It had never occurred to Ben that they had endured abuse on the isle. Yes he knew who their parents were, but somehow, it had never occurred to him that, in the absence of other victims, they would turn on their own. It was not even a consideration for him. Despite his father's considerable strength (some of which he had inherited), he had never felt an ounce of fear towards the man. Even in his angriest moments, Ben's only concern had been the guilt of disappointing him, and perhaps a bit of uneasiness for the punishment he would have to endure. Never though, not even for a single second had he actually feared his father, and so, the shocking realisation that the four he had brought here had suffered abuse hurt him.
But, now that he was aware of it, the signs were all there. They were like caged animals newly released, tentative and uncertain of their new circumstances. And so, they lashed out at anything unfamiliar, moving about in a group as much as possible and turning the attitude and standoffishness up to a thousand percent when solitary. They were simply trying to protect themselves from further pain and assault. It would explain why they rarely obeyed the rules to remain in their own dormitories. They usually could be found in one or the other - usually in the boy's room, where, once, going there to find them, he had found all four of them curled up on joined beds after what he had heard was a particularly trying day for them, Jay with his arms around Evie who was absentmindedly stroking through an apparently slumbering Carlos' hair to whom Mal had been spooned up behind. They were their own blankets of protection in the face of all the newness they were encountering. He found it hard to believe though that they were new friends. Evie and Carlos were new to the group. Carlos had revealed that fact to him; that it was only in the days prior to their arrival here that they had actually formulated what Carlos termed as an alliance, but Ben deemed a friendship. Whatever it was that had brought them together though had become a cemented bond once they had arrived here as outsiders.
It wasn't as if Ben believed they had been physically abused (although at least for the smallest among them, he believed that to at least be a possibility). Abuse took all forms and he saw it in them in varying degrees, from Mal's broken confession that she had no idea what love felt like, to Lonnie returning to the general common area in tears, revealing to all present that the villains clearly did not even love or care for their own children and that that was the most heartbreaking thing she had ever heard about in her life.
And of course, he saw it the most in Carlos.
He saw it in the hesitation in Carlos' eyes whenever he met him for training. There was always a sense of fear of disappointing him in the white tipped hair teenager, a startled look whenever Ben actually praised him, a longing in his eyes whenever he ruffled his hair, or clasped his shoulder, telling him that he was a good boy, something that Ben no longer found awkward to say. Carlos seemed to even anticipate it, doing little things that would tell Ben that he was trying, that he was working, that to please notice what he was doing, and please, please approve of it. And so Ben did, lavishing praises on him for the smallest of things, from successfully walking Dude (who was now basically his dog), to besting the entire class in not only Chemistry, but also Biology and Physics, to him completing an entire team practice without complaining once or cowering (too much).
Ben saw in Carlos something he knew none of the natives to Auradon (save perhaps Fairy Godmother, and his own mother were she present) could discern. Carlos was a child of evil yes, but he was in no way bad no matter the bravado he tried to showcase. Carlos was just a science oriented fourteen year old who life had forced into an artificial way of being. Ben had little doubt that, on the island, he had been on the lower end of the totem pole of social standing, something his mother would have undoubtedly hated and berated him for. To a certain extent it was true even here...Doug being a prime example of that. The overly smart kids never feared too well when it came to social ranking. If he hadn't had his looks and status to bolster his intelligence, Ben knew that he would probably have been equal to Doug.
And that was why Ben was determined to become a sort of mentor for Carlos. As much as he wanted to say he could be his older brother, he knew that Jay (knowingly or otherwise) firmly held that spot, and, more than that, that he had miles and miles to go if he wanted the four of them to fully accept them into their little group. And so, until then, he would be the mentor, that person who was available to reassure Carlos, to lavish him with praise and subtle affection in a way the other isle descendants would be unable to simply because they had no idea how to. And he was okay with that.
Despite the fact that he had originally brought them over in the hopes that he could find the girl from his vision, it would have been absolutely selfish of him to just ignore the rest of them. He could not do that. One by one he would go to them, find the ways in which they needed to be helped, the sores that needed soothing and the lessons that needed to be learnt. And he would guide them through it, until they had fully lost the taint of the isle and their parents, until they were free of the abuse that had been heaped upon that and had been accepted as full citizens by every last person in Auradon.
After all, what good was he being king if he couldn't help the ones who needed him the most?