Pain doesn't hurt, far memories in his head

But Katara can not defend, while Zuko can not forget…

Before I start with the story, I want to warn you for a few things:

-First of all, this story is rated T. Why? Well, it's an extremely violent story. I know some people can't stand violence, so if you're one of those people, please do yourselves a favor and read something else.

-It's also rated T because, well actually M would fit better, there will be a LOT of healthy Zutarapassion. (Of course, love includes passion.) It is possible that serious adult content, sexual contact, can be involved in the story. This was a warning.

-Zuko is totally, TOTALLY OOC. Why? Because he's nicer and perhaps a bit happier than he normally is. And since there are two years passed from the last episode of season two, it's only natural that he's changed.

Okay, that were the warnings. I don't like warning people, but it's always better to warn you anyway. Not everyone likes violence and adult content as much as an other.

If you want a good summary for this story, I wrote a drabble of this story. It can work as a summary. Visit my account, pick "Zutara Drabbles" in my story list, and read the drabble "At The Other Side". (Same name as the story)

And if you're too lazy to do that, then just read the story itself. Enjoy!

(P.S.: It's ZUTARA! One hundred percent ZUTARA! Tragedy, drama, romance, all the things a decent Zutarastory needs.)

Chapter 1

So far, and yet so close

Katara sat on her room, squattered in a corner. A bowl filled with water stood in front of her.

She checked the room one last time, just to know it for sure. Luckily, she still was all alone.

Once she knew that she was the only one in that room, she held her hand above the bowl. She slowly moved her hand up and down, focusing on the smooth moves she had to make. That way, she could form a ball out of the water and twirl it around in the room. A smile appeared on her face when she saw the water dancing through the room: she still had it, she still had her skill to waterbend. Even after two long years with no chance to train her waterbending properly, she still knew how to handle it, a bit.

Suddenly, the door opened. Katara gasped and dropped the water, so it splashed somewhere on the floor. Her father came in and he stared at the puddle of water. His head turned to Katara and a frown appeared on his face.

'Katara, were you waterbending again?'

Katara bit on her lip. 'Maybe…' she answered, a bit vague. Her father sighed and crossed his arms.

'How many times to I have to tell you? The soldiers don't want us to bend our element! It's forbidden, why won't you understand that?'

Katara stood up and poked against his chest.

'Because it's ridiculous! We live without waterbending for two years by now, I have enough of it! Why do we fear those soldiers that much? If we use our element, they can't harm us!'

Hakoda sighed. He laid a hand on her cheek and pulled a slight smile over his mouth.

'I admire your courage, Katara. I really do. But you know what happens if they see you waterbending! Don't tell me that I have to explain it again!'

When he noticed that his daughter said nothing, another sigh escaped from his mouth.

'For the thousandth time: if they catch you, they'll send more soldiers and they'll kill our entire family and burn the house to ashes. Is that what you want?'

Katara gave no answer. Of course she didn't want anything to happen to her father and Sokka, but she could doubt about her step-mother and step-brothers. Those people treated her like she was shit, while her father didn't even defend her. He loved her step-mother too much to believe his own daughter.

Hakoda released an other sigh. He took the bowl of water and gave it to Katara, while he pointed at the window.

'Bring this water back to where it belongs: the river. There's no better way of respecting water than by giving it back to nature.'

Katara nodded and took the bowl. She stared at the water and released a sigh, she missed her element so much.

Since the firenation had all the power, everything changed. People were no longer allowed to bend, only the firelord and soldiers had the right to live with their element, fire. And if you didn't obey the soldiers, they killed you and your entire family. Of course, everyone wanted to escape from the horror. But that was impossible. Ozai ruled the world, there was no longer a safe place to hide. So people just stayed at home, in their village, crawling in the dust for the soldiers.

Aang and Toph were gone, they were safe. They had left for one of the airtemples, where Aang would be learned how to bend the elements. So when Aang was gone, Katara and Sokka searched for their father. They found them, but unfortunately, he had some new members of the family with him. Katara would never forgive him. She didn't care about him falling in love, that was alright with her, but she didn't knew that he'd fall in love with a SLUT as her step-mother, Hitomi.

A sigh escaped from her throat. It was too late to get her out of here now, she had found her place in the family. And her beauty made it even harder for Katara to talk with her father about her. Every time when Katara tried to tell her father what the step-brothers did to her, Hitomi came and seduced Hakoda. Sometimes she even had to guide him to the bedroom to convince him about the innocence of her sons.

She left her room and walked through the kitchen, heading for the front door. But when she wanted to open that door, someone grabbed her arm and pulled her closer, almost making her drop the bowl.

She looked up and stared straight in the eyes of her oldest step-brother, Daichi. His pale, green eyes seemed to bore right through her, as if he could read her mind. She jerked his hand away and frowned.

'Don't touch me, Daichi!' she snarled. Daichi rolled his eyes and turned his head to his younger brother, Jiro, standing behind him.

'Did you hear that, Jiro? The waterslut is snarling at us!' he said. Jiro laughed loudly, but the boy standing next to him was rather quiet. That boy, Takeshi, hung his head down, as if he didn't want to have anything to do with this. Jiro frowned and pulled at his younger brother's sleeve.

'Hey, Takeshi, what's wrong? Why aren't you laughing? I mean, isn't it killing funny that miss watertribe has just snarled at US?'

Takeshi shrugged. He thought about what happened a few days ago, when their parents weren't at home. Daichi was eighteen now, so he was the boss in the house that night. He drank everything he could find, as long as it was alcohol. Once he was too drunk to know what he was doing, he had smacked Katara on the kitchen table. "Wanna screw me?" he asked her. Of course Katara yelled no, Takeshi understood that. It was only normal that she reacted that way when her own step-brother wanted to make love to her.

But her answer to his question didn't quite satisfy Daichi. In anger he had hit her in the face, so she was smacked on the floor. Jiro helped his brother when he wanted to kick Katara to death, but Takeshi would not let his drunk brothers do that. He had fought with his own brothers, which were much stronger and older than he was, and they had even tried to kill him. Luckily, they fell asleep once they both had a knife in their hands.

He looked up at Katara and a sad look appeared on his face, he felt so sorry for her. Sorry that she had to live with his brothers, that she had to go through all that pain. That was why he did his very best to stop his brothers when they wanted to hurt her again, but he knew he wasn't able to protect her all the times.

He always blamed himself when he remembered that one night, one single night that he wasn't there. The night that Daichi raped her for the first time. That was one year ago, luckily Katara hadn't noticed a lot of it when it happened. He knocked her unconscious before he raped her, to make sure Takeshi wouldn't hear her screaming. That one single night he went on a date, his brother did something that horrible to her. Sometimes he even doubted about his age, Daichi was eighteen, Jiro seventeen and he was only sixteen, the same age as Katara. But he felt much older than they were.

He heard it happened pretty often. Daichi always told about it as if it was a victory, as if her pain was his drug. He told them that having sex with Katara was a joy like none other. He always gave the disgusting, but to him titillating details of how it felt to be in her, to rape his OWN step-sister. Of course, Katara didn't enjoy it as much as Daichi did. Takeshi could feel it when Daichi had raped her, he could see it at the look on her face. Paths of dried tears over her cheeks, a sad look on her face and her hands formed into fists, as if she could squeeze the pain away. That was Katara's problem: she couldn't defend herself.

So since a year ago, Takeshi could never see Daichi as a brother again. It happened so many times, he had lost the count by now. A brother of him would never do something that cruel, that low. Never.

Jiro smacked him on the shoulder and whistled in his ear, trying to get his attention.

'Hey! Are you sleeping or are you just dumb? Keep your eyes on the spectacle, man!'

Takeshi looked up at Daichi, who was teasing Katara by trying to spit in the bowl, over and over again. Katara always avoided his spit and growled in anger.

'Stop!' she yelled. Daichi laughed loudly and lifted an eyebrow.

'Or else what? Are you going to throw that big scary bowl at our heads if I won't stop?'

Katara glared at him, while he laughed even more. He kicked the bowl up, making the water splash all over her. She gasped and stopped the bowl from scattering to pieces on the floor just in time.

Daichi hit the bowl out of her hands. Takeshi cought the bowl up and glared at his brother, who was pulling Katara up by her hair. He laughed when he heard her screaming in pain. Once he had enough of teasing her, he threw her back on the floor.

'Come on, guys, I've had enough of this. Let's go and kick some asses of the neighbors!'

Jiro cheered and Takeshi pretended to. Daichi pulled Katara up by her collar and glared at her.

'And if they kick our asses back, I'll know where to find you…' he threated, as if it would be her fault.

The brothers left and Katara laid there, staring at the puddly of water on the kitchen floor. She bended the water back in the bowl and fought against her tears, she refused to cry no matter how much she wanted to. It would only make things nicer for Daichi and the others.

She walked outside, to the river in front of their house.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

At the other side of the river, Zuko and Iroh were staring at the house in front of them. The house seemed pretty old, the windows were broken and the door half rotten. But that didn't quite matter, what did mattered was the roof. And the roof still seemed solid enough for a few more years.

Zuko turned his head to his uncle. 'Okay, explain everything to me one last time.' he said.

Iroh sighed. 'We'll be living here for a while, maybe even forever, depending on how long this house will survive. The only rules are: DON'T firebend, DON'T tell anyone that we're firenation and DON'T take too much attention. As long as Ozai has all the power around here, it's best for us to stay calm. And this quiet, relaxing village seemed like the perfect place to stay calm!'

A bright smile colored his face and he pointed at the river. 'We even have a river! Isn't that relaxing?'

Zuko rolled his eyes and sighed. His uncle didn't have to lie to him, he knew what was about to happen: they would be stuck in that village forever.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

The sun was setting. Katara was running through the house, breathing heavily in fear. Daichi was looking for her, and he did NOT seem to be in a good mood. If she wouldn't find a hiding place soon, he would find her. She didn't knew what he'd be doing to her today, he could hit her in anger, he could strangle her because he liked the sound of her choking or he could rape her. She didn't want anything of that to happen, so she ran as fast as she could.

She ran outside and looked around. There just HAD to be a hiding place…

When she heard the sound of Daichi's footsteps, there was no more time to doubt. She jumped in the river and hided herself under water, waiting for him to walk by.

'Katara?' he asked. 'Katara! Come here, you bitch! Come here so I can beat the crap out of you!'

Katara bit on her lip and pressed her body against the soil, hoping for him to walk by.

She heard him shouting her name again and he ran off, to an other side of the village. Katara jumped back up to the surface and inhaled as much air as she could. Her heart beat hardly against her chest, that was close.

She laid down at the side of the river and sighed in relief. She felt her soaked dress sucking on her body, even the smallest expression of her body was visible now. But that didn't matter, Daichi was gone, that was what mattered.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Zuko sat at the river, staring in the water. He saw the reflection of his face, making him growl in anger. He sliced his hand through the water, so his reflection would be gone. He didn't want to see his face, he didn't want to see that scar. He didn't even want to remember what happened the day his father gave him the scar.

He wished he could just forget it all, forget everything that had happened that day. His mother would NEVER have let anything like that happen to her fist child, but Ozai was different. He was cruel, power was the only thing he cared about. Not even his own son was more important than power.

He frowned and pressed his teeth together.

'I hate this place…'

Suddenly, he noticed something at the other side. A girl was laying half in the water, probably sleeping. He stared at her and he swallowed something down his throat, she was absolutely gorgeous.

He stood up, making sure he could see her better. Even though it was hard to see something at the other side, he couldn't help to stare at her nipples, nearly piercing through her dress. A strange shiver he had never felt before crawled over his back, when he saw the shape of her beautiful body in the tight dress.

'Damn, she's gorgeous!' he said to himself, maybe a bit loud. Katara looked up, like she had heard him. He gasped when he saw her bright, blue eyes staring in his direction. Her gaze was locked with his, while a slight smile colored his face. Next to a beautiful body, she had a pretty face as well.

Katara gasped.

'Zuko?' she asked herself. She recognized that scar everywhere, it just HAD to be him. A blush colored her face when she saw him staring at her. She knew Zuko wasn't that bad, he had the same problems as she and her family had now. He had to live under Ozai's rules as well. Since a few years ago, he was no longer the enemy, but a man with the same destiny as everyone else on the world. Even Sokka agreed with her about that. Two years ago, things would have been different, but now Ozai had all the power… That changed everything. It changed her entire life.

She bit on her lip and waved at him, making him wave back immediately.

They both smiled and sat down, staring at the other side. Zuko was fascinated by her, by every tiny detail on her body. Her bright, blue eyes, her soft, tender hands, her perfect figure and, maybe even most of all, her firm and yet perfectly shaped breasts, like they were exactly big enough for his hands to cup them…

Wait, where did that come from? He had NEVER thought about a girl that way, he had never felt the tingle he felt in his abdomen now. That relaxing, satisfying tingle. As if he could feel better by just watching her.

A smile appeared on his face when he had a better look at her. The tingle grew stronger the longer he stared at her, so he decided to keep on doing that. He wanted nothing else but to feel the tingle.

Katara smiled. He just kept staring at her, it felt strange. Normally, it annoyed her when people stared at her too long, especially when Daichi couldn't keep his eyes off her breasts, because she knew what would follow on that. But with Zuko things were different, she nearly wanted him to stare at her body. She wanted him to know what she was like, how much she had changed in two years. She had grown a lot, into a real woman. He just had to see that.

At the same time, she saw how much he had changed in two years. He was a man now, a bit taller than he used to be and handsome. Extremely handsome.

While night fell, they were just sitting there, staring at each other. Fantasizing about anything that came up to their minds, how it would be like to talk to each other, be with each other, touch each other… And they knew they were only twenty meters away from each other.

So far, and yet so close…

That sure was an example of love at first sight! And? What do you think? Should I continue this? Please tell me what you think of this story in a review, I love it when people review!-

Oh, and a small reminder:

-Daichi: oldest step-brother, the perverted one

-Jiro: second born step-brother, the dumber one

-Takeshi: third and last born step-brother, the nice one

-Hitomi: only step-mother, the slutty one

Just to make sure you won't forget.