You and Alec have been together for 10 months, but you've kept it a secret for those 10 months, both of you afraid of what your co-workers might say. You felt that any public display of affection between you would be watched and judged by everyone in Broadchurch.

At work, the only 'affection' you gave each other was a hello and a goodbye, and in the street you only talked about work cases, no words of affection, because you knew how hard the town could be on lgbtiq+ people.

Keeping hidden went from easy to too difficult by the third month of the relationship. You tried to show him some affection from time to time, tried to hold his hand, but with everyone watching you it was difficult and you quickly pushed it away.

Now you were at your home, the only place where you could be quiet, the night before you had had enough of hiding your feelings and gone to bed together. You cooked breakfast with a shirtless Alec clinging to your neck like a leech, already showing the hickeys on your neck of the night before. "We need to find a way to hide the hickeys..." Alec mumbled half asleep, still kissing your neck.