Work Text:
Chris was in his office, reliving every mistake in Cornley’s latest disastrous play and praying to every deity in existence for one more chance to prove that they weren’t completely incompetent, when he heard a singular, extremely tentative knock at the door. After several years of being the director of Cornley, Chris could fairly confidently identify the knocks of everyone who worked for the company. Annie would knock four times, Vanessa would give three hesitant knocks, Trevor would thump twice on the door, Max would knock some elaborate rhythm (and be extremely proud of his door-knocking skills for the following several minutes), Jonathan would knock with complete confidence then spend five minutes struggling to open the door, Sandra would knock, but immediately enter without waiting for a reply, and Robert would never knock, and would instead just waltz in and demand attention whenever he felt like it. The only Cornley member who would only knock once was Dennis, who seemed to find knocking multiple times too complicated and confusing a concept, so settled with a simple, singular knock.
So, it had to be Dennis at the door, but what could he be after? His visits to Chris’ office usually concerned queries about his lines, like “what noise does a reindeer make, Chris?” or “can buttons talk, Chris?” or “how will I know when I need to say Get Out, Chris?”, and the remainder of his visits were to proclaim in a panic that he couldn’t remember a single word of the script. However, they had just wrapped their Christmas production and had yet to start on the next one, so there had to be a different reason for Dennis to appear at his door and Chris was curious as to what it could be.
“Come in, Dennis”, he called, and watched the actor in question shuffle into his office, looking far too much like a guilty child for Chris’ liking.
“Chris, I, I wanted to ask you something,” Dennis mumbled, avoiding eye contact with all the subtlety of an elephant in a tutu. “Did I mess up today?”
Chris raised an eyebrow at the question, wondering how Dennis could really not know the answer. He decided to just be honest. “Yes, you messed up today, Dennis. But that’s not really anything new, and I don’t think it matters too much, the play would have been a disaster anyway”. He looked over at the actor and was shocked to see tears starting to roll down his face.
“I’m really, really sorry Chris,” Dennis sniffled, already shuffling back towards the door. “I should go.”
“Dennis, wait,” Chris called out, and was fairly surprised when Dennis did not, in fact, wait. Whilst Dennis did have quite a talent for misinterpreting even the simplest of instructions, it was extremely out of character for him to deliberately ignore one. With a long-suffering sigh, Chris left his office to search for the skittish young actor who had undoubtably holed himself up in some obscure hiding place in an attempt to make the world go away.
Chris’ quest to find Dennis ended when he came across a cupboard that was completely ordinary except for the fact that it was currently sniffling, and that particular cupboard didn’t usually sniffle.
“Dennis? Are you in there?”
“No,” the cupboard replied stubbornly, sounding suspiciously like the missing member of the Cornley crew.
“Are you just a talking cupboard then?”
The cupboard seemed to hesitate for a moment before replying with a meek little “yes”, causing Chris to chuckle lightly.
“Well, Mr. Talking Cupboard, have you seen my friend, Dennis? I’m worried about him.”
“Why would you be worried about him? He messed everything up. He always messes everything up. He’s an idiot.” The cupboard didn’t sound particularly upset or angry, instead seeming completely resigned about what it was saying.
“Of course he’s not an idiot,” Chris told the cupboard gently. “Why would you think that”
The cupboard door swung open to reveal Dennis sitting inside. “Because you said I was an idiot,” he replied simply, and as an afterthought, added “and Vanessa agreed.”
At that moment, Chris felt his heart shatter. Sweet, innocent Dennis, who didn’t have a mean bone in his body and was nothing but kind to everyone he ever met, was sitting here in a cupboard feeling stupid and worthless, and it was Chris’ fault. The guilt that he had been pointedly ignoring until that point seemed to slam into him like a brick wall and despite his best efforts, it seemed he was unable to conceal his distress from Dennis, who climbed out of the cupboard and embraced Chris in a tight but comforting hug.
“Why are you sad Chris?” he asked, oblivious and innocent as ever. “Did someone call you an idiot too? Because if they did, then they’re an idiot, because you’re not an idiot. You’re really really smart. And nice. And-”
“No Dennis, nobody called me an idiot,” Chris interrupted, feeling increasingly guilty at every compliment the young actor gave him. “I just… I’m sorry.”
“Why’re you sorry Chris?” mumbled Dennis into Chris’ shirt, seeming content to stay cuddling his director indefinitely.
Chris looked at the top of Dennis’ head incredulously. “For calling you an idiot? Did you already forget?”
“Oh, that. It doesn’t matter, it’s true. Everyone thinks so.” Once again, there was no sadness or anger in Dennis’ voice, just resignation, and once again, it broke Chris’ heart. He gently pried Dennis off of him and held him by his shoulders so he could look into his eyes.
“Dennis. Listen to me. You’re not an idiot, okay?”
Dennis looked at Chris in confusion. “Yes, yes I am. I always forget my lines.”
Chris sighed deeply. “Yes, okay, you do sometimes forget your lines. And maybe you’re not the smartest or most talented person at Cornley. But you are the kindest, and if you’re kind then you can’t be an idiot, because idiots aren’t kind.”
Dennis was quiet for a long time, seeming to struggle to process this new information and understand the fairly simple logic, but eventually, he burst out into the biggest smile Chris had ever seen.
“So I’m really really not an idiot then Chris? Really?” He was practically vibrating with excitement, a dramatic change from the hopelessness that had seemed to consume him mere moments earlier.
“No, you’re not an idiot,” Chris replied gently. “In fact, and don’t ever tell anyone I said this, you’re actually pretty amazing”.
“Wow! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!” Dennis hugged Chris once more, then bounced out of the room, and was gone before Chris could reply. Nonetheless, Chris looked into the space where Dennis had been moments earlier and smiled softly.
“You’re welcome, Dennis. You’re welcome”.