The whirring sound woke him as it did every morning. In fact, he couldn't remember a single instance of being awoken by anything else. The L5 unit's servos activated noisily as it removed itself from its charging station against the far wall with two dull thuds. "Good Morning, L5. I trust you slept well."

From within the white casing of the robot's face, two blue orbs sparked briefly against the black of the cover plate, then remained constant as the machine rebooted. "L5 Unit 430719 Activation Complete. Diagnostics Complete. System Function Status: Normal."

"Glad to hear it." Aaron Winters stretched his neck, attempting to free the kinks from his spine. He rubbed his face wearily as the blue light dome above activated, casting an eerie glow around the sparsely furnished room. The wall opposite his bed buzzed slightly, lighting the entire wall with the image of a graph before reducing to a dull hum.

"Your sleep patterns indicate adverse sleeping conditions for your body type. A firmer mattress is recommended for optimal rest. Answer affirmative to optimize sleeping conditions." A feminine vocalization sounded through the speaker on the ceiling.

"Denied. Override Alpha-Fox 112." Aaron snapped.

"Override accepted." She responded in monotone.

"Citizen, it is my duty to inform you that optimal rest is one of the primary functions of this dwelling. A good night's sleep is one of the pillars of a productive workday." The L5 approached him obediently with presentable and neatly folded work clothes.

"I am aware of that L5. I let her do it once before and it gave me terrible nightmares. Remember? It triggered your emergency protocols, unnecessarily I might add, and you called an Emergency Transport Unit, three Legal Suppression Units, and the Fire Drone." Aaron responded wearily and automatically as he pulled up his khakis.

"That is stored in my memory banks." L5 responded efficiently. As it did on occasion, Aaron could swear he detected sarcasm in the response. But the L5 units, as with all the other drones, remained constantly, irritatingly efficient and detached. Normally.

"Then why do I have to remind you every morning?" He released an exasperated sigh as he pulled on a Sphere Robotics Union standard issue boot.

"Protocol Alpha - 114 dictates that an L5 unit's primary objective is the well being of its citizen."

Aaron was more than familiar with this protocol, in fact he was familiar with most protocols. Most could be overridden if you knew the path. Preferably the code. Some were more evasive than others. He had tried many tactics to get his house and his bot to stop conspiring against his choice of mattress pressure, to no avail. He slid on the other boot when a new logical override occurred to him.

"I am well aware of that L5. It has been established that a soft, fluffy mattress is this citizen's preference and, despite what is depicted on that graph, is most beneficial for this citizen. Primary objective is maintained under current conditions. Update your memory banks to include this information."

"Processing. Stand by." Aaron crossed his fingers.

"Logical override accepted. Preference noted."

"Fantastic. Sync with domicile interface address D-1151372." He answered automatically pulling on the other boot.

"Syncing with domicile."

"Change accepted." Responded the Domicile interface dutifully, the pitch in the synthetic tone almost begrudging.