Duke had been off that morning.
She couldn't put her finger on it, and he certainly wasn't outwardly negative to her, but he was…distracted as they got ready for their respective days. He seemed more to be going through the motions than anything else, and when Jennifer had tried to slow him down for a moment and ask him about what it was that was bothering him so badly, he'd only given her a disarming smiling and made a joke about how nothing ever bothers him.
He'd gotten away before she could press him for any actual answers about what could've been bothering him.
She spent most of the day trying to piece together what could've thrown Duke into such a strange mood, until she finally just decided to head to the Gull for lunch, and to hopefully get a better answer from him about what was going on.
When she walked into the Gull, Duke was nowhere to be found, so she settled for saddling up to the bar to wait for him. It wasn't horribly busy, which would normally surprise her, but then again she had come in towards the tail end of the lunch rush. Nora was working and grinned at Jennifer as she sat down, "Hey Jen!"
Jennifer returned the smile as she settled and Nora poured her a glass of water, "Hi Nora; how's the day treating you?"
Nora sighed as she set the glass in front of Jennifer, "Ugh. A bit rough. Duke's been in a mood, but that's hardly surprising given what day it is."
Jennifer gave her a confused look as she took a drink of water, "What day it is?"
Nora met Jennifer's confusion with her own surprise, "Don't you know?"
"No, of course I do," Jennifer replied, smirking, "'cause this is the face of someone in the know."
Nora rolled her eyes at Jennifer, "Apparently that mood of his is spreading."
"Nah that's all me." Jennifer winked at her, before turning serious again, "What's today?"
"It's his birthday." Nora answered, leaning forward a bit on the bar, as if she were sharing a secret with her.
Jennifer's eyebrows shot up in surprise at that, leaning across the bar to meet Nora and whispering, "He didn't mention—,"
She shook her head, "He wouldn't, I suppose; he hates his birthday. Every year it's the same thing: comes in with his boxers in a twist, takes it out on just about anyone around him, sticks one of us with closing—and god forbid anyone try to wish him a happy birthday! Why do you think I'm the only other person working today?"
"I thought it was because you loved the overtime," Duke commented from Jennifer's left.
"That I do, Boss," Nora responded quickly as she stood from the bar, "Which is why I was just telling your girlfriend here that I can't talk and definitely need to get back to work."
Duke nodded as his hand came to rest on Jennifer's back, "A wise decision."
Nora left quickly, and headed for the Kitchen as Duke kissed the top of Jennifer's head and sat next to her, "Hey."
She grinned at him and returned his kiss on her head with her own on his cheek, "Hi."
"What were you and Nora talking about?" Duke asked as he took her hand in his.
Jennifer just smirked at him, "The weather, mostly. And where my restaurant owner boyfriend wondered off to."
He chuckled lightly before entwining their fingers, "So what're you doing here?" He asked, "Not that I'm not glad to see you, of course."
She gave his fingers a squeeze, "Of course. I just wanted to see if you wanted to get lunch."
Duke gave her a confused look, "Lunch? But it's only—," he pulled out his phone and glanced at the time, "—one o'clock."
He sighed as he looked at her bemused smirk, "This day has just—,"
She stopped him with a kiss, caressing his neck with her free hand to pull him a bit closer to her. She broke the kiss first, and obviously much before he would've preferred, and lightly nuzzled her nose against his, "It's okay. Do you want to go get something to eat, and give yourself a break? Or are you too busy?"
Duke sighed and rubbed absently at the back of his neck, "I'm sorry, but I think I'm going to have to ask for a rain check on that, and I'm probably going to be home late tonight so—,"
She kissed him again, "Don't worry about it; you'll make it up to me later."
He sighed as he reached up and ran his fingers through the hair at the back of her head, pulling her close for another kiss, "I'll try to."
She smiled through the kiss before breaking it to climb off her stool, "I should head back; please make sure you eat something, okay?"
He nodded, keeping a hold of her hand, "I will."
"Okay. Then I'll see you tonight." She started walking towards the door, though he had yet to actually release her hand.
"Be safe." He said before giving her hand another squeeze.
She just smiled at him over her shoulder, "Of course."
Jennifer spent the rest of the day thinking about the fact that it was Duke's birthday. She could only speculate about why he hated his birthday; he'd never been overly forthcoming about his past, in particularly his childhood. Regardless, she wanted to do something for him, but she could feel that the second she connected it to his birthday, he'd shut down.
The question about what to do for him stayed with her until she finally made it to the Rouge that night. She made them a little something for dinner, eating what she could of it and saving the rest for Duke. She toyed with the idea of making a cake or something for him, but that fell in the "Explicitly Birthday" kind of thing that Duke obviously didn't want.
Instead, she opted just to take a shower while she waited for him to come home; she'd missed her chance that morning in her brief rush that morning and felt just a bit gross.
It was towards the end of her shower that she heard Duke call out to her.
"Just a second!" she called back as she finished drying her hair and the rest of her body. She cleared the steam from the bathroom mirror and studied her reflection. He was home and she still didn't know what to do for his birthday. All she had was herself to give and—
Of course.
She smiled at her reflection before heading back out into their room and grabbing one of his shirts, and only buttoned the middle four buttons. She opened the door to the stateroom to see him sitting on the couch with his hands over his face as he rubbed at it.
"Jennifer, you would not believe the day I've had." He lamented as soon as he heard the door to his room creak open.
She just smiled to herself and padded over to him, practically giddy with her imaginings of his face when he saw her, and climbed onto his lap, straddling him.
He moved his hands from his face to find her there, his surprise clear, but he immediately started smiling at her once she was more comfortably settled.
"Hi," she beamed at him.
"Hi," he rasped back, "have a good shower?"
She kissed along his jaw slowly, "Mm; would've been better if I hadn't been alone."
He let out a breathless chuckle as he relaxed under her, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her closer, "Ah, well we'll have to make a rule about showering alone, won't we?"
She chuckled as she kissed down his neck, "Add it to the sleep naked protocol,"
"I'll add it to my little rule book that I obviously have." She laughed against his skin before coming back to kiss his lips. He opened his mouth further to her, brushing his tongue against hers and she eagerly responded. He reached up and ran his fingers through her still wet hair as he felt her start to work on the buttons of his shirt. He pulled back after a moment to catch his breath, only to have Jennifer go back to kissing and nibbling at his neck, "What's gotten into you?"
She shrugged, trying to be dismissive but her smile belayed her intentions, "Nothing, just wanted to give you a proper greeting home after such a long day."
"Oh?" he smirked, sliding his hands casually up her thighs.
She shuddered at his touch, and bit her lip as she tried just to nod in response. He smiled at her mischievously, though as his eyes flicked from her mouth to her eyes, it was replaced with something hot and dark that made her shudder again into him as he reached up to undo another one of the buttons to her shirt.
She kept her eyes trained on him as he asked, "And this wouldn't have anything to do with what Nora told you about today earlier?"
He gently cupped her breast and gave it a soft squeeze, rending a soft moan from her.
She kept her gaze focused on him as pressed her hips down against his, "Depends on what you think Nora told me about today."
"Well," He sighed, wrapping his arms around her waist as he stood from the couch. Jennifer instinctively wrapped her legs around him and worked on pulling his hair from its ponytail as he continued, "seeing as Nora couldn't lie if her life depended on it, I know that she told you that today is my birthday."
"Is it?" She asked, trying to sound a bit surprised as she freed his hair from the band that held it back.
Duke gave her an incredulous look as he stood at the foot of their bed before lightly tossing her onto it. She shrieked out a laugh as he turned and closed the door, saying over his shoulder, "Oh, don't even try it."
She stretched out on the bed and undid the rest of the buttons of the shirt and grinned at him invitingly once he turned back around, "Try lying to a pirate? I wouldn't dream of it."
He stood at the foot of the bed for a moment, letting his eyes roam over her. Her smile turned nervous as she looked back up at him, "What are you doing?"
His eyes flicked back up to hers and smiled at her, "Just…admiring my present."
She grinned back as she climbed back up to her knees and closed the distance between them to caress his neck and bury her fingers in the freed hair there. She kissed one side of his neck and then the other, saying between kisses, "Well you can look all you want, love, but the real fun's in experiencing it."
She pulled back and undid the button of his jeans to wrap a hand around him to give him a lingering stroke, smiling at him, "Don't you agree?"
He kissed her so fiercely at that, that it knocked her from her knees back to the bed until he was over her and showed her just how much he agreed with her.