Did I Mention?

Not All See A-B-C

Summary: Mal knows reading three petitions shouldn't take Ben as long as it does, but when she asks what's taking so long, she doesn't expect him to tell her about the moving letters.

It had been over an hour since Mal had arrived in Ben's study and he was still working on the three petitions he'd received earlier that day. At first, she hadn't thought anything of it; he had work to do and she could wait, as agonizing as it was. At some point, she'd asked just how much he had to do until he was finished and he'd said all he had to do was read over three petitions and he'd be done. Mal hadn't expected it to take over an hour. Nevertheless, she had finished all her homework and was lying on his couch half-asleep almost two hours later.

"Ben?" she asked, sitting up.

He hummed but didn't move his eyes from the paper. His brow was furrowed and she could tell he was trying furiously to focus on the words, but even from a distance, she could tell something wasn't right.

She stood up and made her way over to his desk. One petition was laid aside and he seemed to have finished the longest part of the second petition, simply going over the last paragraph before his signature was required. When Mal stopped beside his chair, though, he stopped reading and let out a pained groan. Immediately concerned, Mal looked from the paper to Ben as he pulled her down to his lap and buried his face in her neck. Mal, of course, reached around and hugged him tightly, dropping kisses to his head until he sighed and loosened his hold on her.

"Ben, what's wrong?" she asked softly, running a hand over his forehead. He half-heartedly gestured to the papers on his desk then leaned back in his chair, pulling Mal with him.

"The letters move," he told her quietly, visibly ashamed to admit it. Mal gave him an odd look and he avoided her gaze as he explained, "I have to stare at them for a long time, but they just keep moving and it's impossible to read."

"Ben, are you dyslexic?" she asked, drawing his attention back to her. Ben frowned and opened his mouth to object, but Mal could tell he didn't know what the word meant. "The letters move, yes? Is that common?"

"Yeah, all the time," Ben grumbled. Mal smiled warmly at him and Ben's frown deepened. "You don't have to make fun of me for it."

"No, Ben, I can fix this," she told him.

Ben's face morphed into one of confusion as Mal moved off his lap. She wandered over to her backpack and pulled out her spell book. After flicking through some pages, she wandered back over to Ben and turned his chair so he was fully facing her. He watched her closely as she rummaged through his desk drawers, searching for something. After the third drawer, she pulled out a pair of glasses he kept hidden and he frowned.

"Those don't help," he told her. After he'd told his mom that letters moved, she'd gotten him a pair of glasses. They didn't do anything other than make things harder and give him headaches. He'd tried to explain the letters moved, they weren't too far, but Belle didn't seem to understand. After that, he'd stuffed the dorky glasses in the back of his desk and ignored them. How Mal even knew he had them, he didn't bother asking.

"They'll help me, though," she said, setting the glasses on the desk and glancing down at her spell book. She muttered something in a language he didn't understand and waved her hand in a way that made Ben dizzy just from watching. When she finished, she turned to him with a grin.

"What'd you do to them?" Ben asked warily as she handed him the glasses. They looked the same to him, but she seemed excited.

"I spelled them."

Ben didn't tell her he knew that much. Instead, he put on the glasses and looked up at Mal. Nothing changed. Well, nothing about his view changed. The glasses, on the other hand, seemed to have lost their prescription and turned into normal glass lenses.

Mal rolled her eyes and turned his chair back to the petitions. When Ben looked down at the papers, he couldn't hold back his small gasp. The letters were still. They didn't move at all as he looked down at them. Shocked and thrilled, Ben took off the glasses and looked at the paper again. The letters moved. He put the glasses back on and they stopped. He looked back up at Mal to see her biting her lip in an attempt to keep back a smile.

"They don't move," he said, looking at her in awe. She nodded and gestured back to the papers. Ben glanced at them then turned back to her. "How did you find this?"

"I actually came up with it myself," she said quietly, showing him the spell that was written in her book. Sure enough, it was in her handwriting. "Carlos said the same thing soon after we came to Auradon so Jay, Evie, and I asked Doug and he told us it was probably dyslexia."

"So you came up with a spell to fix it," Ben finished. Mal nodded. He'd never seen Carlos in glasses, but he'd also never seen Carlos read anything or take notes in class. It was always one of the others who wrote the notes then handed them to Carlos. "He doesn't wear glasses, though," Ben said and Mal nodded again.

"He thought they'd make him stand out even more, so he only wears them in his room to study," she explained. If the group studied somewhere other than the dorm, she said, they would either find a secluded spot on campus or one of them would read aloud for Carlos. "His isn't as bad, though."

"There's different kinds of moving letters?" Ben asked. Mal shrugged. Based on what she'd read and what Doug said, sometimes the letters only moved a bit and sometimes they moved a lot. It depended on the person. "I wish they didn't move at all," Ben muttered.

"Now they won't," Mal said, gesturing to his glasses.

Ben grinned and turned back to the petitions. Without the letters moving, he had the second one finished in minutes and moved onto the third and final one next. Only fifteen minutes later, he was setting all the petitions aside and getting up to join Mal on the couch. She'd barely looked up at him before he was pulling her close and hugging her tightly. She just smiled and hugged him back, glancing up to see the dorky glasses still sitting on Ben's nose.

"I think I'll wear these forever," he told her. Mal laughed, but when she saw him the next day, he was wearing them proudly to all his classes. She even caught Carlos talking to him at lunch and that afternoon, Carlos was shyly wearing the glasses she'd spelled for him to his afternoon classes.

"What's up with Ben and 'Los?" Jay asked, joining Mal at her locker as she watched Ben and Carlos talking. They were both sporting their glasses and while people gave them strange looks every now and then or asked when they'd gotten glasses, they remained unbothered for the most part.

"They both have dyslexia," Mal answered, glancing at Evie as she joined them. "I don't think Carlos is gonna need our help as much."

"Are you sure giving Ben those glasses was a good idea, though, M?" Evie asked.

Mal frowned and turned to look at her. Evie shrugged and gestured to a group of girls that were giggling and stealing glances at Ben and Carlos. Mal rolled her eyes and without a word, walked over to Ben and Carlos. They both smiled at her, but as soon as Mal pulled Ben down to meet her lips, Carlos whined and scurried off to join Jay and Evie.

"Why the sudden intrusion?" Ben asked when she pulled away.

Mal straightened his glasses as she grinned. Ben didn't need an answer anymore when she stepped to the side he could see a group of girls scampering off. He chuckled and pulled Mal back to his chest.

"Jealous?" he teased. Mal's eyes flashed as she frowned, but Ben just laughed and kissed her again. He could get used to Mal kissing him out of nowhere.