Matthew Williams sighed for thousandth time that evening. Pushing his glasses onto the bridge of his nose, he took a sip of his fourth… fifth… he lost count.

Whatever, he took a sip of his coffee.

He leaned back in his chair, and looked at the screen before him. Endless amounts of HTML wracked his brain…all just numbers and codes.

A site he was working on and updating ever since he landed this job.

He set his coffee back down, and closed his eyes.

This is what I went to University for? Really?

He glared at the screen again, hoping the HTML would cringe under his stare.

A god damn bachelors degree in Computer science. Thanks Waterloo, like, seriously, thanks a LOT.

His sarcastic thoughts were accompanied with an eye roll, as he let his fingers dance across the keyboard in a manner he was so used to. This was an everyday thing in the ever exciting life of Matthew Williams. The "Co-Manager of Internal and External CSS Capacity."

What a fancy way to say "loser."

The Canadian leaned onto the desk, and let his head rest in the palm of his hand.

"You're doing it again."

The sudden voiced snapped him out of his thoughts. He swiveled around to the familiar voice, and let out yet another, irritable sigh.

He was greeted by the sight of his boss. Great.

"Doing what?"

"Pretending to work when you are really not."

"But I am working."

"Just because you have the program open does not mean you are working, Matthew."

Damn it! Alright, play it cool.

"Look at the screen, then…" He slid aside to give his superior enough room to lean over, and sure enough, the man accepted the invitation and set his gaze on the monitor to analyze it.

"Well then?" Matthew asked, almost smirking in satisfaction.

"Good work."

I know.

"You have successfully moved the entire page slightly to the left."

"What?" his eyes widened a bit.

"See for yourself." The elder straightened and raised his cup of, what Matthew assumed to be tea, and took a sip. Matthew pressed the F2 key and opened up the web page. He refreshed it, only to see everything shift ten degrees at most to the left.

Well shit.

Matthew's eye twitched a bit, and he bought his coffee up to his lips to take a tentative sip. However, he suddenly did not feel so thirsty anymore and set the coffee mug back down.

"Matthew."

Here it comes.

"Just because I am your friend does not mean you can lounge around here like it is some sort of playground."

"I know."

"And I cannot let slip ups like these happen too often!"

"I know."

"If I did, then what kind of company would this be? Certainly not a successful one."

"I know."

"We have a very large quota to fill in today and I expect it to be done."

"I know."

"Are you just doing that to agree with me?"

"Yeah."

"You know I hate that…"

Matthew smiled a bit. "I know."

His boss stared back at him, until he hunched over a bit to let out a chuckle. The laugher was contagious, and sure enough, Matthew seemed to giggle as well. It was nice to have his boss in a good mood, and even so, his friend was in a good mood too.

"Haha. So you know I'm docking your pay?"

Matthew's smile formed into a flat line, as he looked up to his boss for any signs of a bluff or a lie.

There was none.

"Seriously?"

"Yep."

"Oh."

Well, this is certainly unpleasant…

"Why!" Mathew yelled, in his mind anyway, in all actuality his voice was barely above that of an inside voice.

"Every department is going through a few minor budget cuts. "

Matthew shifted in his seat.

"How minor?"

"You know, two, three."

"… Two, three, what?"

"Thousand."

"Oh, that's not too bad…"

" A month."

That certainly caught the Canadian's attention. It was not as if his original pay was bad or anything, but anything less than what he was receiving would certainly cause some cutbacks in the future.

And that did not sit well with him.

He then realized he had two options:

A. Release the blind, seeping rage that was manifesting itself in him for years. In the form of a CSS manager, of course.

B. Pretend this is all a dream. A Fairly tale. Kindly smile at his boss and get back to work.

Matthew Williams used Canadian Fury.

"How the hell can you do this to us? I sit on my ass all day working on this stupid site for half the salary my brother has! Is this all for nothing?"

"Get over yourself, Matthew."

The attack was ineffective.

"You are not the only one facing this. The building is going through some… changes and I cannot just pull the money out of my arse. As I stated, you are not the only one."

Matthew would have pouted if he wasn't so professional.

"I don't see how that's fair."

"It isn't. Now get back to work." The man turned on his heel, in the direction of his own office.

"Is Alfred's salary getting cut?"

God, that is so terrible of me…

"Why?."

"Just asking."

"That is confidential."

"By how much?"

"Get back to work, Matthew."

"He's my brother, it's not like I would care!"

"Then why are you asking?"

"Because I'm just curious. He sits on his arse like I do; so it should be the same cut right?"

The elder bit his lip and let his gaze slip to the floor, but quickly restored his earlier composure and produced the most forced voice he could muster. This was definitely something Matthew did not miss.

"You know, two, three."

"Two. Three, what?"

"Maybe one."

"… What?"

"Alfred brings in a lot of money, you realize."

"… So he isn't losing anything?"

"No, he is definitely losing."

"Half of my god damn cut!"

"Calm down, Matthew. Like you said, you sit on your ass a lot. Something I cannot argue with." That last comment was accompanied by an incredulous look of disdain hurled towards the Canadian.

"But Alfred does the same thing too…"

"Yeah, but that's different."

"How the hell is it different?"

"He is in sales."

Matthew perked up an eyebrow. The elder, taking notice, answered the boys question before he even had a chance to ask.

"He charms the customer, tells them what they want to hear, makes a product that costs ten dollars appear as if it costs a million. These products don't sell themselves, you know."

Matthew stared at his boss, hate for many people and objects filling his gaze. Hate for this job, hate for HTML, and hate ((even a little jealousy)) for his brother. Even hate for the things that did not deserve it, like the coffee that had gone disgustingly flat or the broken copy machine that needed to be repaired months ago. Even Toris from accounting.

His superior stared back, unfazed; as the air around them grew awkward and heavy.

Matthew knew his boss was growing as frustrated as he was, as they both seemingly let out a sigh at the same time.

"Get back to work, Matthew."

And with that, Arthur Kirkland briskly walked away into his office.

PIMPIN COMMENTARY.:

Er… so… I'm… writing… a story?

SURPRISE.

Don't worry, I am totally still ILTW heavy. But, my amazing friend Niki-the-awesome and I decided to write an office AU story about Matt. We both love the movie office space, so figured why not. It would be totally fun! :D

Our writing name is "AwesomeSushi."

Tres interessant, non? But please enjoy this… and… yeah.

AWESOME COMMENTARY:

I am so happy to be writing this with Sushi guys. She's pretty badass (as you can tell). This story was born through one late night of Skype talking and yah...hopefully you all think it is funny and junk. I'll be giving the university/Canada references while Sushi will be giving the website references and stuff. Yah. Hope you liked it. No hates bro. Peace out.

~AwesomeSushi