Title: Never Swallow the Dentic!

Author: SabaceanBabe

Rating: PG

Word count: 363

Spoilers: early season one

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D'Argo's warning from a few days before still rattled around in his head as John tried hard not to swallow. The big, betentacled alien had been adamant, and at the time John hadn't been inclined to keep the thing, minty or not, in his mouth long enough to swallow it even reflexively. It wasn't like he had been chewing it, after all, and they'd been in a hurry, so he'd spit the thing out as soon as he thought his teeth were clean. Sooner even than that, really. Who in their right mind kept a live… well, a live grub in his mouth? No one had bothered to tell him that they were limited on dentics, that they were mated pairs and if one half of a pair died, so did the other, or that if they lost any, they were going to have to share the ones that were left until replacements were reproduced.

A sharp needle-prick sensation, bordering on pain, above his left canine tore an involuntary gasp from him. Great. That's just what I need, to swallow the thing. Then I'd get to have it chew its way out and listen to D'Argo bitch about me losing another one. And this one wasn't even his, it was Aeryn's. At least she hadn't bitched about loaning it to John, just rolled her eyes in a long-suffering way and stalked off. A few minutes later she'd returned to the center chamber with the dentic in its little plastic dish.

"Don't lose this one," she'd admonished, but there hadn't been any threats or slow and probably unnecessary cleanings of Qualta blades.

John waited another few seconds, resisting the urge to squirm as the dentic went about its business between his left cheek and gums, before spitting the dentic carefully out into dish where it lived when it wasn't doing its minty best to prevent tooth decay. It seemed noticeably larger than when John had opened its case, and he could swear the thing belched before settling in to take a nap.

His mouth felt all squeaky clean and he ran his tongue over his smooth teeth. He raised a brow. "Yep, definitely mint."