diff --git a/src/tsm_unicode.c b/src/tsm_unicode.c
index 025a80f..f99cb70 100644
--- a/src/tsm_unicode.c
+++ b/src/tsm_unicode.c
@@ -97,7 +97,6 @@
  */
 
 const tsm_symbol_t tsm_symbol_default = 0;
-static const char default_u8[] = { 0 };
 
 struct tsm_symbol_table {
 	unsigned long ref;
@@ -322,41 +321,6 @@ err_id:
 	return sym;
 }
 
-const char *tsm_symbol_get_u8(struct tsm_symbol_table *tbl,
-			      tsm_symbol_t sym, size_t *size)
-{
-	const uint32_t *ucs4;
-	char *val;
-	size_t i, pos, len;
-
-	ucs4 = tsm_symbol_get(tbl, &sym, &len);
-	val = malloc(4 * len);
-	if (!val)
-		goto err_out;
-
-	pos = 0;
-	for (i = 0; i < len; ++i)
-		pos += tsm_ucs4_to_utf8(ucs4[i], &val[pos]);
-
-	if (!pos)
-		goto err_out;
-
-	if (size)
-		*size = pos;
-	return val;
-
-err_out:
-	if (size)
-		*size = sizeof(default_u8);
-	return default_u8;
-}
-
-void tsm_symbol_free_u8(const char *s)
-{
-	if (s != default_u8)
-		free((void*)s);
-}
-
 /*
  * Convert UCS4 character to UTF-8. This creates one of:
  *   0xxxxxxx
diff --git a/src/tsm_unicode.h b/src/tsm_unicode.h
index 74858d8..07633e1 100644
--- a/src/tsm_unicode.h
+++ b/src/tsm_unicode.h
@@ -59,9 +59,6 @@ tsm_symbol_t tsm_symbol_append(struct tsm_symbol_table *tbl,
 			       tsm_symbol_t sym, uint32_t ucs4);
 const uint32_t *tsm_symbol_get(struct tsm_symbol_table *tbl,
 			       tsm_symbol_t *sym, size_t *size);
-const char *tsm_symbol_get_u8(struct tsm_symbol_table *tbl,
-			      tsm_symbol_t sym, size_t *size);
-void tsm_symbol_free_u8(const char *s);
 
 /* ucs4 to utf8 converter */
 
diff --git a/src/vte.c b/src/vte.c
index b4b48bc..b5c02ba 100644
--- a/src/vte.c
+++ b/src/vte.c
@@ -2126,10 +2126,8 @@ void kmscon_vte_input(struct kmscon_vte *vte, const char *u8, size_t len)
 bool kmscon_vte_handle_keyboard(struct kmscon_vte *vte, uint32_t keysym,
 				unsigned int mods, uint32_t unicode)
 {
-	tsm_symbol_t sym;
-	char val;
+	char val, u8[4];
 	size_t len;
-	const char *u8;
 
 	/* MOD1 (mostly labeled 'Alt') prepends an escape character to every
 	 * input that is sent by a key.
@@ -2621,10 +2619,8 @@ bool kmscon_vte_handle_keyboard(struct kmscon_vte *vte, uint32_t keysym,
 			}
 			vte_write_raw(vte, &val, 1);
 		} else {
-			sym = tsm_symbol_make(unicode);
-			u8 = tsm_symbol_get_u8(NULL, sym, &len);
+			len = tsm_ucs4_to_utf8(tsm_symbol_make(unicode), u8);
 			vte_write_raw(vte, u8, len);
-			tsm_symbol_free_u8(u8);
 		}
 		return true;
 	}