Ward laughed as he took the cactus, turning the tiny pot in his hands with a deeply fond smile, having to blink back a few tears that clouded his vision for a moment before looking up at Kara, the laugh that echoed from him at her question about Ramen much deeper than the previous one but no less affectionate, "This is New York, baby," Ward said with smile and a shrug of his shoulders. "I can get stuff delivered. Besides, there's nothing wrong with Ramen if you add stuff to it. And they do plenty of precooked things, for the lazy or the inept," He said, smile deepening as he shifted the tiny cactus into one hand so he had the other free to curl around her waist as he stepped forward, resting his forehead against hers.
It was a little overwhelming to him just how much he needed to be close to her now that she was back within arm's reach.
"But food is really the least important issue when it comes to... getting along without you," Ward said, his volume having dipped and a tightness coming into his tone. It had been hard, harder than he'd ever expected it would be, even after just a few days. But it hadn't really hit him how much he'd been struggling until right now when it felt like all of the weight that had settled on top of him had been lifted away.