“Tor. So, is there some problem? I notice you haven't settled yet…” The open handed gesture used took in the whole room, which obviously hadn't been touched. Still the man had bothered to observe the fact, which said a lot about him, didn't it?

Not everyone looked all the time. Tor knew he didn't see everything himself. He missed most things in fact.

“Um,” Tor said brilliantly, his face going red before a single sentence could be gotten out. Wonderful. Maybe he could impress the man into giving him what he wanted by stammering him into submission?

“I'd kind of hoped to live off campus this year. I rented the lot next to the student store and put up a house already, but when we got here Ali and I, were told we had to live in the dorms? I… we're married… Is that right?” The words weren't very smooth, since Tor thought the idea of living away from his brand new wife was silly, but he didn't want to fight about it, just see if it could be fixed.

If he'd learned anything in the last year it was that going around starting fights almost never actually helped anything. Normally it just caused you to end up having to apologize later, knocking your head against the floor and hoping no one hit you too much.

Hardgrove smiled gently, an old man’s smile that indicated that from his lofty station of years he could see things a youthful looking eighteen year old couldn't. Probably true, but not exactly the place Tor wanted to start from.

“That's right. Students at Lairdgren have to live in the dorms, and before you ask, no, you and your wife can't share a room.