I can see Damon giving Elena a Peter Parker-type "I will always be your friend; that's all I have to give" speech, lol. He'd never walk away from her, but he'd definitely try to put some distance between them.
One thing that makes me laugh in fandom is how everybody assumes that Damon will be all over Elena now that Stefan's gone. No. Damon is quite happy to flirt outrageously with Elena, and ~show her the way to a vampire's heart, only because there is no real chance of him getting what he wants. As brave as Damon is, he is also a coward. I mean. He's only willing to tell Elena that he loves her when a) he can make her forget afterwards, or b) HE CAN DIE AFTERWARDS LOL. The fact that Elena does not love him back means that he is safe.
Oh, and ITA with your thoughts re: Elena's selfishness and the lack of idealism in D/E. It's why I ship them, too. It's the trial by fire. I do prefer that construction generally. I feel like S/E (in S1-2) have such a normative model of a relationship, which is fine, but it falls apart outside that framework. We don't know what they are independent of that normative structure. (Or, we haven't found out yet.) D/E is interesting to me in that--from what I can tell--it seems to be the opposite. I truly think that trying to carry out a conventional relationship (complete with labelling and defining and whatnot) would kill them both, lol. Sort of like Barney and Robin. (Not that they are the same.)
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One thing that makes me laugh in fandom is how everybody assumes that Damon will be all over Elena now that Stefan's gone. No. Damon is quite happy to flirt outrageously with Elena, and ~show her the way to a vampire's heart, only because there is no real chance of him getting what he wants. As brave as Damon is, he is also a coward. I mean. He's only willing to tell Elena that he loves her when a) he can make her forget afterwards, or b) HE CAN DIE AFTERWARDS LOL. The fact that Elena does not love him back means that he is safe.
Oh, and ITA with your thoughts re: Elena's selfishness and the lack of idealism in D/E. It's why I ship them, too. It's the trial by fire. I do prefer that construction generally. I feel like S/E (in S1-2) have such a normative model of a relationship, which is fine, but it falls apart outside that framework. We don't know what they are independent of that normative structure. (Or, we haven't found out yet.) D/E is interesting to me in that--from what I can tell--it seems to be the opposite. I truly think that trying to carry out a conventional relationship (complete with labelling and defining and whatnot) would kill them both, lol. Sort of like Barney and Robin. (Not that they are the same.)