"A Matter of Age" is a Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi Oneshot Fic fic by nirejseki. It takes place in an alternate universe in which Meng Yao is older than Nie Mingjue rather than younger, and some of the implications of that change.
It can be read here
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"A Matter of Age" contains the following tropes:
- Adaptational Heroism: Jin Guangyao. Since the fic is told loosely from his perspective, we see that when he promises Nie Mingjue that he won't kill anyone ever again, he means it.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Nie Mingjue, who is much more willing to forgive Jin Guangyao than in canon.
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Jin Guangyao pats Nie Mingjue's head gently at one point after they swear brotherhood. He's delighted at how soft Mingjue's hair is.
- Age Lift: Nie Mingjue is younger than Meng Yao in this fic. How much younger isn't quite clear.
- Cannot Tell a Lie: Nie Mingjue cannot. He can scheme, though, to a degree, which is why he avoids Jin Guangyao until after they've sworn brotherhood and he can make his agenda clear.
- Can't Hold His Liquor: Lan Xichen. It's noted that the first thing Nie Mingjue and Jin Guangyao do as sworn brothers is chase him around to keep him from getting into mischief.
- A Child Shall Lead Them: Nie Mingjue claims to have been twelve years old when he became sect leader, and isn't yet of age during the fic. He was probably only ten, if Wen Ruohan is correct.
- Children Are Innocent: Downplayed and gut-wrenchingly deconstructed in Meng Yao's inner monologue when he assumes Nie Mingjue will never forgive him for what happened in the Fire Palace:Children never understood why people hurt them. Meng Yao hadn’t, when it’d been him.
- Easily Forgiven: Jin Guangyao faces zero consequences for his murder of the Jin captain in the long run, as Nie Mingjue is willing to forgive him as long as he makes an effort to not kill anyone again.
- Precocious Crush: Teen-aged Mingjue is implied to have a crush on Meng Yao. He blushes when Meng Yao teases him and is said to get flustered when he sees his deputy in formal robes.
- Vague Age: Nie Mingjue, who isn't twenty yet. How young he is isn't made clear in the fic.
- Would Hurt a Child: Downplayed. Wen Ruohan is just as awful to Mingjue in the Fire Palace here, where he's teen-aged, as he is in-canon.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Nie Mingjue gives a passionate, rambling speech to this effect to Jin Guangyao:"You can be good, Meng Yao; you only forget sometimes, when there’s something you want more – you can trust Xichen-ge, at least, even if you don’t want to come to me, but don’t go alone anymore."
- You Are Not Alone: The other message from Nie Mingjue's speech at the end to Jin Guangyao, in which he begs him not to kill anyone anymore and to come to his sworn brothers when he needs help.
- Younger Than They Look: Nie Mingjue might be this, to Meng Yao's horror. He knows he's younger, but isn't sure by how much. Wen Ruohan mentions that he's probably around two years younger than he says he is.
