two are reunited again and in a flash forward scene its is shown that they were married in the series finale.

Children
Stefanie Salvatore

In Legacies it is revealed that Elena and Damon have a daughter named Stefanie Salvatore, who is named after Damon's brother Stefan.

Quotes
"I have made a lot of mistakes in my life, and being with you wasn't one of them."

- Damon and Elena.

"I'm not sorry that I met you. I'm not sorry that knowing you has made me question everything. That in death you were the one that made me feel lost alive. You've been a terrible person. You've made all the wrong choices, and out of all the choices I've made this will prove to be the worst one. But I'm not sorry that I'm in love with you! I love you, Damon... I love you."

- Elena to Damon, 4x22

"I need to see Elena. I just need one look at her face. Just a little reminder that everything’s gonna be alright."

- Damon Salvatore, 7x11.

Songs

 * all i need | WHININ TEMPTATION
 * elena and damon dance at the founders day gala


 * i was wrong | SLEEPERSTAR
 * damon tells elena he loved her then compelled her to forget


 * echo | JASON WALKER
 * elena's was worried about damon


 * torch song | SHADY BARD
 * damon rescues elena from the hospital


 * holding on and letting go | ROSS COPPERMAN
 * first official kiss


 * never let me go | FLORENCE + THE MACHINE
 * llena and damon kiss outside the motel


 * feel so close | CALVIN HARRIS
 * damon and elena feed on humans and dance together at a college party


 * kiss me | ED SHEERAN
 * dancing and kissing


 * belong | CARY BROTHERS
 * elena's in love with damon


 * don't deserve you | PLUMB
 * they're going to save stefan and elena will still love damon


 * fire breather | LAUREL
 * delena fight and sex


 * do i wanna know | ARCTIC MONKEYS
 * damon and elena school hallway


 * chemical | KERLI
 * crappy day and i needed it kiss


 * love is just a way to die | I AM STRIKES
 * suicide mission talk and kiss


 * finished sympathy | GLASVEGAS
 * elena joins damon on his suicide mission


 * be alright | LUCY ROSE
 * damon's goodbye to elena


 * light a fire | Rachel Taylor
 * elena says goodbye to damon


 * salvation | GABRIELLE APLIN
 * elena packs up her damon things


 * all through the night | SLEEPING AT LAST
 * the moment elena fell in love with damon


 * the power of love | GABRIELLE APLIN
 * elena diary entry about damon and photos


 * unbreakable | Jamie Scott
 * delena reunion


 * another love | TOM ODELL
 * rain kiss


 * always take you back | NIGHT OF TERRORS 1927
 * don't want to waste another minute kiss


 * time | MIKKY EKKO
 * elena somehow always finds her way back to damon


 * you're mine | MEIKO
 * delena make out in the kitchen


 * to the wonder | AQUALUNG
 * damon wants to take the cure and become human


 * fly | MEADOWLARK
 * elena takes the cure


 * hunger | ROSS COPPERMAN
 * damon and elena dance in the street


 * silhouette | AQUILO
 * damon hears elena's voice


 * hold on | CHORD OVERSTREET
 * damon and elena finally reunite

Fanon
Delena is the most popular ship in The Vampire Diaries fandom. Its rival ship is Stelena. What started as a slow burn and a classic enemies to lovers story, fans have shipped them from the beginning. Even though Stelena was showcased to be the core relationship, the chemistry between Damon and Elena was undeniable and the ship and fanbase only continued to grow. As the show progressed fans could see that when Stefan would go off the deep end Damon was always there to protect her and be there when Stefan couldn't whilst simultaneously respecting Elena's relationship with his brother even though he was madly in love with her.

Unlike Elena's safe and compassionate relationship with Stefan, Damon is the spark of a fiery passion which challenges her in a good way. Elena also brought out the light in Damon's darkness and his love for her changed Damon which made him want to be a better person. Fans were also passionate about how Damon loved Elena as both a human and a vampire when Stefan's main focus was to find her the cure making Elena think all he wanted to do was change her. Either way fans believe Delena are soulmates and with the many bumps on the road Elena finally found a love that consumes her.

On AO3, Delena is the most written ship for Damon and Elena. It is also the second most written ship in the The Vampire Diaries (TV) and The Vampire Diaries & Related Fandoms tags and the most written in the The Vampire Diaries - L.J. Smith tag.

Fandom

 * FAN FICTION
 * Elena/Damon (TV) tag on FanFiction.net
 * Elena/Damon (Books) tag on FanFiction.net
 * ultimate delena fic rec list from
 * ultimate delena fic rec list from


 * TUMBLR


 * TIKTOK


 * TWITTER


 * WIKIS

Trivia

 * Ian Somerhalder (Damon) and Nina Dobrev (Elena) dated from 2010 to 2013.