diff --git a/src/basic/fs-util.c b/src/basic/fs-util.c
index 4bf25e32e0..87d743b617 100644
--- a/src/basic/fs-util.c
+++ b/src/basic/fs-util.c
@@ -730,7 +730,7 @@ int chase_symlinks(const char *path, const char *original_root, unsigned flags,
                 /* Two dots? Then chop off the last bit of what we already found out. */
                 if (path_equal(first, "/..")) {
                         _cleanup_free_ char *parent = NULL;
-                        int fd_parent = -1;
+                        _cleanup_close_ int fd_parent = -1;
 
                         /* If we already are at the top, then going up will not change anything. This is in-line with
                          * how the kernel handles this. */
@@ -765,6 +765,7 @@ int chase_symlinks(const char *path, const char *original_root, unsigned flags,
 
                         safe_close(fd);
                         fd = fd_parent;
+                        fd_parent = -1;
 
                         continue;
                 }