I like to think that the Scoobies would have handled it better than Buffy thought they would. She even says so herself after "Normal" when Spike threatens to tell them and she says she just tried to kill them and they forgave her, so she thinks they'd deal just fine with knowing she'd had an affair with Spike.  If, instead of pushing him away in front of them (and keeping him away from the house? Not sure if that's canon or fanon, now that I think about it. He was there for her birthday party...) she had just let everyone see the relationship developing (and how could they not, really?), it would have gone okay.  That's often the route my season 6 fics take.

Thanks!

Thanks.

Temporary peace is about all we can hope for.

Thanks. *nods* yes, the double date idea seems to be very popular. :)

Thanks!

Thank you.  He can be very unlikeable, for sure, but he had his nicer moments.

Seems to be a popular plan. :) Thanks for reading.

*nods* The general consensus is that I must write about the date - sometime when I'm feeling funny.... :)

Thank you. :)

Thank you!

Thanks. I'm glad you enjoyed it.  He was clueless, but I think deliberately so. Who knows where he was looking when Buffy opened that gift? I don't think the camera was on everybody.  It's easy to posit that he could see Spike as well as Buffy, and be momentarily puzzled by their reactions. He wouldn't, of course, have immediately jumped to the conclusion that Buffy didn't need a vibrator because she had Spike, but it would have been one more little puzzle piece that - who knows? - he might have put together eventually with other things he'd managed to avoid thinking about. (like Spike banging an invisible girl at the very same time that Buffy was invisible...)  I think the conversation, even if he'd had to think about it for a while, may have opened his eyes. Too bad it never happened. :)

Exactly! That's such a good point - that Xander found out about it at the worst possible time. There's really no reason to think he'd be as disgusted if he'd found out before all the drama and guilt of dumping Anya at the wedding, and then seeing her boinking Spike.  He was already not thinking clearly when he got there, and he was already furious at Spike.

I'm glad you enjoyed it.  I'm a little surprised at how many people can't see Xander behaving like this... and I'll admit, it's a lot easier to write him being a jerk.  But as someone else pointed out, his canon reaction to finding out probably had a lot to do with the timing and the situation - as well as his own self-disgust over what he did to Anya. It was easy for him to transfer that disgust to Spike.

LOL  Life could have been so much easier...