Have you ever read Phantom Menace slash? If not, let me tell you one of its conventions, which may make the story make more sense: according to a series of companion young adult books, the Jedi Apprentice series, initiates at the Jedi Temple who are not chosen as padawans by a master often end up working for Agricorps rather than becoming Jedi knights. And apparently since Qui-Gon's padawan immediately prior to Obi-Wan, Xanatos, turned to the dark side, Qui-Gon was reluctant to take on an apprentice. Obi-Wan narrowly escaped being sent to the Agricorps because Qui-Gon didn't trust himself as a teacher anymore.

flambeau just fuses this "Masters choosing apprentices" theme to the Regency marriage market, with brilliant results. (It's not a very long story, once you have time--unlike the massively long HP epic, it took me less than half an hour to read the TPM story.)