The two actresses were once again on hand Monday night for the Emmys -- this after attending the Critics Choice Awards the day prior ... and with ADB ending up as a punch line during the Best Song category, when she was labeled an actor who thinks they can sing.

Of course, it was Bella herself who delivered that brutal line -- reading off of a prompter in the distance -- and a lot of people felt Ariana had been done dirty ... herself included.

Fast-forward about 24 hours, and now you got this pic circulating online that shows Bella and Ariana hugging it out during the Emmys. There isn't too much context beyond what writer Evan Ross Katz -- who snapped this -- had to say about it in his lengthy caption.

He wrote, "Incredible! Here’s Bella Ramsey and Academy Award-winner Ariana DeBose hugging at tonight’s Emmy Awards. It’s particularly poignant because of a joke that Ramsey was fed in their teleprompter at the Critic's Choice Awards yesterday which categorized DeBose among 'Actors Who Think They Are Singers.'"

Again, we're not sure what Bella might've said to Ariana -- but it definitely feels like an apology might've been issued ... 'cause the fact is, Ariana most certainly *can* sing.

One other interesting tidbit about this whole saga ... it looks like one Hannah Waddingham -- a big-time TV actress who's done some Broadway as well -- was consoling ADB on the carpet before the show got started. There's photos of the two having a heart-to-heart outside.