"Who can be in love for a year or two and not reveal it? For love cannot be concealed."

'The Romance of Tristan' - Beroul

Special acknowledgement for this article goes to JanaP, who told me she would love an article about when Elena fell in love with Damon.

I'd always wanted to write an article about Elena's feelings, but it can be difficult sometimes to know exactly what they are. Some TVD fans think that Elena doesn't have any feelings for Damon at all, or that she simply doesn't feel as passionately for Damon as she does for Stefan. I'm going to discuss why they might be wrong, as well as outline Elena's feelings in greater depth. Elena's feelings for Damon might not be as obvious as her feelings for Stefan, but then he was her boyfriend for 2 Seasons, so of course she's not going to express her feelings for Damon by draping herself all over him and making out with him on her bed. Elena's feelings for both boys have developed differently and at different paces. But just because her feelings for Damon have been kept under wraps, it doesn't mean they're not there, because they are. She just represses them.

From the moment she first sets eyes on him, you can tell Elena is very intrigued with Damon. It's written all over her face when he kisses her hand in 1x02. When she watches Caroline exiting Damon's car when he drops her off at cheerleading practice, and she and Damon exchange that Look - Elena's guarded, curious and jealous, Damon's flirtatious and amused - as if he's expecting her to react that way and is getting a kick out of it.
Now, if Elena was not attracted to Damon, there would be no reason for her to be jealous. I mean, she met him in the previous episode, so she could have waved and smiled at him, or even walked over and said hello, but her reaction was noticeably hostile, which is interesting. Long before Caroline confronts her with it, Elena is attracted to Damon. In 3x06, we see her even more jealous, watching Damon 'flirting' with Rebekah. Even Stefan notices and when he comments on it, she becomes overly defensive: "I'm NOT jealous Stefan!" because she knows he's right. She was the one who told Damon to keep Rebekah away from Stefan by keeping her 'occupied', but it all looks a little too convincing for her.

Delena's path to true love has been riddled with darkness, despair and heartbreak at times. But even in their darkest days, Elena doesn't turn away from Damon completely. She listens to him when the situation calls for it, takes his advice when its offered, and although it takes her a while, she manages to get over the Jeremy incident in 2x01, forgives him for it, AND for trying to turn her into a vampire. She also goes a step further by ultimately accepting him as he is: "I like you now, just the way you are", which is a HUGE thing after everything they've been through. I think it's very significant that no matter what happens or what Damon does, Elena never washes her hands of him and says: "That's it. I'm done with him." When she finds out that he's been bitten by a werewolf and doesn't have much time left, she's so desperate to find him, she throws a CHAIR out of the Sheriff's office window to escape! Is that the measure of a girl who feels nothing?! Yes, she knows Damon's dying, but it's a passionate, bold, desperate move, driven by her emotions which equal them. Elena wouldn't do that for someone she felt lacklustre about. She never gives up on him, and he - (in spite of 3x14) - never really gives up on her. Elena's no pushover; she can be almost stupidly stubborn and determined about doing something she wants to do or thinks is right, so it's not as if she's being submissive and letting Damon walk all over her. The reason why she never gives up on him is because she knows he's worth saving deep down. She's seen the real Damon - the Damon hardly anyone, including his own brother - gets to see. They share a connection, an "understanding", and I think she knows how special it is, because Damon doesn't let his guard down for just anyone. In Season 1, she was the first real friend he'd made in I don't know how many years.

Elena feels emotions more powerfully with Damon than when she's with Stefan. Even if it's a negative one, like anger. For some reason, Stefan doesn't have the ability to affect her as much as Damon does. I personally disagree with her when she says "I feel everything" to Stefan in 3x14. After her initial "How could you?!" outburst after Stefan threatens to drive her off Wickery Bridge, she proceeds to let him off the hook with barely a murmur.
Upon finding out that Damon slept with Rebekah however, Elena stays angry at him for about 3 episodes. What Stefan did to her was so much worse, but Elena stays angrier at Damon for longer. If she didn't have intense feelings for him brewing underneath the surface, it's doubtful if she'd have reacted the same way. Elena doesn't argue with anyone quite like she argues with Damon, (think of 1x07, 2x10 and 3x04); and I think that's another sign that her feelings for him are far from indifferent. She wouldn't react passionately if her feelings for him were luke-warm. Being with him makes her feel alive, and that means she feels everything: whether it's good or bad.

Some fans were disappointed and upset that Elena didn't confess to having feelings for Damon at the end of 3x18. They seem to assume that her uncertainty is a sign of her undying love for Stefan. But compare her response "I don't know what I feel", to her previous declarations of love in 1x22: "I love YOU Stefan! I chose you!" and 2x05: "It's you and me Stefan, always", and you might see just how much her feelings for Damon have grown. Instead of flat-out denying she has any, or reassuring Stefan that she will always love HIM, like she would have done in the past, she says that she doesn't know what her feelings are. I think she does know; she just can't admit it to Stefan yet because she's scared, which is understandable. But even if she can't say it, Stefan knows anyway. I mean, if she WASN'T in love with Damon, she would have said she wasn't. It's a simple question, requiring a simple yes or no answer. Her "I don't know" gives the game away, and only confirms the suspicions Stefan already has.

Elena HAS fallen in love with Damon, but it's unrealistic to expect her to stop loving Stefan and get together with Damon in the course of one episode. Fans seem to forget that the love triangle will last for the whole series, and the writers have certainly taken their time with coaxing Elena's feelings for him out into the open. It's easy to accuse her of not being proactive enough when it comes to her feelings for Damon, or for 'underreacting' regarding certain things. Some were even annoyed at her for smirking at Caroline's comment about Rebekah being "desperate" to sleep with Damon, but remember that Elena is thoroughly unsympathetic about D/R's little tryst. What other response would she make when she doesn't like them together?

If it looked like Elena had chosen Damon, then the story would be almost over, so I wouldn't expect her to stop loving Stefan yet. Far from it. (3x20 sounds like it might be Stelena's last hurrah; the calm before the storm hits and everything changes.) But she's drawn to Damon in a way she can't explain or understand. "If you love two people at the same time, choose the second one, because if you really loved the first, you wouldn't have fallen for the second," goes the Johnny Depp quote, which has become so intrinsically associated with Delena, it should probably be our motto or engraved in marble. It doesn't mean of course, that Elena will stop loving her first love, Stefan. But it does suggest that if her first love was everything to her, then she wouldn't have fallen for Damon. Her second love, Damon, is ultimately more powerful than her first, because it pulls her in in spite of the person who was already in her heart. Elena has struggled and resisted that pull. But the time has come when she can't fight it anymore. Her love for Damon is showing, and everyone, including Stefan, can see it. Because love cannot be concealed for long.