diff --git a/src/lib/eina/eina_unicode.c b/src/lib/eina/eina_unicode.c
index 75059069c6..a1993de697 100644
--- a/src/lib/eina/eina_unicode.c
+++ b/src/lib/eina/eina_unicode.c
@@ -193,13 +193,15 @@ eina_unicode_escape(const Eina_Unicode *str)
 EAPI Eina_Unicode
 eina_unicode_utf8_get_next(const char *buf, int *iindex)
 {
-   int ind = *iindex;
+   int ind;
    Eina_Unicode r;
    unsigned char d;
 
    EINA_SAFETY_ON_NULL_RETURN_VAL(buf, 0);
    EINA_SAFETY_ON_NULL_RETURN_VAL(iindex, 0);
 
+   ind = *iindex;
+
    /* if this char is the null terminator, exit */
    if ((d = buf[ind++]) == 0) return 0;
 
diff --git a/src/lib/eina/eina_unicode.h b/src/lib/eina/eina_unicode.h
index 1b3ed15766..705ec7ba02 100644
--- a/src/lib/eina/eina_unicode.h
+++ b/src/lib/eina/eina_unicode.h
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ EAPI Eina_Unicode *eina_unicode_escape(const Eina_Unicode *str) EINA_ARG_NONNULL
  *
  * @param buf the string
  * @param iindex the index to look at and return by.
- * @return the codepoint found.
+ * @return the codepoint found, 0 if @p buf or @p iindex are NULL
  * @since 1.1.0
  */
 EAPI Eina_Unicode eina_unicode_utf8_get_next(const char *buf, int *iindex) EINA_ARG_NONNULL(1, 2);