Any moment, she was going to break.
He didn't know how he knew this. He only knew that he needed to be there when it happened. So he stayed close but not too close, quiet but not too quiet. He wasn't so far gone as agreeing with her every word, which included taut, barely veiled insults in Urahara's direction and self-flagellation that rivaled his own. Mostly he would nod at her. He recalled that it used to be the other way around, he was the mad dog and Rukia was his leash. She knew this too.
She could not tell him how much she appreciated it. They had both taken the news with the appropriate amount alarm. Inoue gone, kidnapped right under the nose of Soul Society's elite. Ukitake delivered the report himself, his eyes telling it all. Ichigo asked all the right questions while she fumed. How long ago? What could Aizen want with her? What could they do?
Ukitake bared his teeth. We wait. Then we take the battle to him. And we take her back. It was that simple.
But not immediate enough for Rukia. She knew now, Ichigo mused, the despair he had known not so long ago when it was she, and not Inoue, in mortal danger. He had been gung ho, too. But now was his turn to calm and talk sense into an angry, frightened shinigami. "How would you get to Hueco Mundo? We can't leave Karakura unguarded," he told her.
"Let the others take care of the city," she said. "I'll go alone if I have to."
"And die like a dog," he said. Which would be the end of him, whether she knew and acknowledged it or not.
Her eyes narrowed. She knew he was right.
"Wait," he told her, hands on her shoulders. "We'll get her back."
She stared at her feet.
"It's not your fault," he said.
"That's not it. I can't stand--"
"The thought of her being hurt?" Right now the odds were against that. More likely, she was scared and alone. But that wasn't much comfort to either of them.
"Ichi--" she started, but then the tears were fighting with her. Of all battles, the one against tears was the one she refused to lose.
"We'll get her back," he said again. Trust me, he willed her.
She stared at him and miraculously understood. He knew better than anyone what she was feeling. And she understood that, no matter what, sharing that feeling made it real. Made it bearable.
"We'll get her back," she said. His hands were still on her shoulders. She took a breath. "Together."
"Yes," they said in unison. And somehow the conversation was about more than Inoue.
And they were both perfectly okay with that.