This chapter has been edited due to content. If you want to see the unedited version GO HERE.
This night was one of the few where I'd be interacting with Emilia Clarke this season. I missed the earlier seasons where it was like we lived together. But at least after filming we would be going to the same house. Tonight's scene was the burning of the Khals. Dany would show those who dared go against her why that was the wrong choice. A mistake they would pay for with their lives.
"We're doing this." Michiel Huisman shouted to the sky. "Long live the Dragon Queen!"
I was extremely glad he wasn't like Daario Naharis. That character was so pompous that I was surprised Jorah hadn't punched him at least once. Now that my character had a deadly disease Jorah didn't need to punch the younger man. All it would take was a touch of a finger for Daario to die.
"And next season I'll finally be able to interact with everyone else." Emilia said with an exaggerated sigh. "It'll be fun having scenes with my other co-stars."
"That hurt." I replied and put both hands over my heart. "Michiel, she doesn't care about us."
The three of us were off to the side as people prepared the set for us. To entertain each other we decided to joke around. A lot of time was spent waiting for things to be prepared so we could say our lines. So it was good that all of us got along with each other. If that weren't the case this night shoot would have been a living ****.
"And you claim to love Iain." Michiel replied in mock shock. "Listen, there are tons of people out there to help you with advice."
"Maybe she should marry Kit." I added.
"I just meant tha-" Emilia began.
"That you can't wait to move onto better things." I interrupted. "I'll move out when we get back home."
"Just build a dog house in the backyard and move in." Michiel pleaded. "Pretend to have some dignity."
Emilia punched my arm and I feigned being injured. Michiel pretended to be concerned and raced to my side. He spent a few minutes looking at my arm and gave me instructions that made him sound like a doctor. Though I was sure if I spent a few minutes thinking about what he said, his persona would fall apart. But that didn't matter at the moment. All that mattered was the laughter my girlfriend was holding back.
"Come back to me in two weeks, Iain." Michiel said and let go of my arm. "And call me if there are any changes."
"I will." I replied with a large grin on my face. "Can you give me your card? I don't think you gave me your number."
"I left my card at home. I'll mail it to you."
"Sounds good."
"You two are impossible." Emilia said and let out a brief chuckle.
"Is that why you're breaking up with me?" I replied and couldn't help but let out a chuckle. "I'm impossible? Emilia, I can change. I swear I can."
With a barely contained grin on my face, I took her hands in mine. I did my best to make the action appear desperate but failed. Not even a moment after taking her hands, all three of us were laughing. Her smile, as always, was the highlight of my night. It made me feel like I finally had something to die and live for. Her laughter made her appear naive and experienced at the same time. As though there was a hidden layer to her not many would ever see.
"I doubt you can." Emilia said once she regained her composure. "We're just much too different."
She started to move her eyes and for a moment I wondered what she was trying to do. It was certainly part of the joke but how? Was she still afraid that I would leave her? No, that wasn't the case. We had talked as regularly as possible and there had been no talk that hinted at a possible break up. I broke out laughing once I realized what was going on. Emilia, the love of my life, was trying to feign crying. But because she wanted to laugh so badly, she wasn't able to.
"Just do a tiny sniffle!" Michiel shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth.
Emilia couldn't even try to fake being sad and she started laughing again. She was laughing so much that she couldn't speak, though she managed to let out a few sounds that seemed like they were meant to be words. A few of the phrases she tried to utter were expletives most likely about how myself and Michiel were the worst people in existence.
"Iain, if you don't stop looking like that I'm going to pass out." Emilia said in a brief moment she managed not to laugh.
My face hadn't changed since she had started her latest laughing fit. There was nothing I could do to help her as she was now amused at my normal expression. From the corner of my eyes I saw Michiel covering his mouth to stop any laughter from leaving his lips. He, as well as I, was afraid him laughing would just make things worse.
While giving Emilia my full attention, I tried to also judge how soon it would be until we were asked to start filming again. It wouldn't do for one of the most important actors on Game of Thrones to hold production back. A good majority of the crew seemed to want to do nothing but go to sleep.
Finally it appeared that my love was done laughing. But neither Michiel nor I rushed to start speaking just in case it set Emilia off again. Her lips started seemed to battle with themselves to not open and release even more laughter.
"I'm good." Emilia said and let out a final giggle. "I don't know what came over me."
"Well obviously you figured out we would be awesome comedians." I replied. "That's the only explanation."
"Neither of you are that funny. Far from it. I just had a minor lapse of judgment."
There was shouting and the three of us turned to look towards the noise. Was the scene about to be filmed? Would we have to move into position and prepare for another take or two or more? No, something must have gone wrong and one person was reprimanding the other. Though I couldn't tell with any certainty.
"I have an idea," Emilia said and took out her phone. "For the perfect picture."
"How did you keep that?" I asked.
She looked at me coyly. Whoever made the mistake of letting her have a cellphone might be out of a job very soon. If it had been someone else the leaks could have started making the rounds online. Game of Thrones was extremely popular and though there were intense security measures employed, things still got leaked to the public.
"Does it matter?" Emilia asked. "Do you want to hear my idea or not?"
"Of course we do." Michiel and I replied.
"Iain and I will be kissing heavily and Michiel will looked shocked and surprised."
After that we started to discuss lighting. We wanted the picture to show all of us clearly but we also didn't want to reveal anything about the scene. People online could make entire essays out of the tiniest pieces of information. Sometimes they were right which shocked me. At least now we were moving away from what was covered in the books so that provided us a little more secrecy.
"Now to find someone to take the picture." I said once all the details were decided on. "And hope they just don't take the camera from us."
"They wouldn't take a camera from Emilia." Michiel replied. "At most they'll probably reprimand us. Hopefully after we take the picture."
A few people walked by but were too busy to be bothered. As we continued to watch for a 'victim', I thought about the harassment Emilia and I would face. There would be awful rumors as fans were reminded that we were actors paid to perform, not slaves to the whims and wishes of the viewers. Something many seemed to not understand. When I went home after filming a season, I didn't care about living my life as Jorah Mormont. He was a fictional character and I was a real person.
"Hey, can you help us out?" Emilia asked, an infectious smile on her face.
"What?" The woman asked. "I need to be somewhere else or I might lose this job."
There were circles under her eyes and she kept holding back yawns. Or at least trying to. I didn't know her job but it had been taking a toll on her. Everyone on the show, behind and in front of the camera, worked their hardest. It didn't look like this woman cared about the show, it was just a way to pay her bills. Which was why the majority of people worked on any show. Would her job be ruined if she took a picture?
"We'd like you to take a picture for us." I said quickly. "And afterwards you can confiscate the camera."
"I'll take the picture." The woman said only after she made sure no one was watching us. "Hopefully no one notices I was involved."
It took all my strength not to break down laughing as we got into place. Michiel did his best to make me laugh as his facial expression was extremely exaggerated. I hadn't ever imagined that someone's face could be consumed by their mouth. Just as I thought I would hold myself together, Michiel slapped both of his hands on the side of his face. Unbidden giggles left my mouth and I focused only on Emilia. She would be the one to help me through this.
It only took a minute to take the picture and then the woman handed the phone back to Emilia. We gathered around my girlfriend as she tweeted the picture of us. For the moment it felt as if no one could ruin the moment. People could say the nastiest things but the words would have no effect on me.
Emilia handed the woman her cellphone and she stormed off as if truly angry at us. Maybe she was. Maybe she was thinking about all the trouble she could get in. I would have to make it up to her.
We didn't have time to talk about the picture before we were called for another take. Emilia had to go away from us but Michiel was going to be next to me during the scene, so he walked beside me. Neither he nor I brought up the picture in case someone overheard us. When the truth quickly came out, as it had to, we didn't want anyone else to have anything to say.
Chaos erupted around us as filming preceded around us. Though viewers wouldn't be able to imagine how hectic it was. At least if everyone did their parts well. I knelt and it wasn't hard to imagine being overtaken by Dany's strength as I was in love with Emilia.
Suddenly I felt a case of the giggles come over me. I wouldn't let them win as I was a professional actor. I had starred in both large and small films. Some I had been the hero. Others the villain. And sometimes even something in the middle. Yet my inner child was begging to be let out.
"Nice ****!" I yelled out to Emilia when I couldn't control myself anymore.
Hopefully Emilia would have more restraint than me. But, nope, she suddenly burst out laughing. I was able to restrain my laughter to soft chuckles, but she wasn't. Nor were a few other actors including Michiel.
"Can you stop saying how much you like these ****?" Emilia managed to belt out. "The camera isn't on you."
"Can you two stop ruining takes!" Someone yelled.
Luckily after that there weren't any outbursts from anyone, including me. It only took two more takes to finally get the scene done correctly. A viewer at home would not realize how many hours such a simple moment took to film. That was the point of acting, to make it seem effortless and to possibly attract others to the profession. Where they would discover how hard it was to succeed in this business. But it was worth it.
I wanted to rush to Emilia's side but I had to go through the process of getting my costume and makeup off. What if there were nasty comments on the picture? What if my girlfriend got into trouble?
"Emilia?" I asked as we headed to our trailers.
"Yes?" Emilia replied and I could tell that there had been some nasty comments.
"Did you get in trouble for taking the picture?"
"No. There wasn't enough of the set shown to give away what is going to happen. Though I'm sure some people with way too much time could figure something out. But I don't think I'll be able to get my phone on set again anytime in the future."
"Let's hope people with too much time on their hands don't manage to figure out any spoilers."
"Yeah."
I wanted to talk more with her but there were people around. We wouldn't talk about anything important until we got to her trailer. I would spend time there for more reasons than just to comfort her tonight. When possible we spent the night in the other's trailer or room. I couldn't wait until we were done filming so things could get back to the perfect normal we had grown used to.
"Were there comments?" I asked once we were comfortably seated inside Emilia's trailer, each of us with a glass of wine in front of us.
"Of course." Emilia replied with a sad smile. "A lot were actually supportive. Others...others were cruel. One person said that because of that picture Daenerys doesn't deserve Daario and that I've betrayed her character. Am I supposed to always act like her? Is that what everyone is going to expect of me?"
"Only the dumb ones."
There must have been much more to the comment mentioned as she didn't hand me her phone. There had to have been other words added and disgusting accusations made. I wanted to grab her phone and look at the offensive comment myself. But, at the same time, I respected her privacy. Even though we were deeply in love, there were boundaries to be respected.
"There has to be a way to track the person down." I reassured her. "People just can't say these things without consequences. The person has to pay for what they're saying to you."
"What about everyone else that started rumors?" Emilia asked. "The internet is just too big of a place to find anyone. If people were able to find them it would take weeks or months if they were lucky."
"Do you recognize the person?"
"No. I get so many people talking with me every day that I can hardly remember names. I don't think of them unless they say something that stands out."
"Can you track the person's...er...um...IP? Isn't that an easy way to track people down nowadays?"
It had taken me some time to figure out what an IP address was. Though I still didn't fully understand what one was. I think it was a thing that kept track of someone's location. So if someone logged into a site their location would be picked up by an admin.
"It isn't that easy." Emilia said with a sigh. "People can hide their location if they want to. So even if we get a location that could be a wrong address. Easiest thing would be to just let them continue spreading rumors."
My love looked lost as she stared at her phone on the table. I drank some of the wine. It wasn't the best but at least it was alcohol. Right now we both needed to take something so we wouldn't worry as much. The person was just someone with issues that had decided to take their anger out on my girlfriend. At some point they would grow bored with her and move on to their next target.
"We will figure this out." I said and reached across the table for Emilia's hand. "No one can hide forever. It might take awhile but we'll find this person."
"I love you, Iain, but you're wrong." Emilia said and squeezed my hand. "We won't ever find this guy and more people will insult me anyways. But that doesn't matter. I have you by my side to face any rumors thrown our way."
"I still don't like to see you like this. I don't know how you can continue to be with me after all the rumors that have been thrown our way."
"Well there was that one time I thought of breaking up with you."
"But you decided to stay with me."
"But I was still weak for a moment. I'm not as strong as you think I am."
"If you weren't as strong as I thought you were, you would have abandoned me at the first thought that things were too much to deal with. I know you're human, I'm under no illusions that you're some kind of saint. You don't act like a saint when we ****."
Emilia pretended to be angry and shoved my hand away. She wasn't a good actress now as a large smile graced her face. To hide her expression she drank more of her wine. I laughed and she spit out her wine as she also laughed.
Even as our mood lightened, I thought I might know the identity of the person. It could be the creep that had stalked our house. If he was so comfortable to go by our house, it would make sense that he could also find it in him to harass my love online.
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