Why do I like Damon & Katherine even after all she put him through? No, not because they are 'hot", which seems to the reason that many people tend to pair them up. I always see a constant drag down of DK by the DE's (I am just going by what I have seen)because Katherine has hurt him. Yes, she has, but how many times has Elena done that? Second chances, it's all about second chances. About undoing what you did wrong the first time. Katherine is manipulative. Yes, but what about Elena? She's been playing "innocent" and been stringing along both the brothers but no one says anything to her. -- Datherine -- Because there is so much left unspoken and so many lies. Katherine isn't a person that can be revealed just from the surface, she is like an onion that needs to be peeled, layer by layer to unveil the truth. She is an enigma. The flashbacks -- she COMPELLED AND FED from Stefan. The first night the spent together she fed on him so there is no way she could have possibly slept with him. With Damon, she made love to him, she taught him everything about Vampires, she left him with a /choice/. Damon and Katherine are the real love story, here. The differences in the two relationships are stunning. She compelled and fed on Stefan, and didn't compel or feed on Damon. She gave Stefan a facade of what it is like to be a vampire, while giving Damon the truth and involving him in her vampire business. She always let Damon make his own choices, while taking Stefan's choices away from him. She was honest with him while she used Stefan as a blood bag. She always goes out of her way intentionally to make constant jabs at Damon, to ignore him. We ignore the ones we love most, do we not? She's been through hell and back. If you went through everything she went through, you'd end up with battle scars. When she told Damon that she didn't love him? The pain in her eyes. When she told Damon that she knew he was going to die when he pulled the dagger out.... lies. John and Isobel weren't in town so there is no way she possibly got a hold of them. When she found out about Damon's wolf bite.... her "Don't leave mad. Don't I get a goodbye." The pain in her eyes....her "I never let love get in the way." She SAVED HIM TWICE. She needed freedom from Klaus and she could have done just that but instead of not giving Damon the cure and taking the first chance she could for freedom, she went to give it to him. And after 500 freaking years, she gave it ALL up, just so Damon wouldn't die. There is a epic tragic love here. She's just hurt and vulnerable. And Damon? He is still in love with her, Elena is rebound. He lashed out when he broker Jer's neck because Elena said the same thing which furthered Katerine's words. A century and a whole love doesn't just die like that. Katherine lets Damon be himself, he doesn't have to act like a puppy dog with her. Unlike when with Elena, he has balls. There is something there-- a beautiful, multifaceted epic dynamic and that is a ship I will go down with. I just don't buy the fact that he still doesn't love her. He does, but he just gave up on the fact that she doesn't want him....which based on so much....is sure as hell not true. Do not tell me that Damon stopped loving Katherine after over a century and a half just like that. He still loves, he always will. "I don't love you, but I always will." Now Katherine just needs to let love get in the way. She needs to let Damon get in the way and they both have an eternity to make up for what they have lost; to have another beginning to a tragic love story.