If you asked anyone who knew of Izaya Orihara, the information broker renowned throughout Tokyo, they would tell you one thing. He loved every single member of humanity equally. There were no exceptions. Sure, he may have been closer to some than to others, but there was the same amount of love there as with anyone else, it was just more visible.

This is a fact that Shinra Kishitani himself learned over the years he had known the red-eyed man. When they had first met at the age of fourteen, they had been opposites, at least on a face level.

Maybe this was the thing that made Izaya so fascinated with the bespectacled young man, a man who he had, over time, come to consider his only friend.

Shinra had all the qualities that Izaya himself could never have. He was so detached from humanity, on his own plane of existence, a plane that contained only he and his dearest Celty.

I guess you could be right in saying that Shinra knew Izaya better than anyone. Shinra knew all those little things about Izaya that Izaya himself didn't know. This is likely the reason that Shinra was the first one to clue on.

He had figured out Izaya's secret a long time ago, when they were still in high school. Honestly, once he had figured it out, he wondered why he hadn't figured it out sooner, it was so obvious now! However, the secret wasn't as interesting as Celty, so he let it drop. From time to time, he would give a knowing smile, hoping Izaya may catch on, but he never approached him directly about it. He hoped that maybe Izaya would come to him with his blatantly obvious secret, but to no avail.

As you would expect, the next people to figure out the secret were the people that knew Izaya second best. Namely, Mairu and Kururi, his younger sisters.

To them, it was clearly obvious, they didn't even need a kickstarter or an epiphany, it just was. After all, when you spend your entire life around a person, you can tell their quirks apart quite easily.

Unlike Shinra, however, they decided to go straight out and ask their brother. After all, they were family, and could get away with these sorts of questions.

Alas, he would not give a straight answer, he ALWAYS found away around the question. It only took a short amount of time for the twins to get bored, and give up.

Celty, being the knowing person that she was, found out soon after. It may have been something she'd never considered before, but she would be willing to accept it as the truth anyway. After finding out that Shinra had known for years, there was a loud upslap to the young Doctor's head.

After this point, no one found out the secret, for it wasn't really a secret anymore, not when everyone knew. It was an elephant, THE elephant in the room. No one ever approached it, at least not to Izaya's face. It was simultaneously the world's best kept and worst kept secret.

Masaomi found out through the spreading rumours in the streets, most likely started by two certain identical twins. It was something he found he could easily accept, if not for truth then at least for blackmail.

Shiki found out through some rather thorough investigating, after all, he had to keep an eye on his... employees. For him, it was something to keep the hell out of. It simply was not his business.

For Masaomi, it was something he wished that Izaya would embrace. Because then, maybe, Izaya would look genuinely happy for once. However, Masaomi would never say that to his face.

Even Mika and Seiji, who were madly 'in love' managed to notice. Maybe they felt a weird kinship with Izaya for it. Anyway, they didn't really bother with it, as it didn't involve them or their 'love'.

Anri, in some ways, could relate to why Izaya would want to keep his secret. After all, things spread fast through Ikebukuro. That's why it was so ironic that the man who spilled everyone's secrets got his secret spilled.

Kadota and his gang, who were usually chill people, accepted the fact in silence, except for Erika, who was... Erika.

Eventually, the only person in the entirety of Ikebukuro and Shinjuku that didn't know was a certain Blond bartender, Shizuo Heiwajima. He never cared about the gossip spreading around, and kept far away from it, unlike the other again, he couldn't even be classed as Human to many of the inhabitants of Ikebukuro.

So, eventually, that first fact still stands. Izaya Orihara loves every single member of humanity equally. This is a fact that not even Izaya would argue against.

However, Shizuo isn't human. He's a monster, and this allows Izaya to love him just that little bit more.

LE FIN.