Defying the masses and the clocks, I have come up with a Lazel story for this particular ship week. Debrief of which ship weeks are when for those who are lost or just joining us/looking for what I wrote for each:

July 14-20- Thalia and Luke (Keeping it PG)

July 21-27- Beckendorf and Silena (The Girl in the Attic)

July 28- August 3- Grover and Juniper (The Track of Time)

August 4-10- Chris and Clarisse (Scraps)

August 11-17 Tyson and Ella (Skywards)

August 18-24- Frank and Hazel (Correspondence)

August 25-31- Leo and Hazel (this story!)

September 1-7- Leo and Reyna

September 8-14- Jason and Reyna

September 15-21- Jason and Piper

September 22-28- Free Ship!

September 28- October 7- Percy and Annabeth

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters portrayed below. Enjoy the story!

The Toy Factory

"I know I'm taking forever," Leo said before Hazel could open her mouth.

"Good," she said smoothing out her dress again. She hopped off the worktable only seconds after and leaned on it. "I want to go to New York. It's nothing much for you, but I've never been. The vans are leaving soon."

"I'm working on it. Besides, you're at camp for a two weeks while they fix up the bunkers- there's plenty of time," he said spinning his stool around and grabbing a tool from the cork board behind him. Hazel had drifted towards his project.

"Don't touch," he said right away.

"What is it?"

"It's a teeny tiny automaton," Leo said. He was wearing watchmaker glasses and holding tweezers in his gloved hands.

"Why?" Hazel asked.

"For teeny tiny needs," he replied.

Hazel rolled her eyes but she looked at the automaton with tons of concern in her eyes.

"It's safe and all," Leo said. "I just don't want you to touch it because not all of its parts are secured."

Her eyebrows were still frowned, like little bridges over her golden eyes. They were like a cat's, except Hazel was too cautious for curiosity to kill her.

"Have you even seen an automaton in motion before? A robot? Even a Lego one?"

Hazel knotted her hands in her skirt of her dress, and shook her head. He hadn't expected her to like dresses so much after seeing her kicking butt or her cousins so much on the Argo II. She'd admitted to loving jeans and this new-found right to wear these magically and infinitely practical trousers (pants; she meant pants), but she told Leo that she couldn't stop liking the feeling of wearing skirts any more than he could stop blurting out random Spanish words as he spoke. Anyways, she looked good. Her dress had a funkily-checkered black and white pattern. Golden buttons ran from the blouse collar at her throat to her waist. Her hair was all loose, wiry curls.

"Huh," Leo said. "You'd have loved Festus then."

"Would I?"

"Oh yeah," he said. "But in the meantime, this guy will have to do."

He activated the small tin man, which he'd named Tiny Tin, with a strategic push of his tweezers. The automaton stood right up and turned towards Leo when he whistled.

"Yo short guy," Leo said. "You see that screwdriver there? Bring it. Here."

It would've been pretty embarrassing for Tiny Tin to fail him now, in front of Hazel, but thankfully the little guy seemed to pick up on context clues pretty well. His eyes swept over the table quickly before wrapping his arms around the screwdriver's handle, the equivalent of a regular guy wrapping his arm around a tree trunk, and started dragging it across the worktable to Leo.

"Oh dear," Hazel said, looking surprised.

"Pretty cool, eh?"

"Poor him," Hazel said. "He's so small…"

She picked up the tool and plopped it in Leo's hand for him.

"Much obliged," Tiny Tin said. Thankfully he also had manners. Jake had once accidentally created a parrot that could only swear. He'd ended up finding something else as his half-sister's birthday present (the parrot was still in Cabin 9, being very rude whenever one of the girls ventured as far as trying to fix their hair or something and generally not enforcing this whole 'cleaning up' thing they'd been told to do).

"He's so sweet," Hazel smiled.

"He's yours once I finish him," Leo said.

Her eyes suddenly seemed luminescent. "Really?"

"Sure. I make a ton of these all the time."

"So why aren't we on our way to New York, then?" Hazel asked.

Leo swore under his breath. Gods, she always outsmarted him. Damn girls and their ability to be brilliant.

"Fine, fine. Let me clean up a bit."

She rolled her eyes but sat down again. Tiny Tin marched on her hands and she kept moving them so that he walked infinitely.

"You didn't have robotic technology like this back then, did you?" Leo said. "I mean- when you were a kid?"

Hazel shook her head. "Of course not."

"This is all new?"

"Yeah."

"Weird," Leo said. "Did you have Legos?"

"Nope," Hazel said. "I'm still not clear on the whole concept. They're blocks, right? That snap together?"

"Yeah. That's, like, all I played with when I was little. What about Barbies?"

"No, that was only invented later."

"What about Tinker Toys?"

"Yes, but I never played with them. There was a set at school but I always got them taken away from me." Hazel said.

"Oh," Leo said. "It must be another weird thing about this century. The toys and the pants."

"The toys and the pants," Hazel said. "Right. That's what makes me homesick."

He couldn't tell if she was sarcastic or not, but he didn't forget the unease creeping in his stomach when she said that.

"What is this?" Hazel asked when she unwrapped the present. Already she was confused about getting a present when it wasn't her birthday or Christmas- Leo was seriously messing with her now. She was used to a far more modest and impoverished life style.

"Don't tell me you don't know what it is," Leo said. "Come on. I Googled this. It's from your time. I know you know."

"I'm more… confused," she said.

"But you know what it is," Leo said eagerly.

"Yeah," she said. "A Viewmaster Slide Viewer, everyone wanted them for Christmas."

"Right," Leo said. "You know how it works?"

"Vaguely," Hazel said.

"You pop these slides into the viewer," Leo said raising little white cardboard circles with tiny windows in which more complex and colourful scenes were displayed. "And by the hole on top, the sunlight comes in and illuminates the little pictures in them. Try."

"It's a really sweet present Leo," she said as he put the slide in for her. She raised the Viewer to her eyes and nearly dropped it. She smiled. "These are pictures that Jason took!"

"Yeah. Who knew he was into photography, right?"

Hazel was absolutely giddy. "That's Reyna with the dogs- did you ever go to New Rome's dog park?-, Jason and Bobby and Hannibal, Gwen and Frank holding up drunk Dakota- oh look all of us on the ship!"

"Like it?" Leo said.

"I love it!" Hazel smiled. "It's great Leo! But… I don't get it. Why did you –I mean, this is made not bought, obviously… but why?"

"Well I kind of looked up old-fashiony toys after asking that stupid Lego question. Lots of cool stuff in the 30's and 40's."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," Leo said. "Really get a guy's inspiration going."

Hazel's smile was weird. Very thoughtful, a tad nostalgic, somewhat fascinated… but definitely happy.

That was all that Leo aimed for and needed.

"You need a cooler trick," Hazel said.

"It's a miracle that I can even get the stupid thing to come back up," Leo said. "Well, not this time- but sometimes."

Hazel laughed and scooped up the yoyo that he'd dropped. He'd been sanding it last night, as he'd struggled to sleep after a particularly bad dream about the Giant's War. Then he'd proceeded to paint it a shade of royal purple, and paint Hazel's initials on one of the yoyo's sides in gold.

"This one's called the Hanging Tower. Sammy taught me- gods, he rocked at these things, people harassed him so that he'd teach them all the time."

Hazel dropped the yoyo from her hand and in a tangle of long piano fingers and string, she'd looped the yoyo in and out of itself enough times so that when she held it all upside-down, it created a shape that vaguely looked like a tower.

"I'd harass you so that you'd stop teaching me that," Leo said- eyes wide and impressed and boggled. Hazel laughed.

"I didn't know if you'd seen more wood or plastic ones back in the day," Leo said. "So I made both."

Hazel was smiling so hard, her eyes were squinted as she examined the different parts and she ran her thumb over the different parts of the model airplanes. Wings, body, tail, cockpit, little jets…

"I can help you build it," Leo offered timidly.

"Okay," Hazel said, sitting down right there in the Central Green. Leo sat down in front of her and showed her how to clip or slide all the different pieces together.

"They used to sell these to make money," Hazel said as the model airplane came together in their hands.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah," Hazel said. "You'd buy a kit to make them and then the military got a few cents of profit- you know, to buy airplanes and whatever else the air force needed."

"I didn't know that," Leo said.

"Money was such a big deal," Hazel said. "Everything was, back then. Everyone was scared, people were dying… Even toys were serious business."

She looked troubled. Was she thinking of how the bad news coming in from Europe had dampened the morale of everyone surrounding her during her last year of life? Was she thinking of how she'd had more than Queen Marie to be afraid of during the last year of her life? Was she thinking of how her time to be a kid had been cut even more?

Leo took her hand. Whatever she was thinking about, it had to stop.

"Toys are for fun now," he said. "Watch."

He threw the little model airplane. It soared right across the Center Green. Even the little girl kneeling by the fire looked up at it.

"They didn't fly that long," Hazel said breathlessly. A smile split her face.

"There are some perks to Global warming and industrialisation," Leo said. "Also to having a son of Hephaestus as your very own toy factory."

They ran after the plane.

The army of toy soldiers had surrounded Hazel's bed when she'd woken up –Leo had pulled some strings with Nico.

So he wasn't even surprised when she hugged him from behind, dropping a little green army man wearing a cap and handling a gun in his cereal bowl as only explanation.

Well okay, maybe a little surprised- but it definitely could have been worst.

So could have been the suggestive look that Nyssa gave him, or so he thought.

"We had a board at school," Hazel gasped when she saw the pieces in the plain wooden box. "This was the game to play. It was in all the shop windows all the time..."

"Yeah?" Leo asked. "Good! I was hesitating between this one and Candy Land. Also this board's a bit different than the norm…"

Hazel frowned but unfolded the Clue board and studied it.

"The places are different," she said. "The rooms here... it isn't a manor it's… it's in the fort."

"Yeah," Leo said.

"You can go to the barracks, the principia, that coffee shop with the really good muffins, the fields of Mars, the villas, the mess hall, the senate… Leo that's brilliant!"

"It gets better," Leo said like an eager little kid. He wasn't even the one opening presents. "Look at the cards"

Hazel slid them out of their paper envelopes and started laughing.

"You changed all the characters!" She said giggling. As she laughed and shook her head, the delicate balance of her curls was thrown aside and they flew around like crazy.

But she was right

"Except for Colonel Mustard. He's kind of sacred."

Hazel went through all of the stock characters in the game, each one representing one of the Seven. Colonel Grace, Mrs. McLean, Inspector Jackson, Professor Chase, Dr Zhang, Miss Levesque, Reverend Valdez… He'd also had to add Mr di Angelo and Madame Guerrero because of Nico and Reyna's frequent associations with the group. Which meant that he needed extra characters so that they could all play at once- a.k.a. Colonel Mustard and Monsieur Brunette.

"And even the weapons are changed," Hazel said. "They're all ours. All godly. Even the Argo II is a weapon…" Her eyes sparkled. "This is so cool! We need to find the others and play a game right now!"

She grabbed his hand, sent sparks shooting up his arm, and dragged him away.

"You really need to stop spoiling me," Hazel said.

"I'm not spoiling you, I like doing this." Leo said as she carefully slipped the envelope's content out. She was stunned for a second.

"I didn't know you could draw," she said quietly.

"I manage," Leo said. "Mostly copying though, none of that creativity stuff. Let's not get carried away."

Hazel still flipped through the different cut-out paper outfits. They all folded over paper dolls, two of which were in the back of the envelope.

"I loved these," Hazel said folding the flaps of an astronaut's suit over one of the dolls- the one that looked like her. "Loved, loved, loved them. Each little dress had a matching hat before."

"What kind of hats?"

"All kinds. Huge ones, small sailor hats, fascinators with little veils… I made outfits for the dolls too- so that they'd look like movie stars or whatever. Hedy Lamarr was my favourite. Gods, this other doll even looks at her…"

Do you think that that's a coincidence? Leo thought. I know you love her.

"They used to come in packs," Hazel kept explaining. Leo loved that- she'd actually talk to him about her old life, about the fourties, now. It was as if the toys were light-hearted enough to make some of her memories seem painless enough to verbalise. "I got an entire family in a pack once- a dad, a mom, a little girl and her brother."

"Cool," Leo said.

"I think that I tossed the dad and the brother out in the gutter. Or I found a fire to burn it on, I'm not sure. It felt like a cruel joke from the universe. You get into enough trouble for now knowing who your dad is nowadays, but back then? People were despicable," Hazel said shaking her head. "I think that I also got rid of the mother, after moving to Alaska. Then I only had the one doll, so I didn't play with it."

Leo reached for his sketch pad and quickly sketched out something as Hazel kept flipping through the series of outfits.

He ripped the page out in a matter of minutes and handed it to Hazel.

"Here," he said.

She looked at the hastily created doll and looked up.

"It's a Leo doll. To keep your Hazel doll company," Leo said.

Hazel laughed and put the astronaut costume back on the Leo doll.

"It's more fitting," she explained squeezing his hand.

"Are we playing traditional, no bouncies, or double bouncies?" Hazel asked as she dropped the little jacks –recently cooled off aluminum pieces flecked with colour- on the Big House's wooden porch, her legs folded under her.

"What's that code for?" Leo asked.

Hazel raised an eyebrow.

"You've never played those versions before? Have you played Black Widow? Around the World?"

"Hazel, I never actually played jacks, I just heard that ya'all did back in the days and made a bunch," Leo explained.

Her eyes glittered. It surprised Leo how quickly they could get so luminous. Like gemstones which suddenly moved half and inch and caught the light in a completely different way. It wasn't bad surprise, though. It was good kind- the best, as a matter of fact. It meant that he'd done something remotely correct.

"Oh gods, your culture!" She said devastated. "Well, it's been decided. I'm teaching you everything."

"How have you never been on a scooter?" Leo asked shaking his hand as they headed for the basketball courts before the children of Apollo invaded the only pavement in camp.

"Only the rich kids had them," Hazel said. "So nobody at St-Agnes', that was for sure. Don't even talk to me about bikes... Sammy was saving up for one but he never got there."

This particular scooter was bright orange, and keeping its design so simple –no shock guards, lights or streamers- had physically hurt Leo. But hey, if he was making his toys old-fashioned, then so be it. He'd make them painfully Plain Jane creations.

Hazel squealed and nearly toppled over the second she stepped foot on a scooter. Leo's blushing matched the toy's paintjob as he put his hands on her waist to stabilise her. It was only a couple of minutes; until she got the hang of it, but man did he sweat.

Annabeth stood at the door, a smile on her lips. She was an expert at quietly slipping in and out of Cabin Three, and Leo was lucky to still be alive after pointing it out to her and asking for her help. Luckily she was still getting back at her boyfriend for dissapearing on her through a series of pranks, and so this was right up her alley.

Anyways, they were crouched right next to a snoring Percy's bed. Leo gave Hazel the signal, and she raised the shiny new metallic kazoo to her lips and blew into it.

Percy rammed into the wall before rolling off of bed, giving Leo and Hazel plenty of time to back up and pee themselves laughing at his crude awakening, Annabeth's laughter chiming in behind them.

Cabin 13's table was absolutely crawling with activity after supper.

Leo and Hazel were both rushing and struggling to power up the wind up the dozen toys which were all circling or jumping around as they slowed. A penguin doing back flips, two plastic sneakers attached to each other that took steps on its own, sumo wrestlers gliding around, slithering snakes, frogs hopping, skateboards sliding around, cops rushing about and slamming their arms up and down…

They were both laughing so hard, they attracted the attention -and concern- of a bunch of people at the camp fire.

"It's just the Hazel/Leo unit," Mitchell grunted. "Nothing out of the usual."

The crowd left and they went back to their wind-up toys.

"He's so cute!" Hazel said, hugging the plush elephant to her.

"Thought you might like it," he said.

"It makes me think of Hannibal," Hazel said with a grin. "He's so soft!"

"Yeah, I assumed that mushy was the best bet," Leo said.

"I'm calling him Peanut."

"Seems legit."

"He's the cutest stuffed animal I've ever had. Well, the only one..."

Hazel's hand dropped a bit.

"It's stupid, isn't it?" She asked.

Given the current state of the world, there was no quick answer to this question.

"What is?" Leo asked.

"Well, people get clothes and Apple stuff and video games now, entertainment has become so much more refined… this is all childish by today's standards. I'm thirteen years old and freaking out about these beautiful toys," Hazel said. "I feel… inferior, is that the word? Yeah, I think so. Inferior or silly."

"Hazel, you're not inferior just because your birth precedes the VCR."

"Maybe. Then I just feel horrible that I've found yet another way that shows that I don't belong here. Not now, not in this century."

This genuinely angered Leo. The comment had anger boiling in his stomach.

"Hazel, stop it. Stop it. The gods actually let you stay here- the gods of Olympus literally do not have a problem with your being here. You make people happy, you make the world brighter. Sure, you still get startled by toasters and Styx, but you belong." Leo's voice caught, he stumbled over the importance he attributed to his words. "And if you still don't think that you belong in this century, then can you at least acknowledge that you belong with me?"

Hazel smiled and played with the elephant's ear.

"Do you really think so?" Hazel said.

"I don't think you're silly."

"No, I mean, do you think that we really belong together?" Hazel asked.

"I..." Leo stumbled over his words. Shoot. Why did he say things like that? Why did he even talk? When Piper had duct-taped his mouth shut that one time, why hadn't he left the strip of tape there?

"I like to think so," he finished by saying. "I like to hope so, at least. Because, I mean, you're... you."

Hazel put the elephant down and hugged him instead. Except she hadn't kissed the elephant- that was new and exclusive.