Pulled back to the core of the moment, Elena's brow furrowed at his request. Was he...? He was. In all the mess, she had nearly forgotten the biggest obstacle between them after the humanity mess. The sire bond. Elena remembered how much it affected him, and that knowledge had only made her love him more. Regardless of how often he ran over her choices and often made them for her, Damon only ever made those hard decisions to keep her safe. She didn't always agree, but he didn't always agree with her efforts to do the same for him. She figured that made them even now.
Cupping the side of his face, Elena reigned her emotions in as best she could. Focusing on him, on the love she had been so determined to believe was real, she scrounged up the ability to genuinely smile through her tears. Rather than speak, she took the glass from him, then slid off the bed to go set it on the nightstand without taking a sip. She stared down at it for a moment, half-tempted to take one just to continue the way she knew it would ease her nerves, but found the alternative behind her far superior.
So, Elena slowly turned back to face Damon. "I'm sure about that, Damon," she said as she approached him. "Like I've been sure this whole time that... even now, even after losing... losing Jeremy and my humanity, it's you." Elena stopped before him, then wedged herself between his legs where he sat. Circling his neck with her arms, she leaned into him, forehead pressed against his. "Believe me this time. I love you, Damon. I love you."
Saying it lifted some of the pain. Free of the bond, no one could wrongly criticize him for monopolizing on something that he had no choice in happening anymore than she did. She knew Bonnie and Caroline as they were now wouldn't be so happy about this, but she could worry about that later. Repairing this between them took precedence, because he was the one who had been there for her the most throughout the ordeal. It didn't mean she loved her friends any less, just that she knew they would grudgingly understand at the end of the day.
No matter how much they fought, Bonnie and Caroline stood by here in the end, and she would always do the same for them.