[Mojave]

He watched her set the mixer aside, listening to her before saying anything. When she reached for his hand he gladly took it. "Well I didn't think we were compatible either until we, y'know, were." He said easily. The skepticism he could handle; there were still moments that he asked himself how they'd gone a full 360 after he'd been so horrible to her as kids. But unlike their nay-sayers he was glad they were on good terms again. "But I'm glad you've got people besides me looking out for you." Maybe he could enlist their help protecting Iris from certain disgruntled ex lovers.

When she asked what people were saying about her, he frowned, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. "Please don't worry about it, hon. It would just upset you, I've dealt with it, and I'll deal with anyone else who disrespects you."

[ToxicShadow]

Even as he squeezed her hand and reassured her, Iris smirked a bit. Not because she didn't appreciate the gesture, but because she was certain that it wouldn't bother her much. "You know, it's not anything I couldn't handle hearing." By now, she'd heard it all. How much worse could it get than the rumors that she'd slept with one of the faculty members? Really? "I don't care what other people say about me, but... I don't like anyone saying anything about you." But, since she felt that way, then he probably did, too. Never mind that, not all that long ago, Iris had been one to insult Maddox, too, but at least that had been to his face, and because she had carried her upset feelings around, all that time.

Glancing around, Iris noted that the teacher was preoccupied and definitely not looking in their direction, so with a mischievous glint in her eyes, she leaned in and gave Maddox a quick peck on the lips before Miss Bellfrey caught them. "Thank you, though. Really." She wanted him to know that she really did appreciate him looking out for her, even if she insisted she didn't actually need it.

[Mojave]

He smiled reassuringly at her but shook his head, refusing to say what he'd heard. "Well then I'm afraid we're at an impasse because I feel that way about people talking about you." Granted, he'd been guilty of listening to the rumors about her in the past, but he'd never actively spread them. Now that they were together, he wouldn't even listen to the most harmless rumor about his girlfriend.

He saw the look she gave him, but before he could react she had kissed him and retreated back to her side of the table. He grinned, probably a stupid expression, but it made him happy she was willing to sneak some pda with him in class. She may not have needed him to protect her (she was after all in martial arts and could kick someone's ass just fine without him), but he was still pissed that being with him was causing her trouble, no matter how minor.

[ToxicShadow]

Already setting back to work, given their limited amount of time, Iris quickly finished fluffing the heavy cream. And then, one by one, she added each of the other ingredients. First the sour cream and cream cheese, followed by the sugar and vanilla, and blended the mixture until it was smooth.

Knowing that Maddox would finish the tart up and put it in to prebake, once done with the cream, she set it aside, and then began working on preparing the glaze. The sugar and cornstarch had already been set aside earlier, so she began to heat the juice over the burner.

"When you get the chance, could you prepare the kiwi and strawberries?" The blueberries and raspberries were obviously fine as is, but the others needed to be sliced down to size.

[Mojave]

The abrupt change from couple talk to actually doing the task assigned to them threw him off for a moment, but he adapted quickly. He finished patting the crust down while she finished mixing and then moved on to the remaining tasks she'd delegated to him. He was still a little unsure about sour cream being in a fruit dish and had had to look at the instructions three times to make sure he wasn't screwing up. The cream cheese he'd expected, though. After putting it in to prebake, he turned to cutting up the fruit for her. When he was done with that he turned to her, peering at the instructions to see if there was anything else he needed to do. "What else is left?" He asked, wanting to make sure he didn't do a task twice.

[ToxicShadow]

Once the juice heated up, Iris slowly poured in the sugar and cornstarch mixture, stirring it well, and waited for it to come to a boil. It didn't take long at all, and then only required another two minutes over the heat, before she removed it from the burner.

In that time, Maddox had done his part, too, and all they had left to do, for now, was wait. "Now we just have to wait for the crust to bake," she answered, as Iris finally sat down on her stool. They had a few minutes to kill still. "After that, it's just throwing it all together."