The next several months were very awkward for Daniel and Luce. He knew he had to move out, but the end of the year holidays were approaching and his parents wanted him to wait until after Christmas to move out. After going from being regular siblings to having a passionate night together, it was hard for them to face each other. Especially for Luce. She was heartbroken and embarrassed. He almost never saw her smile anymore. Her grades went from A's and B's to C's and D's. She wasn't doing so well in the swim team, either. It was all his fault. Daniel felt terrible.

Nothing he could say would make things better, so he reluctantly asked Cam to try to get close to her and get her to date him. Probably that would be the fastest way for her to get over him. Of course, Cam did not need much convincing. He would happily do it. In fact, Daniel found out from Roland that Cam had already enrolled at her high school as a senior for a while now, so he he probably was just waiting for the right opportunity to start flirting with her.

As usual, Luce quickly fell for Cam's good looks and bad boy ways. Just like in some of her previous lives. Except this time, Daniel would not interfere. Around Christmas, Luce seemed to have recovered completely. She was smiling again, and she was doing well in school. She was dating Cam. She and Daniel were on good terms again and things were not awkward anymore. But Daniel wanted to make sure she would give up on him, so he asked Arriane to pretend to be his girlfriend. She finally said yes after a lot of begging. It was hard for her, because she didn't want to hurt Luce. But Daniel told her if she cared about Luce at all, she would help him make sure that Luce did not have lingering feelings for him.

Luce did seem surprised and a little upset when Daniel introduced Arriane as his girlfriend during their family's Christmas Eve dinner. But then she smiled and said she was happy for him. She seemed fine and Daniel was relieved. He even saw her kissing Cam intensely later, near Cam's car, as he walked Arriane to her car. He couldn't help feeling jealous, but he was happy for her.

Their family never missed midnight mass on Christmas Eve. Daniel never joined them inside the church. Of course he could not tell them the real reason why, but early on, he had told his parents he was agnostic. They understood and did not force him to take part in certain religious activities. He usually wandered around outside of the church while listening to what was going on inside and sometimes looking in the windows to try to see where Luce was. Tonight he did the same thing. Daniel found himself absentmindedly humming along when the choir started singing a familiar hymn. He looked inside and found Lucinda. Unexpectedly, she was looking outside at the same time and their eyes locked. Daniel quickly looked away.

But it was too late. A few minutes later, Luce had joined him outside. It was lightly snowing and both of them were dressed in black clothing. They didn't seem to belong on the pure white snowscape that surrounded them.

"Hey," Luce said.

"Hey," He replied.

"Needed some fresh air?"

"Yeah."

They stood next to each other in silence, watching the snow fall for a while. Finally, Luce said something.

"Daniel... I know you don't believe in God, but let's pretend that you did. Do you think God would punish us for loving each other as more than brother and sister? That what we did was a sin?"

"Yes, I do," Daniel said. He looked at her sadly. If she only knew that they had already been punished for their love, for thousands of years!

"I don't agree. I think God is not that unreasonable. Why shouldn't we be able to love who we love? As long as we both want to be together and no harm comes from it," She said.

"It's more complicated than that..." Daniel said.

"Did you worry about what our parents would think?" She asked.

"Yes, that was what troubled me, but there were other reasons... Anyway, it doesn't matter now. You are with Cam and I am with Arriane." Daniel said.

"I know. But I was just wondering..." She said. "I'm going to miss you when you move out after New Year's, Daniel." Luce reached over and held his hand.

"I'll miss you, too...Lucinda." Daniel said. He squeezed her hand and wished that she didn't have gloves on.

"You're the only one who calls me that sometimes. I like it...it feels like something special that belongs to only us," She said.

"Yes, I feel the same way," He said.

He kissed her softly on her forehead and their was a subtle sensation of heat that always followed when they touched each other. He knew she could feel it too. But tonight, she acted as if she felt nothing.

They smiled at each other before Luce turned to go back inside and Daniel reluctantly let go of her hand. He watched her go, wishing he could follow her inside, that he could always be beside her.

I am kind of having writer's block. lol. And somehow, writing the ending for this fic has felt like more of a chore than something fun to do, so I think I need to take a little break instead of just writing something not so good to get it over with. Hmm. But I still hope I can finish the last chapter sometime this coming week. THANKS FOR READING, AND PLEASE REVIEW/FAV!