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Central Park in the fall is gorgeous. Clary makes it a point to wander the paths there as often as she can get away with it between patrols and training. Today Isabelle and Maia decide to go with her - it’s a rare day when the three of them are all free of personal and Shadow World obligations, and Clary couldn’t imagine a better day. It means the world to her that they’d so readily offer to do the thing that Clary enjoys most right now, even if it’s something she’s done on her own about a million times lately.
“It is taking all of my self-control not to make a pile of leaves to jump in,” Clary says wistfully, walking so that she steps on as many of the dry, fallen leaves as possible to hear the constant ‘crunch’ under her boots.
“Why would you want to do that?” Isabelle asks, raising an eyebrow.
“Because it’s fun?” Clary replies. “Come on, you can’t tell me jumping into a pile of leaves isn’t fun, even if it is a little childish,” she says, turning to Maia for back-up.
“Don’t look at me,” Maia says. “We were never allowed to when I was a kid. We didn’t have any trees for it, and I wasn’t allowed to make a mess in the neighbor’s piles after they took so long to make them.”
“I never said it wasn’t fun,” Izzy defends. “I just wouldn’t know because I’ve never done it.”
“What?!” Clary knows that, in the grand scheme of things, this really isn’t as big of a deal as she’s making it in her head, but with so many of her favorite childhood memories revolving around fall and Luke’s farm and jumping in piles of leaves there, she can’t imagine not experiencing that joy at least once.
“What are the chances you two can clear your schedules for tomorrow?” Clary looks hopefully between them. Normally she wouldn’t even ask, but it’s been so long since they spent this sort of quality time together and ages since they’d left the city at all. This would be a nice little break for all of them, and they must feel the same (or her puppy dog eyes are particularly on point) because a moment later they’re both agreeing to shift some things around.
“Jace owes me a favor or two I could call in,” Izzy muses.
“I think the pack will survive without me for a day,” Maia adds. “Why, what are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking we should go on a little road trip,” Clary says, smiling wide. “Come on!”
---
It’s easier to make an overnight trip out of it, since Luke’s farm is a couple of hours upstate, and Luke has no problem letting the three of them stay there overnight as long as they promise not to burn the place down. Clary dutifully recites all of the proper fireplace usage protocol before getting the keys to the house and Luke’s truck, and they’re on their way by mid-afternoon.
Once they get there Clary can’t keep the smile off her face. She shows Izzy and Maia to the bedroom, dropping their bags off and then immediately bounding outside to grab rakes.
“You know,” Izzy says. “I didn’t really think about the part where we have to do actual work first.”
“The piles aren’t going to make themselves,” Maia says, picking up a handful of leaves from her own and tossing them at Izzy, watching as a few pieces of brown and orange land in her dark air.
Izzy gasps in mock affront, moving as if she’s moving back towards her pile, only to expertly gather some leaves on her rake and spin back towards Maia, giving it an expert spin and a flick that sends a shower of leaves (and a bit of grass and dirt from Izzy’s haste) onto the werewolf.
Maia mutters something about Nephilim under her breath and Clary laughs at the two of them, which is a mistake. The moment their attention falls on her she can see the matching grins spread across their faces.
“Feeling left out, Fray?” Maia teases, and a moment later Clary finds herself unsuccessfully trying to duck away from the leaves coming at her from either side.
In the end, they decide to make one giant pile that they can all jump in together, and given the expanse of land around them they barely make a dent in the fallen leaves before they have a pile as tall as them. Clary practically bounces with excitement counting down once the rakes are set out of the way.
“Three, two, one, go!”
It’s quite a sight, Clary thinks, the three of them sprinting towards a pile of leaves. For a moment Clary closes her eyes and feels like that little girl with pigtails again, giggling as she tosses herself into the pile with reckless abandon.
Clary spots Isabelle and Maia emerging from the pile, huge smiles on both of their faces. Maia glances around them at the mess of leaves that puffed out when they jumped on them and huffs out a laugh.
“Yeah, okay, I can see why I wasn’t allowed to do that,” she admits.
“Well, you’re allowed now. In fact, you’re highly encouraged to do it again, if you want to,” Clary points out.
“Oh, I absolutely do,” Maia says.
“Izzy?” Clary asks.
“That is more fun than it has any right to be,” Izzy admits. “And we are absolutely doing it again.”
This time Clary hangs back, pulling out her phone just in time to snap a photo of Maia and Isabelle mid-leap, thankful for another perfect moment to remember for years to come.