When are Bonds resolved?

I GMd a game about a week ago with three of my buddies (btw it was one of the best DW games ever, I might add, the world we created together was mind blowing!)

But we ran into a little snag regarding Bonds. One of the chars had this one... I think:

"_______________ has stood by me in battle and can be trusted
completely."

He felt "Yes he stood in battle and was trusted!". The other player said. "Yup!"

So what now? Does it go away? Or does it reset, because it's possible he's trustworthy in this one fight, but what about next one? Maybe he won't be? So do they just treat is a a reset? Take the XP at the End of Level move for a "resolved" bond and then reset the same bond? That's what we ended up doing. It felt a little like they were just trying to get the XP--I was okay with that though because I wanted them to experience leveling up. But maybe some clarification on this and more examples on how to use Bonds between players would help.

Thanks!

Bonds are a little like Burning Wheel's Beliefs. They have a (player) identified flag about how they percieve their character and what they want tested. They give you (as GM) a little nudge that says 'put me in a position that challenges this, it'll be fun to roleplay out'.

In your example about the trustworthy companion, its your job as GM to dig a little deeper during both the chargen and the end of session / bond resolution.
What was the battle? Why were you fighting? Who were you fighting? What makes him trustworthy? Did he risk his life / something precious / his honour to protect you?
Is he hiding one of your dark secrets? Oh really? (Turn to the other player) What is it you are protecting from being found out?
Are either one of you cowards?
Did you share in the commital of some atrocious act in the heat of battle that you are not proud of?

and so on....

That way you have little cues to help the player's resolve the bond. Its a group process, not just between the two players to gain XP. I think your example bond is resolved when either the trust is broken (for whatever reason), or they abandon one another in a battle: then they gain an XP and write a new bond that reflects the changing nature of the relationship (and the lack of trust or support).

Don't award XP without re-writing a bond. It HAS to change in someway, reflecting the ever-changing nature of your player's dungeon world.

Yeah, I always thought that resolving a Bond involved change. Not so much a checklist to fulfilled. If anything, that bond might resolve if the other character FAILED to stand by them. Or stood by them in a real hellish battle when they could have (should have?) run away. That's more like fulfilling a bond.

Most Bonds are a little more clear, like "... is soft, I will make him hard like me." One of my players fulfilled that after watching the target take a lot of punishment over two sessions, then play a crucial role in a nearly-overwhelming battle. The whole table was like, "yeah, that Bond is FULFILLED."

Thanks for the responses. I knew I was missing something. We didn't really explore the bonds during char gen. My bad. I forgot to do that. We'll explore that in detail the next time we play.