Disclaimer: I enjoyed the Ready Player One movie, but I nowhere near own it.
Story: Life outside the Oasis was horrible and no one knows that better than Wade. So if she found solace in a jerk like Nolan Sorrento, that's her luck. Nolan just finds himself caught up on her, even if it may come time to choose between her and IOI.
Set as an AU genderbending fic.
Spoilers: Yes, definitely for the movie, but I have started to slip in stuff from the book.
Warnings: Age disparity, cursing and violence for now…hm, just in case since I'm usually writing it, bit of crazy humor, perverted humor, morbid or sarcastic humor, and maybe some sexual situations…
Pairings: Nolan Sorrento/Wade Watts

The Cigarette Duet
Chapter One: Not Much of a Chance

"It's just a cigarette and it cannot be that bad~"

She stood there over her mother, eyes blank as she hummed the song and smiled emptily. The needle lay by her mother's hand while her mother's arm still had the rubber band tied around it. The ear buds were still in Loretta Watts' ears, blasting the song that was on repeat on the MP3 player she'd repaired and given to her mom last Christmas.

Wade had wanted her mother to smile.

"Honey, don't you love me and you know it makes me sad?"

The authorities came. Her mother was taken away. The MP3 player was shoved into her hands, still playing that song. Then there was Aunt Alice. She was going to be staying with her now. People kept saying things to her, but she couldn't hear a thing.

Why was everything such a blur to Wade?

"It's just a cigarette, it'll soon be only ten~"
"Honey, can't you trust me? When I want to stop, I can~"

"You'll be moving into the Stacks with me, Wade," Aunt Alice told her with a frown. "You need to listen and don't act up, you understand me?"

"Yes, Aunt Alice."

Her fingers were pale from clutching onto the MP3 player so tightly. It was still playing the same song and hadn't turned off yet. She put down the volume though, since Aunt Alice had yelled at her for it several days ago.

"Don't be useless like your mother," Aunt Alice snapped at her. "God forbid you turn out to be a drug-obsessed slut like her. Go to your room!"

"It's just a cigarette and I only did it once
(It's just a cigarette; it'll soon be only ten)
It's only twice a week so there's not much of a chance
(It'll make you sick, girl; there's not much of a chance)
It's just a cigarette and I'm sorry that I did it
(It's just a cigarette; you'll be sorry that you did it)
Honey, can't you trust me? When I want to stop, I can~"

Wade told her mother not to use drugs anymore. Loretta had promised her it was fine and she'd stop.

Everyone was liars though.

Wade woke up from the dream of a memory, grumbling under her breath as she slowly rose up in her bed. The abused mattress creaked under her weight, but held steady while she got off of it. Yawning to herself, she sleepily made her way to the bathroom and took care of herself. Afterwards, she ate a cereal as she watched the sun creep into view outside. Before the other occupants of the trailer woke up, Wade made her way out of there and quietly slipped down the stairs leading down the Stacks and reached the ground in record time. She could make it to her secret spot before the sun fully rose.

In fact, by the time it was fully in the sky and morning was a thing for people, Wade had already set up in her secret spot and had accessed the OASIS. It was early enough she could run around and do whatever she wanted for the morning before school started, and she thought of maybe giving a visit to her best friend. Hopefully Aech was already up.

Making her way to Aech's workshop, she grinned and called out to the tall male avatar that was currently walking around the Iron Giant that was being tinkered with.

"Morning, Aech!"

The handsome man turned around and gave his signature grin when he saw Wade coming closer.

"Yo, Z! What's up, gurl?"

Wade laughed and jogged the rest of the way, giving the other a tight hug. "Bored. Trying to waste time before I have to get to work."

She was still a high school student, but there was no need for her to advertise that fact.

"Cool with me —want to help me get this part on 'im? Pretty soon, my Iron Giant will be 100% complete!"

"That's awesome!"

Wade was glad she'd gone there and seen Aech. He was always good at sensing her mood and distracting her or trying to make her feel better.

She felt infinitely better. Really.

When time ran up on her, Wade found herself on Ludus and entering her high school, ignoring everyone around her (Todd13 was such an asshole) and trying to pay attention to History. Mr. Avenovich was so boring though. At least, on the interface she was using, she was able to pretend to read the history text like everyone else was faking, and actually just surf around the web.

Still, computers within the virtual world of OASIS; it was a little funny and Inception-like. She inwardly laughed in her head. Maybe she was just being a doofus.

Her smile faltered and she tried not to let her mind wander and start spiraling down. Why she'd have to have that dream that morning…

Looking into an old-school chat since she was stuck in the classroom, Wade idly looked around until she entered a random chat. There was one person in it and Wade hesitantly messaged them.

Wade3: Wondering if you knew how to kill a 3k pound animal name Boredom?

Lacero: Depends. Can I mount it on my wall and take a picture, or will PETA come after me?

Wade stifled an unexpected laugh, looking discreetly up at her teacher's avatar. Seeing that he wasn't looking at her or paying her any attention, she turned back to the small messaging window on her interface.

Wade3: It's not an endangered species and everyone pretty much hates it.

Lacero: Good. I wouldn't mind murdering it at all.

Before she knew it though, she was extensively chatting with this person (Guy? Girl? Genderfluid? She just met them, but she didn't want to ask so quickly.) and found herself enjoying the conversation. It was so good that her entire class went by and Mr. Avenovich had already teleported out and was switched with Mr. Ciders for Advanced OASIS Studies. To be honest, though Wade really liked this class and loved getting into all the technological parts especially, she found that she was just really happy and into this talk with Lacero. Her mood from that morning was practically gone and she barely even remembered her dream right then.

She couldn't find herself pulling away from the chat anytime soon.

Nolan Sorrento

He signed his name with a flourish, glancing back at the chat window on his interface and feeling his lips pulling up slightly. He straightened it out when he heard a noise and glanced up at his doors, relaxing only when he saw that they were still shut.

Wade3: If you had a room full of old people bugging you, put on reruns of Gilligan's Island and I Love Genie. Maybe they'll fall asleep.

Seeing the reply made him bark out a laugh.

Or distract them. Something other than nag my ears off.

He typed that out quickly before reaching for another piece of paper he had to read up on.

It had been a whim, really. He had been stuck in a board meeting earlier and was getting bored and irritated with it and everyone around him. So, pretending he was working and taking notes, he'd pulled up his interface and (given his location and surroundings) had to be more discreet and use a more old-school chatroom. And it was in hesitant surprise that his whimsy choice had him use his old username.

Lacero. It had been so long since he'd logged on as that username. It was…before he became part of IOI actually…

And then somehow, when surprise had again caught him by some random stranger messaging him, he was curiously responding back. It wasn't like anyone knew his old username, so this Wade3 wouldn't know that Lacero was actually the Nolan Sorrento. But then he was treated to a very quirky, amusing conversation with a very witty companion, and before he knew it the board meeting was practically over. Even to now, he wasn't stopping the conversation and was continuing it while he was working on his paperwork.

Wade3: Don't answer if you don't want to…but are you a guy or a girl?

Nolan blinked as he looked at the question, debating with himself. He supposed it wouldn't matter much if he told the truth.

I'm male.

He thought about it himself and then began typing out the same question, curious as to the answer. He wouldn't know if they were telling the truth, but at least he'd get some information about the person he was talking to.

Wade3: Girl.

Then there was the message that showed she was typing again and he waited to see what else she had to say.

Wade3: I've got to go now. There's somewhere I have to be.

He frowned to himself. Did he scare her off?

Wade3: Um…Will you be on tomorrow? I'd like to talk to you again.

Pleased that his previous thoughts weren't the case and that she'd wanted to talk to him again, he sent an affirmative back to her before noticing her logging off. He put away the paper he'd been working on, glancing at the time. His frown returned.

Uneasily, he glanced at her username and then looked at the time again. It wasn't confirmed or anything and he was just guessing, but…he might've just spent several hours conversing with a high school student.

Shit.

It made sense though. Looking at the timeframe, that was how long the schools at the OASIS went on for. The current time, the time that she'd told him she'd had to go and log off the chat? The exact time when school ended and why she'd have to urgently get off, since school ending meant she had to get off her assigned computer and leave school. And it was no secret that the schools had the students use a different username from their usual, specifically formed by using their first name and the number of students with the same name (theirs being what number they were in that group).

Wade3. The third person in that school with the name Wade.

He didn't know what to think of the fact he'd enjoyed having such a long conversation with a minor, probably years younger than him. It also made him extremely uneasy, but at the same time he told himself it wasn't like he had done anything wrong. They had just been talking and their conversation had been innocent enough.

So really, he had nothing to worry about.

Wade hurriedly rushed out of school, not taking any time in getting off of Ludus. She was tempted to hunt down Aech, but she always had trouble getting a hold of him at this time of the day. She could always try later and in the meantime she could head home and eat.

She was reluctant to though. Being home meant being around Aunt Alice and her current boyfriend Rick. She didn't want to be around them.

She really wished she hadn't stopped talking to Lacero. She'd been having such a good time. But school had ended and she couldn't be caught talking in chatrooms during school hours, and she also knew that she wouldn't be allowed the use of the computer after school hours. As soon as school ended, she had no choice but to stop talking to him and get out of there.

Wade wondered what he looked like. She wondered whether he enjoyed the conversation as much as she did, and if he hadn't minded that she'd randomly contacted him. She kind of wished she could meet him in real life already, but then again she wasn't surprised at herself. She admitted she was lonely.

Logging out of the OASIS, Wade took a moment to look at the tiny mirror across from her, hung on the van's wall. She wasn't all that pretty in her opinion. Her face was still a bit round and had a little baby fat clinging to it, and her eyes were hidden by thick framed round glasses that exacerbated her nerdy look. She wore an oversized shirt that fell off of one shoulder, with no bra on her moderate breasts. She was really pale (sickly pale if you asked her), so much so that her skin was so white that she could joke that she hadn't seen sun in days. Technically, that was kind of true though…

Wade thought she looked kind of pathetic and beyond nerdy, and she wished that she could be able to look prettier and be more confident. But then her aunt had always said she was just a waste of space.

Not hurrying herself back to the Stacks, Wade just made herself trudge home at a slow pace, aware that time was dwindling by and it would be dark soon. That area was bad enough in the daytime, but nighttime was worse. Even if she didn't want to be home, being caught wandering around these parts wasn't ideal either.

Soon enough, she caught sight of the stacked trailers and made her way up the stairs to where her trailer was, slipping inside quietly. Maybe if she was quiet enough, she could go to her room and not be bothered.

"Oh, look who's home," Rick sneered and Wade tensed. "Where've you been?"

She faced Alice's boyfriend, the greasy-haired man lounging on the couch with a beer can in hand.

"School," she mumbled, ducking her head and staring at the ground.

"You didn't make anything for us to eat," Rick snapped at her. "You should've made eggs or something."

"I just ate cereal," she continued to mumble. "I was in a hurry."

Rick stood up and she flinched. "You get fed, clothed, cleaned in this place, and you can' t goddamn do anything for us?"

"Useless, like her mother," her aunt said, appearing into the room then and Wade looked up. She glared at Wade. "You never do your part," Alice seethed. "You stay here, just mooching off of me! I should've never taken you in!"

Wade felt tears prick her eyes. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Do me a favor and get back into the OASIS. Be an escort like your mother and earn us some money," Alice said angrily. "You're not pretty, but you can spread your legs and that's all men care about. Get out of here!"

Wade breathed in shakily, but she fought hard not to cry in front of them. She turned around and ran back out of the trailer, not looking back as she kept going.

For the longest time, this was all she could remember. Aunt Alice was always irritable or just downright angry with her. She hadn't wanted to take Wade in —and yet if she did, she got more food vouchers.

That was what Wade was worth. Food vouchers.

Her father, as she'd been told, had been killed by being shot to death, allegedly for trying to rob a store. Her mother had then taken cared of her, though care usually meant shoving her into the OASIS to be distracted and basically having the virtual world babysit her, while Loretta worked in the daytime in the OASIS as a telemarketer and then as a virtual escort at night. Wade's relationship with her mother had been complicated, but she could admit that she'd essentially been left to her own devices most of the time. And most of that time was spent in the OASIS.

All that time there had made Wade fascinated and in love with technology and she'd gotten pretty good with it.

The truth was that it had become a haven, more so as she found herself living with Aunt Alice and the string of oft-times abusive boyfriends her aunt had. Over time, Wade spent less and less time in her aunt's trailer, only staying there when she absolutely needed to. Most of the time, she stayed in her secret hiding spot and more often just staying in the OASIS.

And so, like always, Wade found her hiding place and scuttled onto the top of the van. Sitting there, she looked up at the sky and sighed to herself. Reaching down into her van, she grabbed the pack of cigarettes she hid in a compartment and then pulled one out. She stuck one between her lips and held it there with them, not actually lighting the cigarette up. She didn't actually smoke these, but for some reason she always ended up doing this.

After a few moments of staying in the cold, she stuck the cigarette back into the pack and went into her van, and then put on her school-issued OASIS gear. She logged on and appeared in the virtual world, looking around tiredly.

Should she look for Aech? No, she didn't want to bug him all the time. Alice always said she was too clingy and she didn't want to be. Maybe she should wander around? It wasn't like she'd been to everywhere in there. She could find something she hadn't done or been to before.

Before she knew it, she found her feet had kept going until she found herself in an unfamiliar area. It was a more dimmer lit place than the rest of the Oasis, the neon lights looking darker but more highlighted against the dark backdrop. There was a pulsing look to the lights and the atmosphere felt heavy. Plenty of people was around, just like everywhere else, but she noted that they were grouped and coupled up, and more intimate than other places she'd seen or been to.

Turning to her left, she tensed up and inwardly balked. There was the building for virtual escorts and she vaguely remember seeing her mother off to here a few times.

"Do me a favor and get back into the OASIS. Be an escort like your mother and earn us some money!"

Wade sucked in a deep breath and looked the place over, biting her lip.

"You're not pretty, but you can spread your legs and that's all men care about. Get out of here!"

She wasn't all that pretty. She tried her best to stay out of her aunt's way, to stay in her secret hiding spot for as long as she could. But it had only been recently when she could stay there as much as possible, and before that she'd had to suffer staying in her aunt's trailer with her and her many abusive boyfriends. She couldn't leave there completely, not until she was 18. And until then, she had to stick to her aunt as much as possible.

But she was still her aunt at the same time and a huge part of Wade still cared for her and thought of her as a close relative…someone who she really wanted to care for her, even if a little bit…

"Lost?"

Blinking, she faced the person who had spoken and nearly gaped. Instead, her eyes widened as she stared at the known avatar of Nolan Sorrento, newly made CEO of IOI. He'd become known first as the Head of IOI's Oology Division and Head of Operations, before becoming the CEO just last year. It felt surreal to have him stand right in front of her, just a few inches away.

He gave her a slight smirk, hand casually stuffed into a pocket while the other held a lit cigarette that dwindled while its ashes fell to the floor. Looking like Alex Ross' version of Superman, Wade was thrown off by the contradictory image of the ultra-good superhero.

"Not really," Wade said, trying her best not to sound quiet and timid in front of him.

He full out smirked then, gesturing to a place behind him.

"Alright —care to have drinks with me then?" he invited her, dropping his cigarette and stepping on it. She followed the movement, glancing down at his foot before looking back at him.

"Okay," she said, sounding braver than she actually felt, and took his hand when he offered it.

She didn't know what she was doing.

The bar they entered was nice, dark and lit up with more neon lights that continued to glow brightly against the darkness. He showed her to the bar and they sat down, with Wade willing herself not to fidget and to look like she belonged. She was 17 and not allowed in these areas still, but in the Oasis, they didn't check as hard as they would've in the real world.

"What will you have?" Sorrento asked, looking at her curiously.

She kept herself still. "I'm not much of a drinker," she explained, figuring it would be a good excuse. Maybe she should just run away now…

His slight smirk returned again and he hailed over the bartender. "A Cotton Candy Cosmos and a Whiskey Sour," he ordered and she watched as the bartender started to pour some stuff into a glass, put a shaker on it, and shook the ingredients. He then took a martini glass, put a strip of winded up cotton candy in it, before pouring the mixture into it. She watched in fascination as the cotton candy inside the glass sort of melt and mix into the liquid. The rim was garnished with another piece of cotton candy.

Sorrento accepted the drink and gave it to her, and she took a sip as they waited for his drink. She licked her lips in surprise after, the sweetness of the drink sticking with her.

"You like it?" he asked as he got his own drink, watching her intently.

"It's sweet," she told him, surprise still coloring her tone and face. "I do actually like it," she admitted.

He leaned over then, moving slowly as he continued to eye her with darkened eyes. He fingered a strand of her avatar's silver-blue hair.

"I figured you'd be a sweet one," he said huskily and a blush unwittingly rose to her cheeks. He tugged at her hair lightly. "Let's go to have a little more privacy, hm?"

Sorrento got up first and after a moment she followed, carefully grabbing her drink and letting him lead the way to a more secluded place in the bar. Tucked away in a private booth, she slid into it first and he was quick to go in after her, sitting very close and eliminating much of the space between them. He swirled his Whiskey Sour, watching her amusedly.

"Am I intimidating you?" he asked.

"A bit," she admitted wryly, though she was inwardly panicking. This was a new situation that she was floundering with, not sure how to handle it. She wasn't actually…against any of this. But she also wasn't sure what to do or say, and was hoping that she wasn't going to make herself act as a fool or an idiot.

He barked out a quiet laugh. He sobered up pretty quickly though, reaching out to hold her chin, letting his thumb brush against her lips. His eyes hooded and he didn't mask the desire on his face at all, making Wade quite aware of what he was hoping to lead to.

"I hope that means that I'm not too scary to spend the night with," he said plainly.

In normal circumstances, her breathing would've sped up and she would long have gotten freaked out externally. But this time, she only stared back at him and —to her amazement —allowed her tongue to dart out and lick his thumb.

"Not too scary at all," she declared confidently and none of this was like her. She wasn't actually feeling confident, so she had no idea where any of this was coming from.

Sorrento grinned and leaned forward, and before she knew it, his lips had descended onto hers.

In the time between that first heady kiss to the two of them fumbling through a door to a room he'd ended up renting nearby, Wade didn't know where her mind had gone. All she knew was that he'd leaned down and kissed her, and his avatar's lips were plump and smooth, firmly pressing against hers and then easily prying her lips apart to have his tongue snake into her mouth. The way he'd managed to coax her tongue into sliding around his, under and over, pushing into each other…

This was her virtual body, but it was heating up almost as if it was her real one.

His hands had landed on her hips and he squeezed them meaningfully, pulling back to look into her face.

"Perhaps we should head out of here now," he murmured and she could only nod.

Cool and confident. It became like a mantra in her head and she didn't want to expose herself as being anything but the cool and confident woman he seemed attracted to and wanting at the moment.

So now in this room, his hands circled her breasts, cupping them and then squeezing. She whimpered and squirmed, and tried to touch him as well. Her hands quickly got rid of his armor, but explored his body outside of the avatar's suit outfit, feeling curves and hard ridges that she was able to see after removing the rest of his outfit. Maybe it would've been easier to simply use their interface commands to get rid of their clothes, but she found she liked being able to do it the harder way, exploring and touching as she went through every piece of clothing.

Sorrento's own hands had slipped to her leather pants, the avatar outfit firmly clinging to her lower half. He seemed to take it as a challenge, finally rolling it down and revealing her lower body.

"M-Mr. Sorrento!" slid out of her mouth.

"I believe my goal for the night will be to see how many times can I get you to call me that," he said smugly as he pulled away to look up at her.

"S-shut up, Mr. Sorrento," she said, face flushed and feeling embarrassed.

He licked his lips and looked up at her heatedly. "Say it again."

She firmly pressed her lips together and tried to ignore her red face.

He hmmed and then stood up, grabbing hold of her as he did. She let out an unexpected squeal at that, before she was dropped unto the bed and found her legs being spread as far as they could.

"Mr. Sorrento!" she cried out.

"Again!"

"M-M-Mr. S-Sorrento," she tossed her head back and writhed on the bed, losing all thoughts.

If stars exploded in her vision, she sure as hell wasn't going to be expressing it any time soon.

Wade didn't know if she was going to be able to say or think about anything.

Started 5/14/18 - Completed 5/20/18

A/N: I know, I know –new story XD But I really wanted to get into this one (and one SAO and one FMA coming up in the future) because it and this pair wouldn't stop bugging me. I'm really excited about this and I hope everyone are too! Now sure how well it'll do, but I'm crossing my fingers. Please remember to review and let me know how you like it so far~

Quick Points:

1. Book and Movie: I haven't read the book yet, so this is Movie Prominent, but I have been and will be doing my best to incorporate Book elements into this. Books Readers, I hope you can see where I tried.

2. Censored: FFN version is censored as usual. Go to my Ao3 account for the full version, if you want a bit of smut.

3. Probably not going to be super happy. One of my goal with this is –if the real world is so crappy, I'm going to showcase the hell out of that and actually not shy away from it, like I felt the movie did. I don't know about the book, but if people are freaking ignoring the real world and immersing themselves in a fake one, I'm gonna show why. So definitely not a happy fic at a lot of parts, and Wade's going to help me show that. Eek?